University Times

Badie I. Morsi is professor and director of the petroleum engineering program in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt's School of Engineering. Morsi earned his B.S. in petroleum engineering in 1972 at Cairo University, Egypt.

In 1976, he was awarded a scholarship by the French government to continue his postgraduate studies at the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine.

When colleagues pointed out he didn't know any French, he shrugged and said, "I'm going to learn it."

In 1977, he earned an M.S., in 1979 a Ph.D. and in 1982 a D.Sc., all in chemical engineering at the French school.

The year he completed his second doctorate, Morsi joined Pitt's engineering faculty.

He has served as director of the petroleum engineering program since 1993. In that capacity he designs the program's curriculum.

Morsi's current research is cross-disciplinary in chemical, environmental and petroleum engineering.

When prodded, Morsi admits he could make more money in the commercial energy field, but his long-standing love of teaching keeps his personal energy level in the classroom at high boil.

"I think it's in my blood. My father was a teacher, my sister is a teacher, my wife Anne-Marie Morsi is a Ph.D. in French literature and teaches at Peabody High School," Morsi says. "And my children? Who knows?"

Daughter Amalia is a sophomore at Pitt studying bioengineering and son Reid is a student at Taylor Allderdice High School.

Last spring, Morsi won the School of Engineering's 1999 Beitle-Veltri Memorial Award, the school's premier teaching honor. Instituted in 1985, the annual award is presented for excellence in teaching and intended to assist an engineering faculty member in the enhancement of his or her teaching.

Morsi teaches graduate and undergraduate courses, mostly in petroleum engineering.

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"Teaching is an art and a talent, but no mystery," Badie I. Morsi says. "It's simple: You must get everybody in the process. Size of class is unimportant. Smaller is preferable, but it doesn't really matter. Graduates or under-grads, it doesn't really matter. You need to be real. Students have to trust you. Students will see through you; they are smart. You need to be prepared. You have to be caring. There needs to be a personal touch. You must be excited about it. How do you expect them to be excited if you're not excited?"

In Morsi's classroom, learning is serious business, but it is meted out in doses that students can comprehend.

"I like to build up my classes in an easy and friendly way, because if you instead build walls, you cannot break them down. I say, 'So, Brad, your Steelers lost yesterday.' It breaks the tension."

Morsi says students often are unable to sustain a high concentration level throughout a class. Classes must have an ebb and flow. Knowing when students' attention spans are slipping is the key.

"They have a limited ability to assimilate information. So you must break the concentration down and build it up again. It's human nature, your mind wanders. So you might tell a simple joke. And then get back to work."

But Morsi makes sure that what is learned really sinks in.

"Don't just take chapter 2, take a test on it, and then 'delete.' No! At the end of the term, there will be a paper that builds on every class. I say, 'Chapter 2: You're going to need it. It is important. Learn it!'"

Morsi admits undergraduates usually need more care and attention. The transition from high school to a strong engineering program can be difficult, especially for students who were not taught to ask questions in high school or who are subject to peer pressure or teacher intimidation.

"I insist on participation in my classes. Ask even a stupid question, I tell my classes. Minor questions open the door to new questions. If you don't ask me, I'm going to ask you! So you can't avoid me!

"Unfortunately, many students were not taught how to talk. You might hear students complain about a class outside the class. That makes me feel really sad. Come to me, I say. What's the problem? Let's talk about it."

A simple approach to facing a complex problem, Morsi says, is to break it into small pieces and make sure you know how to put it back together. Morsi regularly breaks his classes down into small groups of 3-5 to work on problems.

"I give them all a problem and I move from group to group. Not fixed groups, I move them around. Show me what you've got. How did you get that? You can look them in the eye and they have to look at you. When I find different groups are getting the same wrong answer, I know where the weaknesses are."

Morsi resists using grades as a motivating tool.

"I tell them grades are not important. Let me worry about the grades. You learn what is taught in this class, and I mean really learn it, you'll be fine. I also hate emphasizing quantity instead of quality.

"A calculus professor of mine taught me a lesson I continue to share: If you see a problem once, solve it. Twice, solve it again. If you see it a third time, solve it! Get faster, get better at solving it. But don't just say, 'I already solved it.' Do it. Do it faster. Finish it. To say you can do it is never an answer."

Morsi insists that time invested wisely in learning problem-solving will pay off eventually.

"In petroleum engineering, for example, you can work in oil companies, sure; but you learn things that apply to chemical and environmental engineering, too. There may be different units in civil engineering, but you learn to apply what you learned. It gives our students more options. If you understand it, it will help you elsewhere. That's what learning is, really."

With graduate students, Morsi is careful to be thoroughly prepared.

"If you have to say, 'I'll get back to you on that,' you lose them. Students read through you. You must be mentally sharp, especially in the lab. I believe in intense preparation. A teacher must read, read, read. Always be updating in your field."

But engineering is not all formulas and measurements.

"The field of engineering has practical problems, yes. Energy itself is a practical problem. But you still need to teach in human terms.

"I don't question if they are a Democrat or whatever, but I don't mind telling them my opinion of energy policy. Oil is politics. Why was there fighting in Kuwait? Oil is politics. We get into the budget, into oil reserves. Who has the oil? I'd rather see an engineer talk about that than a government official.

"Say you're designing a compressor. What kind of assumptions are you making? You say you need 150 horsepower. But how much will that cost? How many barrels of fuel will you need? How much does a barrel cost? Can you design it with less horsepower or less fuel? Think! Not just in numbers but in political calculations. You know the formula, yes. But it's like cooking a good meal. What good is it if you don't eat…?"

Morsi reluctantly admits that technology, with the advent of distance education and web-based training, is gradually changing the standard classroom format.

"The Internet is here to stay. It would be foolish to ignore that. I do think students waste too much time there. If you use it as a resource, fine, but it's much more important to know how to check the information yourself. Be able to do it yourself. I say, did you get that? Show me. Write it down. Do it.

"There are no boundaries to the future. But we have to be very careful not to lose the personal touch of teaching. Students say they understand, but if you're not there to make them show you, how can you be sure?"

Morsi invokes a set a principles that apply to teaching as well as to life.

"If you don't want to be in class, do something else. Find something to use your talent, something you like, something that is important to you. You are here to learn. You come to class and not work? Why? You're wasting time, tuition money and you're taking someone's place. For me, it doesn't make much difference. I will still be here anyway. But you? Why? If there's a problem, come to me and we'll talk."

After a pause, he says: "They're all my kids. I care about every one of them. It's why the [Beitle-Veltri teaching] award is so important to me. I didn't seek it. Students nominated me. If I help my students learn, I feel happy inside and I see students smile, too. I draw my love for teaching from student feedback."

Morsi said his respect for teaching is shared by his colleagues at the School of Engineering.

"I also think Pitt's administration, [Provost] Jim Maher and Dean [Gerald] Holder are very supportive of teaching. When we interview for new faculty we ask: What would you teach? What do you want to teach? What have you taught? If we rely only on research, we don't take care of our students. We need to teach new generations because, after all, they will carry on for us. It's a very important responsibility."

–Peter Hart

This is one in a series of Pitt teachers on teaching that will run periodically in the University Times.