UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 10, Page 12
November 2, 1995
'Arde' Faghri shares real-world experiences with students

     For Ardeshir "Arde" Faghri, assistant professor of civil
engineering, teaching is practically a family tradition. His father
was a dermatologist and a professor at the University of Illinois. An
uncle was a professor in veterinary school, and two cousins teach
engineering at universities in New England.
     "They all really influenced my decision to enter academia,"
Faghri said, "and my cousins still are good advisers to me."
     Born in Iran, Faghri came with his family to the United States
when he was 12. He earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering
and a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of
Washington in Seattle. While a graduate assistant and research
scientist assistant at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville,
he earned both master's and doctoral degrees in transportation and
traffic engineering.
     After three years gaining practical experience at a consulting
firm on Long Island, N.Y., Faghri arrived at the University of
Delaware in August 1990.
     "My first impression was that it was very similar to the
University of Virginia campus," he said. "I'm sure its excellent
appearance is one of the reasons that it is attractive to so many
students."
     Faghri's graduate courses focus on the design, construction and
maintenance of transportation and traffic facilities, information
applied to airports, highways and freeways, harbors and ports and bus
and rail stations. While he must know the dimensions and the manner in
which vehicles operate in order to plan routes and facilities, Faghri
said he is not involved in vehicle design. He also teaches a general
undergraduate civil engineering course on systems, design and
operations.
     His research involves computer applications in transportation,
with 80 percent devoted to software development and the balance to
hardware design.
     When Faghri received the excellence-in-advising award last
spring, it was both satisfying and shocking, he said. "Nothing makes
me happier than seeing my students succeed. I'm proud that I have not
had a single graduate or undergraduate student who has not been able
to find a good job in the field of transportation. My basic philosophy
is: If they need help, I help them."
     Faghri  said that three years of experience in the "real"
world-working on projects, doing administrative work and interviewing
candidates-has helped him share important information with his
students.
     "I can tell them how to act, what to emphasize in an interview,"
he said. "I know what the outside world needs."
     Faghri's advising approach is basic: An open door policy for
students. But, he added with a smile, they tend to show up in larger
numbers as examinations approach.
     Now a U.S. citizen, he described living in Seattle as an Iranian
during the hostage crisis in the late 1970s as "a very difficult
experience."
     "I wasn't comfortable with what the leaders of the country I was
born in were doing. There was so much anti-Iranian feeling, by the
media and the government, at the time. It was scary. But," he added,
"what I remember the most are how wonderful my American friends were
with me. My roommate and some of my professors, they opened their arms
and gave me so much support. When you talk about the government of
certain nations, you've got to separate their actions from the people.
They are two separate entities."
     From December 1994 through February 1995, Faghri participated in
a United Nations-sponsored trip that included a visit to Iran. During
a chance encounter at an Iranian law professor's home, Arde met Elham,
a relative of the professor's wife who had stopped by to help prepare
dinner. The couple was engaged before Faghri left the country, and
they were married several months later at a ceremony in Germany.
     In teaching and advising, Faghri said, his strategy is to try to
bring the most out of every student.
     "I tell them not to be afraid of challenge and to take risks," he
said. "Everyone is unique. No two people are alike. After five years
of advising, I think you have to work with everyone individually.
There are some students whom I haven't had to advise at all. On the
other hand, I've had others call on me on a daily basis."
     Some former students maintain contact and send him letters and
notes, Faghri said, lifting a recent piece of mail from the top of his
desk.
     The writer, an alumnus from the class of 1994, thanked Faghri for
his assistance and advice during her undergraduate years at the
University. In closing, she included a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can."
     And how do letters with sentiments like that make Faghri feel?
     "Very nice," he said. "When they succeed, I feel like I have
succeeded."
                                                         -Ed Okonowicz


This story is part of a series of articles featuring the 1995
recipients of the University's excellence-in-teaching and excellence-
in-advising awards.