Zahed Siddique, Ph.D., recently was appointed as associate director of the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. In his role, he will work to improve AME’s profile to both internal and external stakeholders, involvement in special projects and the capstone program, and working closely with student groups and AME competition teams.

“I am excited for the opportunity to work with our exceptional faculty members, students, staff and industry partners to enhance the educational and research experiences of our students,” said Siddique.

Joining the AME team in 2000, Siddique currently is a professor teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses. Many of the courses he teaches are related to engineering design. Siddique also is the head of the mechanical engineering design practicum program. Some of his research interests include development of tools and framework to enhance engineering design education; design methodology; design for product variety; graph grammars in engineering design; product platform design; product portfolio management; virtual prototyping; and CAD support for product family design and design for the environment, just to name a few.

Siddique was awarded the Regents’ Award for Superior Teaching at OU and also the Ralph R. Teetor Education Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers in 2008. He belongs to many professional organizations, including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Tau Beta Pi National Honor Society, Golden Key Honor Society, and the International Association of Science and Technology for Development, where he has served on the Technical Committee since 2001. 

In addition, Siddique recently was appointed to the Dick and Shirley O’Shields Professorship in Engineering. The professorship was made possible by the O’Shields’ devotion to the University of Oklahoma and their desire to provide opportunities for students and faculty. The couple donated roughly $1.5 million benefiting four separate funds in the Gallogly College of Engineering with one of them being the professorship. Mr. O’Shields was an AME graduate.

“I am honored to be appointed to the Dick and Shirley O’Shields Professorship, which will allow me to make significant contributions toward GCoE’s strategic goal on experiential learning,” said Siddique. “I expect to develop research-based education programs and tools for in-class and online courses to have a sustained and broad impact for the engineering community.”

AME director M. Cengiz Altan, Ph.D., says that private donations such as the O’Shields’ allow the school to recruit and retain faculty of the highest caliber.

“I am excited to have Dr. Siddique as the associate director. He has been an exemplary educator at OU and a national leader in engineering product design,” said Altan. “I am looking forward to working with him. He is a great addition to the AME leadership team.”