Rutgers University’s annual Chancellor’s and Provost’s Awards for Faculty Excellence honor faculty whose outstanding work has been recognized by their peers.
This year, Kristen Labazzo, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering was among the recipients of the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Innovations.
Praised for her innovative teaching practices that enhance student learning, she received a $2,500 institutional award at the end-of-year Chancellor’s Celebration of Faculty Excellence. Below Labazzo shares the secrets of her teaching success.
What does it mean to receive this award?
As a teaching-focused professor of practice, the opportunity to be recognized for my contributions to my department is truly appreciated. I’m extremely grateful to my department for acknowledging the value I bring to the education of our students by nominating me for this award – and I was thrilled to learn I had received it!
What led you to your fields?
I came to Rutgers for a doctorate in chemistry since that was my major and seemed the obvious path. However, I wasn’t finding satisfaction in that discipline, as I was seeking research with more medical and biological elements. I’d never heard of biomedical engineering before one day when I saw a flyer about a BME-sponsored seminar on tissue engineering an artificial artery. I went to that talk and it changed my life.
I switched to BME and had an amazing 10-year-run in industry prior to coming back to Rutgers as an educator. I give several talks on my career path to students, and the main point I emphasize is to just follow your passion. As long as you follow your heart, it will not steer you wrong and you will find immense career satisfaction. I’m living proof of that.
What most excites you about your field today?
BME is so diverse and I think that is in and of itself exciting – and we try very hard to keep up with current trends. Our students are using their problem solving skills to help people. They’re getting jobs at companies like Pfizer and Regeneron and working on COVID-19 vaccines, or working with major league baseball teams to perform biomechanical analyses of pitchers. What’s exciting is seeing where students end up and all the creative and unique ways they are leveraging their BME degrees.
Is there an engineering device you would like to see developed in the future?
I truly believe that nothing is beyond the realm of possibility. I think that with enough creativity and further technological advancements, there won’t be any problem we can’t fix.
What kind of innovative approaches do you incorporate into your teaching?
I’m passionate about making teaching memorable and ensuring that students get a high-quality education while exploring topics that interest them. My biggest contribution has been the incorporation of patient, or person-centric, research. Biomedical engineers chose this field to apply problem solving skills to improving healthcare and quality of life, although we rarely get to engage with the end-users of the fantastic technologies coming from biomedical research.
Our collaborations with the Matheny Medical and Educational Center, a facility for severely physically-disabled individuals, and Operation Rebound, which supports disabled athletes, allow our students to interact with key stakeholders of innovation, whether they be end-users or caregivers.
Along the lines of incorporating “voice of customer” into education, my classes include guest speakers and field trips to give students a real-world perspective on the impact they can have as biomedical engineers. I also use show-and-tell to demonstrate certain principles. And YouTube videos and TED talks are a great way to break up the monotony of class – and can even be a major advantage for students. I’d shown a TED talk by noted tissue engineer Dr. Tony Atala in class, and a student accepted by Wake Forest used this as a talking point during her interview with him. Needless to say, she will be joining his lab in the fall.
How do you approach teaching?
My teaching philosophy is: teaching must be memorable to be effective, material should be relatable, and respect has to be established – and that is a two-way street. If students know you care about them, they tend to work harder.
Did the pandemic restrictions prompt you to develop any new approaches to teaching?
Well, given my show-and-tell and the immersive experience that is part of patient-centric research, I definitely had to pivot. But I tried to stay as true to my teachings as possible. I still did show-and-tell whenever possible, asking students to find different objects around their houses and describe their material properties and why they were needed for the object’s function. One student told me he couldn’t look at anything in his house the same way without thinking about biomaterials.
For research, we couldn’t go into the Matheny hospital nor could we interact with the athletes, but we had a lot of Zoom meetings. Ultimately, all seven of my senior design teams this year managed to make amazing prototypes.
What do you most enjoy about teaching?
The students, hands down. They make me feel like I am truly having an impact. I have these opportunities to influence these students, to make or break their passion for BME, to help them get their first industry or research experience that could define their future paths. I love all my students – and I take my responsibility as an educator seriously.
What do you hope your students take away with them after they graduate?
I hope they appreciate their education, whether they enjoyed all of it or not. Everything is a lesson; whether they actually apply material from their classes in their jobs or learned coping skills from a disappointing class or team project. I hope they also keep open minds about where they can learn from. Trying to land what they think is a dream job may deter them from a truly amazing opportunity.