CCI’s Mohamed Shehab is a finalist for 2015 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence

Mohamed Shehab, an associate professor in the Department of Software and Information Systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, is the fourth finalist for the 2015 Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence being featured on Inside UNC Charlotte. The recipient will be named during a special awards ceremony on Friday, Sept. 18.

The fifth finalist, Beth Whitaker, associate professor of political science and public administration, will be profiled later this week. The other finalists previously featured on Inside UNC Charlotte are John Beattie, Moutaz Khouja and Stanley Schneider.

According to Shehab, the most important factor in being a successful teacher is to care about students and their success.

Shehab’s enthusiasm for teaching mobile app development is contagious and motivating. “I use a top-down approach where I illustrate what we hope to accomplish in the class and the steps we plan to take to get there.”

Since joining UNC Charlotte in 2007, Shehab employs classrooms that model “real-world” conditions students will face in the industry. In his courses, he engages students using well-planned projects that contain open-ended design portions to allow students to innovate. In a fast-paced, continuously evolving technological environment, graduates are continually expected to adapt to new technological advances. Shehab treats the classroom as a space that promotes solid professional practices and ethics. He also encourages teamwork to promote collaborative learning and has been actively working with the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Active Learning Academy. His popular mobile application development courses are in high demand, not only with students within the College of Computing and Informatics but also with leading Charlotte companies like Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Computer science graduate student Jui Bhagat stated Shehab “leads by example and encourages you to push your limits. He gave me confidence in the subject, and I have excelled in his class. His teaching techniques were so practical and intense that they made me push my limits and explore the course of mobile applications.”

Shehab has worked with students to establish App Ventures, a new student organization that focuses on mobile application design and development for good causes both on the UNC Charlotte campus and in the surrounding community. This new organization has the potential to attract a large student population and to promote student engagement, innovation and collaboration.

While his work in the classroom is exemplary, Shehab is equally committed to helping students walk the “last mile” in their academic experience: searching for a job after graduation. Every semester, he invites hiring managers, departmental alumni and industry professionals into his classes to present on current topics in the field. This exposure gives students an opportunity to learn something new and illustrates the relationship between the course material and the industry; it also gives them insights into the transition from being a student to being a professional.

Mary Lou Maher, chair of the Department of Software and Information Systems, said Shehab “has enormous energy, enthusiasm and passion for teaching that every one of his students has experienced and many have gone out of their way to tell me.”