Robert W. Messler Jr., an alumnus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Physical Metallurgy. Since becoming a member of Rensselaer’s Material Science and Engineering Department’s faculty, Messler has taught courses such as welding processes and metallurgy, joining of materials and structures, failure analysis, and design in materials engineering.
Although the engineering program at Rensselaer is highly valued and well respected by students, alumni, and businesses, many courses offered at RPI are no longer grounded on the fundamentals of engineering. Engineers are problem solvers, despite our ability to compute stress-strain analysis and determine conductive, convective, and radiative heat loss; these tools are not useful until much later in the engineering process. Senior-level engineering design courses begin to address this with real-life, open-ended engineering problems. Engineers from RPI are well qualified, but if we were introduced to open-ended problems earlier on in our education here, we could better address the real world engineering problems that we will face after graduating.
Messler’s engineering courses are based on this premise. Messler is more interested in seeing a student’s ability to think through and resolve an engineering problem rather than testing our ability to “number crunch” stresses, strains, factors of safety, etc. Unlike many courses, the homework he assigns does not feel tedious. Messler creates his own homework in an attempt to eliminate tediousness and to promote thought rather than “equation hunting.” Needless to say, a lot more effort is required to receive a good grade in his courses, but it is better that these lessons are learned now, rather than in the business world.
If you have ever taken a course with Messler, you know that his lectures are far from dull. Unlike some professors, Messler speaks with passion, enthusiasm, and even sarcasm. Coupled with short anecdotes, his lectures rejuvenate students and keep them focused on the material. Students leaving his course take something with them that is more valuable than any engineering equation or theory. We leave his courses with a better understanding of engineering and how to approach the problems that will face us after our time here at this institution. Ultimately, in classes like Messler’s, we learn the skills necessary to become successful engineers.
Messler has received several awards, including the Rensselaer Alumni Association Teaching Award, the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award for Outstanding Teacher, and the American Welding Society Adams Memorial Award for Outstanding Teaching. Messler is undoubtedly a priceless asset to RPI. When he retires, he will surely be missed—we can only hope that more professors like him join Rensselaer’s faculty, enriching students with the skills they will need to become great engineers.
-Anonymou
