Sujeet Shenoi: An award-winning professor

BY SPRING 1992 SUJEET SHENOI HAD BEEN A computer science faculty member at the University of Tulsa for three years. A successful scholar, he was publishing actively and had won several research grants. Like many of his colleagues, Shenoi could easily have focused on tenure, "bought out" classes to reduce his teaching load, surrounded himself with graduate students, and immersed himself in research. But he wanted to do something more meaningful. What he did caught the attention of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which recently named him one of four 1998 Professors of the Year.

Disturbed by the tendency of Oklahoma's brightest high school students to leave for more prominent out-of-state institutions, as if remaining in Oklahoma somehow meant failure, Shenoi decided to make an Oklahoma education worthwhile. He started a recruiting campaign, promising applicants to the university's computer science program that if they chose Tulsa over more competitive institutions, he would design a curriculum involving them in research as undergraduates, teach special courses, and give them as much one-on-one attention as necessary. Instead of buying out classes, he'd use his grant money for the undergraduates' research stipends, computers, and software, even international conference trips if they presented papers.

"Two students accepted, picking Tulsa over Rice and Carnegie Mellon," says Shenoi. "And they plunged into their computer science studies the summer before their first year. One joined my database security group, the other my medical informatics group; both attended my graduate seminars. As first-year students, they took advanced courses and became active in research, and I worked with them almost daily, channeling their energy, providing guidance and inspiration. Their progress was astounding, and five exceptional high school students joined us the next year."

Shenoi's innovative recruiting program soon developed into the Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge (TURC), and more than thirty undergraduates are now enrolled. TURC is a year-round program challenging students to excel beyond their expectations. High school seniors take formal orientation courses during the summer before their first semester and immediately gain research exposure by joining teams of graduate and undergraduate students. Courses taken during the summer allow the students to advance quickly, and most take four or five graduate classes as sophomores. By the time they are juniors, they are well trained and ready to make research contributions. Many have co-authored papers, some in their first year. Two juniors presented papers at major conferences in Prague and Barcelona the summer before last.

The TURC program has produced twelve Goldwater Scholars in the past five years. One of the most prestigious undergraduate awards in science, math, and engineering, the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship is given to 280 to 300 students each year, and universities can nominate up to four students. In 1997-98, all four students nominated from the TURC program won scholarships. Most national winners are juniors, but eleven of Tulsa's twelve winners were sophomores-ten of whom were mentored directly by Shenoi. Tulsa is now considered one of the top computer science schools in the country.

Steven J. Bauer, one of the first two students recruited by Shenoi, received the Department of Defense Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Fellowship, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, and the Goldwater Scholarship during his four years at Tulsa. When he graduated, he received the Faculty Medal of Honor for being the top graduate in the engineering college. He is now earning his Ph.D. in computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and plans to study public policy at Harvard.

"My story is similar to that of many students who have enjoyed working with Dr. Shenoi over the years. He has been my adviser, teacher, mentor, and undergraduate research supervisor," says Bauer. "He has worked with me for hours at a time editing and revising my six scholarship applications and numerous graduate school applications. I would frequently start working with him in the morning and not finish until five in the afternoon. His help comes in every form possible."

John C. Hale, an assistant professor of computer science at Washington State University and a former TURC student, says that the confidence Shenoi helps students build is his most important achievement. Hale was a senior when Shenoi joined the Tulsa faculty, and, by his own account, he had had an undistinguished undergraduate career. "In his classes, Dr. Shenoi expected me to do more than just `get by,' and after a while, I began to expect that too. The confidence I gained in his classes propelled me into my graduate studies. As one of Dr. Shenoi's Ph.D. students, I was given the opportunity to develop research, leadership, and presentation skills as a project manager and course instructor. More than that, I was given high expectations and the confidence I needed to achieve them."

Part of the confidence building among TURC students comes from their involvement in community service-a central component of the TURC program. Shenoi says his goal is to create leaders in academics, research, and public life-not a "Microsoft of the Midwest." Besides taking advanced courses and participating in intensive research, TURC students have also built homes for Habitat for Humanity, raised money for cancer research, set up music and computer science courses in schools where classes and teachers didn't exist, tutored students at high-risk schools, taught elementary students to build and launch rockets, and taught high school students to use junk parts to build computers for donation to agencies serving the poor. "I won't soon forget the TURC student who, overwhelmed with his own heavy course load and nearing finals, took time out to assist an eighth grader whose overdue science fair project was malfunctioning," says Bonnie Jones, principal of the Saints Peter and Paul School. "I have found that the TURC students reflect the philosophy Dr. Shenoi lives. They seem to recognize a responsibility to develop their talents and use their expertise to give back to both colleagues and the greater community."

Shenoi sees TURC as a series of tiny waterfalls, flowing from faculty and graduate students to undergraduates, to high school students, and, eventually, all the way down to elementary school students. "TURC has changed my life," says Shenoi. "Now I know what it means to be a professor-not just a scholar, teacher, and researcher-but a communicator and facilitator of dreams, even, at times, a surrogate parent. As a fresh Ph.D., my goal was to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Now it is more important that my students succeed. The key is to get to know them, give them attention and opportunities, and encourage them to dream. Above all, believe in them."

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's U.S. Professor of the Year Program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country--those who excel as teachers and influence the lives and careers of their students. The program, administered by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Higher Education (CASE), gives awards in four categories: research and doctoral universities; master's universities and colleges; community colleges; and baccalaureate colleges. Hon Gang Jin, professor of Chinese at Hamilton College in New York, was the winner in the baccalaureate college category; Cathleen Kennedy, professor of computer and information science at the College of San Mateo in California, was the winner in the community college category; and Gayle Seymour, professor of art at the University of Central Arkansas, was the winner in the master's university and college category.