Collaborative Champion: Marwa Hassan

Marwa Hassan is the Construction Education Trust Fund Distinguished Professor, the Jacobs Professor of Excellence, and director of the Transportation Consortium of South-Central States, or Tran-SET, a collaboration between nine universities and two community colleges in five states. From her undergraduate studies at the American University in Cairo to receiving her PhD at Virginia Tech, she has grown a research program based on multidisciplinary collaboration.

 

 

 

What led you to pursue a career in engineering?

As a kid, I was always inspired by constructing things and seeing ideas come into being, which is why I went into engineering. The reason why I chose civil and construction was the fact that you build structures and buildings and actually see something change the urban environment around you. That fascinated me. When I started learning more, I was fascinated by materials. How can we solve problems by using unique materials? How can we change the properties of the materials so they can be more useful? 

When you work in materials, you cannot live in a silo because you require expertise from so many different people. You need the material science, you need the characterization, you need the chemistry. So, you’re bridging out to work with other people, and that got ingrained in me when I got my PhD.

 

Can multidisciplinary collaboration be taught?

Yes. It’s hard in the beginning, but the more you see how useful it is, the more you want to put in the effort. 

During our research meetings, I tell my PhD students that you will not learn unless you read. I have them read what other people have done, so they can think about how to take it to the next level. I tell them that every week, you need to read five to 10 journal papers. I know proficiencies are different. I tell them, just read the paper even if you don’t understand 100 percent of it, because you won’t in the beginning. Read it. Put it aside. Spend 10 minutes writing one paragraph on what you understood. 

Then, we discuss what they wrote. I have them re-read it one more time and see if their understanding has improved. We keep doing this until they can capture everything in the paper and read and criticize what they are reading. You’re slowly building critical thinking. If you push them a little bit, within a year and a half, they start coming up with their own ideas, and it becomes a two-way conversation.

How unique is this approach in your field?

It’s very unique. I’ve had people from the University of Illinois and Berkeley ask me how I get the students and the faculty to talk the same language.

So, it’s difficult for even top national universities. 

I said, it is two things. It’s trying to spend the time to understand each other. And it’s getting the students to bridge this gap, because when they take different classes from different professors, they start to learn how to speak these languages. So, if we can build a new generation of students who are capable of bridging the gap and speaking different languages, it’s going to get easier in the future. 

Funding agencies, especially at the national level, are now pushing towards this because they understand that the complex problems of today will not be solved if everyone stays in their silos.

 

What advice can you share with other faculty who would like to pursue convergent research?

Two pieces of advice: do what scares you the most. If you get out of your comfort zone, there is no failure there. You will learn so much, so it’s a success either way, and you will eventually succeed and create a big network.

The second one is: don’t be shy about speaking to people. Don’t worry about not talking the same language. Once the conversation starts flowing, the ideas that are put on the table will be amazing, and you’ll be able to solve much larger problems.

 

 

This story was one of the cover features of the 2019-2020 print issue of LSU Research magazine, on the theme of convergence.

 

 

Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
225-578-3870
asatake@lsu.edu

 

Elsa Hahne
LSU Office of Research & Economic Development
225-578-4774
ehahne@lsu.edu