Engineering a culture of collaboration and innovation

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Vice Chancellor of Advancement Kim White remembers when she was first contacted by Dr. Ahad Nasab, then the head of the Department of Engineering Management and Technology and Burkett Miller Chair of Excellence at UTC, in early 2022.

“It struck me how well Dr. Nasab understood the importance of partnerships and relationships,” White recalled. “He’d already established some good relationships with corporate partners, and he understood the value of creating those partnerships because it spreads throughout the entire University.”

Nasab is now interim dean of the UTC College of Engineering and Computer Science. When he moved into his current position in July 2023, one of his priority objectives was to parlay his collaborative skills to engage a larger community of companies and organizations and elevate the CECS name.

“The College of Engineering and Computer Science is currently experiencing an exciting and challenging phase,” he said. “There’s strong momentum in the college’s research areas of machine learning, quantum computing, hypersonic flights, smart power grids, transportation logistics and intelligent robotics.

“We also remain steadfast in our commitment to preparing the next generation of skilled professionals to meet the evolving demands of the industry in the Southeast region of the country.”

Charles Wood, president and chief executive officer of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, said the importance of the engineering program is vital.

“As we look ahead at the next decade and what’s really important to Chattanooga, engineering is top of mind with bustling partnerships like Volkswagen, the work in quantum and the increase of artificial intelligence in the marketplace,” said Wood, who previously spent more than 20 years in key economic development positions in Mobile, Alabama; College Station, Texas; Pensacola, Florida; and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

“Educating and producing skilled engineers is paramount in advancing economic mobility and growth in the Chattanooga region.”

Added White, “We talk about UTC being Chattanooga’s university, and the College of Engineering is a lynchpin of this work. When I look out at the business community, we need to provide more workforce-ready graduates, especially in computer science and engineering.

“Having someone with the mindset of Dr. Nasab to think about where the gaps are and what we need to do to move the needle to fill some of those will put us in a good place.”

Elevating the brand and cultivating a culture of innovation is nothing new to Nasab.

As head of the Engineering Management and Technology department, he oversaw the growth of the engineering management, mechatronics and construction management programs. He was at the forefront of creating two cutting-edge labs and growing the fledgling mechatronics program from five students to nearly 100 in just five years.

The engineering management program earned national recognition during his stewardship, and he was a driving force in developing articulation agreements with numerous community colleges throughout the Southeast region.

During his lengthy higher education career, he has taught at Middle Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University and the UT Space Institute. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and A/C Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Society for Engineering Education.

Nasab is unique in that he’s worked in advanced manufacturing professionally, so he has a technical background to go with his time in the higher education sphere.

His work experience has included being with a company that made hydrogen fuel cells through “a very complicated chemistry” involving silicon and oxygen. “There were many  patents,  patent protection and patent lawyers that we had to deal with,” he said, “and it was an experience you don’t get in academics.”

While working in the automobile industry, he learned firsthand about safety and product quality, how quality control functions, and how production quotas are met, “and that’s where I learned how manufacturing works,” he said.

“So all the different things that go into manufacturing, all regulations, workplace politics, worker needs, the human factors, that’s where I learned how to work with people,” Nasab said. “You have to create these relationships, whether it’s a line worker or an engineer or an investor or whoever it is.

“Machines are easy; you just turn them on and they start working as expected. People are more complicated in a way that everybody has different needs. Everybody has different ways of approaching things. Everybody has different things that excite them or turn them off. It is important to invest time in people to understand what they really want, and that’s what I like do: Making sure I understand people’s  real needs.”

A native of Iran, Nasab was 15 years old when he graduated from high school and immigrated to the U.S. for college—moving in with family members in Southern California. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from California State University, Northridge, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.Ironically, he never resided in a dorm as a student, living with family in Southern California and in an apartment at Georgia Tech. At UTC, he has had the opportunity to be part of the institution’s faculty-in-residence program.

He learned about the program shortly after arriving at UTC from Middle Tennessee State in 2018. Nasab and his wife, Jenny Kemala—a fashion design lecturer in the O’More College of Architecture and Design at Belmont University—have a home in the Nashville area, and he returns there on weekends.

Moving into UC Foundation Apartments has provided many benefits to Nasab besides filling a place to live.

“At MTSU, I was faculty and a director of a program. I taught many courses. I had constant interactions with students. I was the academic and career advisor for about 400 students. So when I came here as a department head, suddenly I wasn’t interacting with students,” he explained.

“I craved that interaction and being with students and talking to students. This faculty-in-residence created that atmosphere that I could be with students and talk to students and be in that environment.”

Nasab has created a maker space fabrication lab in the basement of the UC Foundation housing, and students can fabricate whatever they want. He shows them how to use the equipment, as it’s an opportunity to learn hands-on.

Being available to the students means he interacts with undergraduates across all majors, which requires him to be able to communicate in layperson’s terms on all sorts of topics. The ability to do this is an essential skill in the collaborative process with all the different groups he talks to—from students and parents to faculty and staff to the manufacturing sector to the community.

“I truly value life experiences,” he said. “I have three children; they all had different majors, and my wife and I  were very close with our childrens’ friends. I was kind of a fatherly mentor to many of my kids’ friends because I was working at a university. So when my kids’ friends wanted advice on what major to pick and how to go through a university, they would come to me. So life experiences gave me that diverse background.

“I wasn’t always like this. But over time, I have learned how to serve as a mentor, and it has really opened up so many doors. Being a good partner and good listener has become part of my DNA.”

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