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“Dr. Dave” Wins Career Teaching Award
By
Toby Weber
Shattuck
Shattuck

Students and fellow professors at the Cullen College of Engineering know Dave Shattuck as one of the best teachers around. Now he’s been recognized as exactly that by the University of Houston.

Shattuck, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the college’s associate dean for undergraduate programs, won the Career Teaching award at last night’s UH Faculty Awards Ceremony. The honor recognizes professors “who have demonstrated excellence in teaching over the course of their careers.” Only one such award is given each year. To be eligible faculty must have at least 20 years experience at UH.

“This is a great honor,” said Shattuck. “Teaching is what I like the most. When I had the opportunity about 12 years ago to devote basically all my time to things associated with that, I jumped at it. “

Shattuck, aka “Dr. Dave,” joined the Cullen College in 1982 and within just a few years was making a major impact on undergraduate education. In 1985 he led the successful overhaul of the curriculum for the circuit analysis course, one of the foundational classes in the department.

Similarly, just more than a decade ago he oversaw the successful redesign of the entire ECE undergraduate curriculum. According to Stuart Long, ECE professor and then department chair, “it was [Shattuck] who was responsible for the high standards and the multifaceted nature of the revisions.  As a result of these sweeping changes, our courses have remained as models for other departments for over a decade.”

In addition to his efforts on the college and department levels, Shattuck’s work in the classroom is widely admired. He is known to take takes steps to make lectures engaging through props or music while maintaining high-quality and rigorous instruction.

Students, in turn, sense the pleasure he derives from teaching and respond to it. His student evaluation scores are regularly among the highest in his department and students actively seek out the courses he teaches.

Said one Cullen College alumnus who took multiple classes from Shattuck, “Dr. Dave’s attitude and what he projected was, ‘I’m happy to be here, I love my profession, I care about you guys, we are going to learn now. I’m going to stretch your brains but we are also going to have fun, or at least I am going to while teaching - so please join me.’”

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