By Melina Dallastella and Maryia Spirydonava
Dr. David Vaccari, Department Director of the Civil, Environmental, and Naval Engineering Department in the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science, exudes enthusiasm when speaking about his field of study. With an impressive three degrees in Environmental Science (a bachelors, masters, and doctorate) and a masters degree in Chemical Engineering, he combines his experiences to provide a diverse skill set in order to thoroughly engage his students in Environmental Engineering. Throughout his career he worked on numerous projects, however his work on a project for NASA has remained prominent in his thoughts. It dealt with recycling in space to grow food and feed astronauts for long term missions. He says back then “sustainability wasn’t on the tip of the tongue” but this project really opened his eyes to how important recycling is. This specific research was done for a closed system in space and “the earth is a closed system” too. His thoughts about sustainability led him to do research with phosphorus, which affected his career to this day since he is still doing research in the field.
Dr. Vaccari did not plan on going into the academic field, he was brought into teaching by one of his mentors who brought the educational opportunity to him. Despite the fact that teaching was not in his plans, he enjoys the various aspects of teaching. According to Professor Vaccari, the biggest draw about teaching at Stevens is explaining concepts to students, which helps him understand things better. “You can know things but you find out how much you know when you explain things.” He prefers small class sizes, which allow him to see what sinks in for each student, for example, his design class meets in his office where he works one on one with them on their projects.
His future students need not to worry about being overwhelmed for Professor Vaccari sends out an email with different pieces of advice. His biggest suggestion is to practice whatever you learn, “When you solve a problem, that’s not necessarily enough,” he says. “You have a 48 hour window to learn something” he explains. What you learned in the classroom is stored into your short term memory and repetition moves it to the long term; so it is best to do your assignments the night it is assigned since it improves your memory and also saves you time. In fact, solving extra problems, even if they weren’t assigned, helps you to better learn the material. After all, “when you throw a baseball and get a strike once, you don’t stop there. You keep practicing to make sure you can throw a strike every time.”
In addition to studying, Professor Vaccari believes that co-ops and summer internships are terrific in order to enhance a student’s knowledge in the field. Not only do experiences such as these enhance resumes, but he says that students in class who have not experienced the work field in their area of study do not see it’s immediate use in the workforce. Those who have gotten a taste of what it’s like to work in the field instead think “I can use this,” and apply their real world experience to thoroughly understand the topics given in class. He even says that sometimes the students have more experience with a particular subject than the teacher. This not only helps the student associate their experiences with their assignments, but also helps the rest of the class realize how their dedication in classes will pay off in the workforce in the future. Another great way that students gain experience and better themselves is through research. Professor Vaccari also says that because there are so many new professors in the department that are enthusiastic about their student-centered research, students gain valuable laboratory experience.
