Dr. Robert Veillette is this year's recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award. The associate professor of electrical and computer engineering joined UA’s College of Engineering in 1990.
Veillette, pictured above with President Scott Scarborough, left, and Provost Mike Sherman, is described as having “a laser focus on helping engineering students succeed,” both inside and outside the classroom.
In addition to advising many undergraduate electrical engineering students, Veillette has directed five Ph.D. students on their dissertations and 22 master’s level students on their theses. He has served on more than 70 other doctoral or master’s committees, and helped direct at least 18 senior projects, involving more than 60 undergraduates.
Veillette served as the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology coordinator for the department’s 2013 program accreditation evaluation, which resulted in the maximum accreditation awarded by ABET.
He was previously honored with the College of Engineering Chemstress Outstanding Teacher Award in 1999, and the Honors College Advising Award in 2014.
In summing up his professor, Matt Granger, a senior EE student, writes this: “There are educators who teach because it is a job, and then there are educators who teach because it is their calling. After being his student and advisee for half a decade, I can say with absolute confidence that Dr. Veillette’s passion is education.”