IN 2016, just months into the first year of a new CSU Bathurst engineering course that he had helped craft, Professor Jim Morgan said it would be the students themselves that would prove the success - or otherwise - of his creation.
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"We do expect them to be CSU engineering's reputation," he told the Western Advocate.
By that measure, Professor Morgan might well be chuffed at the announcement that an engineering alumnus has created a new prize to honour the retiring academic.
Kevin Win was the first graduate of the combined Bachelor of Technology (Civil)/Master of Engineering (Civil) in the CSU Engineering program, completing the course in 2021 during COVID-19 and graduating in May 2022.
He says his prize - to be awarded to a second-year engineering student - will be known informally as the "Jim Morgan academic prize".
"Professor Morgan was an excellent professor technically, but it was his generosity that stood him apart from others," he said.
"I hope I can make him proud by letting him know that his efforts were recognised and appreciated by us."
Professor Morgan moved to Bathurst from the United States in 2015 to set up the course, which deviated in a number of ways from the accepted engineering study wisdom.
That ranged from having the course participants spend only 18 months on campus before beginning a paid work placement to referring to them as "student engineers" rather than "engineering students" and treating them as if they were hired additions to a company.
"Even now, when unis admit students, they don't necessarily have expectations that they will all graduate," Professor Morgan told the Advocate in 2016.
"But I think that no company hires people expecting them to fail some day."
The acting head of the CSU engineering program, Shara Cameron, said Professor Morgan recently retired and returned home to Texas.
She said he was "much loved by the students and staff with whom he generously shared his time, knowledge and wisdom".
"He brought his considerable experience as an engineering educator and civil engineer to the development of the innovative Bachelor of Technology/Master of Engineering (Civil) curriculum which has project-based learning, no exams, flexible delivery and includes four years of paid work placement," she said.
Ms Cameron said the course was recognised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as one of the top four emerging engineering courses in the world - the only Australian university to be included.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The new prize created by Mr Win will be awarded for the first time during CSU engineering's EngFest in June.
Mr Win these days works for Transport for NSW as a structural engineer for the western region in the regional technical services department in Orange, where he returned after working as a cadet engineer in Sydney and around NSW while studying.
"My current role involves a variety of technical tasks relating to bridges and bridge-size culverts on main roads," he said.
"Transport for NSW has roughly 6500 bridges in NSW, which fit in that category in its inventory.
"My everyday work includes inspecting, testing, analysing and advising on rectifying these existing bridges, and I occasionally travel to Sydney for meetings with departmental colleagues."
