Teachers’ credibility is really important for today’s students

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After we introduced the start of the Dean’s career, we will show what was the motivation of the faculty’s other lecturers. 

These short stories can help high school students, who are standing before their first career steps, in considering Faculty of Civil Engineering worthy.

Choosing civil engineering was clear for Dr. Miklós Patzinger Associate Professor (Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering), but the story of becoming the professor of the Faculty, is a little more complicate:

“There are a lot of civil engineers in my family, so my choice was not too difficult. My father was the primary example for me, he is a hydraulic engineer. When I started the university, I was sure to be a hydraulic engineer, but then I saw that there are many other great opportunities, so I thought it over, but finally I stood by the original plan. I studied last year in Graz that was an important milestone of my life. I also finished my diploma work there. The theme of my diploma work was the natural settling back of Rába River within the framework of a major project. In connection with the project they rebuilt the entire eastern Austria Rába region and its proximate riverside environment. I had to design one part of it, and they realized the plans later. Teaching career has always attracted me, just like engineering, and I saw that I could combine these two things together. There was an open position at the department of the University of Technology in Graz where I finish my thesis, so I applied for it. In spite of the big-oversubscription they have chosen me, the freshly graduated, foreign person, so I started teaching there. During the work I got closer to the theme of wastewater treatment. Harald Kainz professor, my former boss, dealt with many practice-oriented wastewater treatment projects – that is how I met this part of hydraulic engineering. For example I could took part in the test mode of the wastewater treatment plant in Vienna, and I was involved in the preparations of the wastewater treatment plant’s expansion in Graz. At the BME Faculty of Civil Engineering it is an established custom that the departments and the instructors are undertake industrial works, but it is more significant at the Graz University, industrial routine is really matter there, already in the selecting process. I taught five years at the Graz University of Technology, then a big change occurred: I’ve started to deal with designing large sewage treatment plants as the leader designer of Mélyépterv. Designing a sewage treatment plant is a really complex task, practically you need to know almost all parts of civil engineering. I regularly visited the Civil Engineering Faculty at BME during the years I worked in Graz, but these were private visits, because many of my friends, acquaintances worked here. So when I came home, besides designing I started to teach a waste water treatment course as a lecturer and I was the consultant of some graduate students and even a PhD student as well. In spite of this I did not think about working as a full-time teacher– until professor Koncsos (Dr. László Koncsos, professor of Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering) did not find me that he count on with me as a full-time lecturer… After a short meditation, I listened to him and accepted the job. Despite of this decision I did not say goodbye to the industry, because we have a lot of practical tasks. The research give the background of the industrial work, because the results of my research can be used directly in the industry, moreover this industrial activity gives theme to education, that I can bring into the classes. It is important, because credibility really matters as a teacher. Some students even ask me if I could do in practice what I am talking about. In a practice oriented field, just like civil engineering, it is really important that I can answer yes.

We asked Dr. Miklós Patziger to choose someone among his colleagues, who will tell his/her career starting story. Miklós have chosen Dr. Szabolcs Rózsa, so his story is coming soon.