Dr. Sukanta Roy receives Curtin recognition for outstanding contribution to student learning

Miri – 10 December 2019 – Dr. Sukanta Roy, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Curtin University Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia), recently received Curtin University’s Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning award under its 2019 Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Awards.

In addition to the award certificate, Dr. Sukanta received a grant of AUD2,000 for his outstanding contributions to inspiring and motivating first-year engineering students through interactive and personalised learning experiences, real-life exposure and blended pedagogical approaches.

Dr. Sukanta has been Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Curtin Malaysia’s Faculty of Engineering and Science since March 2019 and was recently promoted to Senior Lecturer in Curtin Malaysia’s latest round of academic promotions.

Prior to joining Curtin Malaysia in 2017, Dr. Sukanta worked at Aix Marseille University, France from 2015 to 2017 and Ecole Centrale de Nantes, also in France, from 2014 to 2015 as a Post-Doctoral Fellow under an Erasmus Mundus Asia to Europe Post-Doctoral Fellowship which he received in 2014.

Dr. Sukanta was among five winners of Curtin University’s Teaching Excellence Awards and Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Curtin Perth and Curtin Malaysia campuses this year. He was the sole recipient from the Malaysian campus.

At the 2019 Curtin Teaching Excellence Awards ceremony held in conjunction with the university’s annual Festival of Learning in Perth last month, Curtin University Vice-Chancellor Professor Terry congratulated all the winners, saying that their awards showcased the innovative learning and teaching work Curtin staff at its campuses in Australia, Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius are doing to enhance their students’ experience.

Dr. Sukanta received his award from Curtin Malaysia’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, President and Chief Executive Professor Jim Mienczakowski on behalf of Professor Deborah Terry at a ceremony at Curtin Malaysia last week. Also present was Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Beena Giridharan and academic staff of Curtin Malaysia.

In congratulating Dr. Sukanta on his achievement, Professor Mienczakowski said Dr. Sukanta’s dedication to teaching and ensuring that students at Curtin Malaysia have the most enriching learning experience was truly outstanding and he has done Curtin Malaysia proud by showing that academics at Curtin Malaysia are at par with their peers at the main campus.

He added that Curtin Malaysia is proud that its teaching staff have continually won awards for teaching and research excellence through the years and hoped that staff will emulate Dr. Sukanta’s efforts and win more awards for the campus in the future.

Professor Mienczakowski said Curtin has a tradition of recognising its excellent teachers and programmes that support student learning and this is reflected in its success in the Awards for Australian University Teaching (AAUT) coordinated by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT).

Meanwhile, Dr. Sukanta said it is important to inspire and motivate engineering students through the inclusion of real-life engineering examples in the teaching they receive so that they can easily connect the concepts they learn with current engineering practices. He also said that it is equally important to engage the students in interactive discussions and feedback sessions.

“As an academic, I have always been passionate about implementing blended learning pedagogical approaches to bridge the gap between secondary school level passive learning and university level active learning.

I really appreciate Curtin’s teaching practices which include knowledge sharing sessions with industry experts, community representatives and experienced academic staff to give student learning greater relevance,” he said.

Dr Sukanta receiving his award from Professor Mienczakowski.