Karl A. Smith is Cooperative Learning Professor of Engineering Education, Department of Engineering Education, Purdue University ; and Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota . His research and development interests include building rigorous research capacity in engineering education, the role of cooperation in learning and design; problem formulation, modeling, and knowledge engineering; and project and knowledge management and leadership. His bachelor's and master's degrees are in metallurgical engineering from Michigan Technological University and his Ph.D. is in educational psychology from the University of Minnesota .
He is currently co-PI on two NSF-CLTs—Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) and National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) and co-PI on a NSF-CCLI-ND—Rigorous Research in Engineering Education: Creating a Community of Practice. He serves on the National Advisory Boards for the NSF-CLT Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning; and the National Academy of Engineering's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education. He served as a guest editor for the Special Issue of the Journal of Engineering Education on The Art and Science of Engineering Education Research and is editor-in-chief of the Annals of Research on Engineering Education .
Karl has received numerous awards, including Distinguished Service Award, Educational Research and Methods Division, American Society for Engineering Education; Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education, American Society for Engineering Education; Outstanding Contributions to Cooperative Learning Award; Cooperative Learning Special Interest Group, American Educational Research Association; Fellow, American Society for Engineering Education; Ronald J. Schmitz Award for outstanding continued service to engineering education through contributions to the Frontiers in Education Conference, ERM Division of ASEE and Education Society of IEEE.
He has served as Co-Coordinator for the Bush Faculty Development Program for Excellence and Diversity in Teaching, and Associate Director for Education at the NSF-ERC Center for Interfacial Engineering at the University of Minnesota; as a member of the Board of Directors of the Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning; and as Chair of the Educational Research and Methods Division of the American Society for Engineering Education. Between 1999 and 2004 Karl had a split appointment with Michigan State University where he helped implement MSU = s Guiding Principle Number Two: Achieve More Active Learning. He was a visiting professor of engineering education at Purdue University for the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 academic years.
Karl has published numerous articles on the active learning strategies of cooperative learning and structured controversy, knowledge representation and expert systems, and instructional uses of personal computers. He teaches courses on building models to solve problems; civil engineering systems--decision engineering, network analysis, linear programming, simulation, and expert systems--and project management and leadership. He conducts workshops on building research capacity, active and cooperative learning, problem formulation and modeling, project management and teamwork, and building small expert systems.
Karl has conducted faculty development programs on cooperative learning for hundreds of colleges and universities. His work has helped thousands of faculty learn how to involve their students in more active, interactive, and cooperative learning both during class time and outside of class. The effects of the work are significant in terms of creating a sense of belonging and membership in a community, as well as much more engaged and deep learning.
Karl has written eight books including How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age (with A.M. Starfield and A.L. Bleloch), published by Burgess International in 1994; Cooperative learning: Increasing college faculty instructional productivity (with David and Roger Johnson), published by ASHE-ERIC Reports on Higher Education in 1991; Strategies for energizing large classes: From small groups to learning communities (with James Cooper and Jean MacGregor) published in Jossey-Bass's New Direction for Teaching and Learning series in 2000; and Teamwork and project management, 3 rd Ed. published in McGraw-Hill's BEST Series in 2007.
Karl A. Smith, Ph.D.
Cooperative Learning Professor of Engineering Education
Department of Engineering Education
Fellow, Discovery Learning Center
Purdue University (75% Appointment)
Engineering Administration Building
400 Centennial Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47906-2016
smith511@purdue.edu
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/
Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor
Professor of Civil Engineering
Civil Engineering
University of Minnesota (Phased Retirement - 25% Appointment)
236 Civil Engineering
500 Pillsbury Drive SE
Minneapolis , MN 55455
ksmith@umn.edu
http://www.ce.umn.edu/people/faculty/smith/
Editor-in-Chief, Annals of Research on Engineering Education (AREE)
http://www.areeonline.org