Among the thick white binders that line a bottom shelf in Colin Drummond’s office is one filled with current events—news articles the biomedical engineering professor uses to pepper his courses with context to draw real life from theory.
There’s The Wall Street Journal feature on how a promising cardiovascular device took an agonizing six years to gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. And a journal story on how Google was diving into the race to design a more efficient battery as part of its expansion into consumer electronics.
For the final class of a BioDesign course, Drummond invites actual investors to give thumbs-up or -down, as students present their new product ideas, creating a sense of what it’s really like to sell themselves and their inventions.
Injecting curriculum with real-world situations and perspective reflects not only Drummond’s creative method in the classroom, but his 20 years with some of Cleveland’s largest corporations. It’s also an approach that has earned him a 2015 Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
“Dr. Drummond has such a diverse set of experiences in his past,” a student wrote to nominate him for the prestigious award. “The way in which he openly shares these and allows students to learn from them is quite amazing. No other professor that I have had has been so encouraging or thought-provoking.”
Drummond, PhD, is a professor and assistant chair in the department of biomedical engineering and faculty director of the Masters of Engineering and Management Program. He also holds secondary faculty positions at the School of Medicine Center for Systems Biology and Informatics and appointments in the University Hospitals anesthesiology and urology departments.
“It really is an honor,” he said. “The students here are really sharp, and when they come to Case Western Reserve, they come with certain expectations. I take it as a personal challenge to meet those expectations.”
The Wittke Award is presented annually to just two faculty members. That Drummond was one of them is a tribute to how quickly he’s established himself—because he hadn’t even taught a class until he began as an adjunct faculty member in finance and accounting for engineers in 2007.
“I wanted something deeper,” he said. “That’s why I came to the university.”
Previously, Drummond’s career had taken him from aircraft systems analysis at NASA Lewis Research Center, to marketing and business development for a Nordson Corp. division, to directing clinical research for medical products at Invacare Corp.
By 2008, Drummond, who holds three patents and has three more pending, was entrenched at Case Western Reserve, directing the Coulter-Case Translational Research Partnership in the biomedical engineering department.
After shifting from biomedical engineering to teach at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, he re-joined the department in January to expand courses in experiential design and professional practice preparation—the latter of which he was especially qualified to do after having worked directly for Invacare’s co-founders.
“You understand what executives want in leaders of the future,” he said. “They want critical thinkers, people who deal with ambiguity and are self-directed leaders (lifelong learners).”
In fact, according to the student nominator, Drummond invites their feedback and suggestions, cares enough to notice when a student is absent—even in a huge lecture hall—and takes the time to read and comment in detail on their written assignments, despite having teaching assistants who could ease the workload if he wanted.
Drummond, who received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Syracuse University and an MBA in technology management from the Weatherhead School of Management, radiates a genuine enthusiasm when discussing his students. His eyes grow wider; he can barely get the words out fast enough through a wide smile.
“To see them become independent decision-makers,” he said, “is a joy.”