College of Engineering Dean Michelle Scherer has selected Robert Handler, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE), as this week’s instructor in the 2026 Deans’ Teaching Showcase.
Handler will be recognized at an end-of-term event with other spring showcase members and is a candidate for the CTL Instructional Award Series.
Handler teaches courses focused on sustainability and resilience that are open to all upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. Two of these courses, ENG4515/5515 and ENG4525/5525, are the core courses for the Graduate Certificate in Engineering Sustainability and Resilience.
In Handler’s courses, he makes a concerted effort to involve a variety of guests from inside and outside MTU who can share different perspectives on how concepts of sustainability and resilience are put into practice, which allows students from many different academic backgrounds to see the connections in their own disciplines. Handler also puts the students in charge of their own learning, allowing them to use topics of their choosing as a vehicle for making connections to class material and fully exploring sustainability and resilience themes in contexts that make them excited to learn.
In ENG4515/5515, students are in charge of developing detailed case study presentations to take a deep dive on a particular course theme. Students also develop longer-term project reports and presentations that discuss the sustainability dimensions of anything they might be interested in, from the K-pop music industry to modular nuclear reactors. For graduate students, many of these reports wind up being thesis chapters and journal publications.
“We want to develop students that have an ability to think critically about aspects of sustainability and resilience, so they can live their lives as citizens and professionals who are prepared to make more informed decisions about the world they create,” said Handler. “I can’t educate them on every topic they might be interested in, so my job is to create opportunities for them to practice this systems-level thinking in areas that interest them!”
“I think your teaching style was great, giving us a case study to further expand on our topics and bringing in frequent visitors to converse about their experiences and their topics of specificity was cool. Giving us real world examples, and then further reinforcing them with your lectures and others lectures was a good system,” wrote a student from Handler’s fall 2025 class.
“Companies recruit our graduates because they cut their teeth on real-world examples like those Rob Handler puts in front of his students. He encourages outside perspectives by bringing in lots of folks who can share their experiences and expertise. This is the kind of education that Michigan Tech is known for and the critical skills students develop is why companies hire them. Having educators like Rob Handler help our students in their educational journey is what makes them top-notch engineers and reinforces Michigan Tech’s outstanding reputation,” said Scherer.