Be the Creed

BY JEREMY HENDERSON

AFRAH KHAN Graduate Student Civil and Environmental Engineering

There’s a test in reinforced concrete this afternoon. It won’t be easy. But she wouldn’t have it any other way. Because challenges, says Afrah Khan, are opportunities. And that’s what she loves about Auburn — the opportunities. The opportunity to teach in different subjects, the opportunities to do research in world-class facilities.

“The new structures lab is amazing,” she said. “I’m getting my master’s in construction engineering but I’m taking supplemental classes in structural engineering because I want to challenge myself, and the opportunities Auburn provides for that are so impressive” — even more impressive than the former LSU soccer standout may have realized.

This morning, she went online and found a doctoral student in

Turkey studying the same things — tensile stress, portlandite, all that stuff. She sent him some questions. He sent her a question, too.

“Oh, wow — you go to Auburn?”

“I guess it’s not really that shocking,” Khan said. “Auburn has a well-respected civil engineering program. Still, here’s a guy in Turkey impressed that I go to Auburn.”

After graduation, Khan wants to start her own construction company. Modular homes, she says — that’s the future.

“Modular homes let you add on, take away, and constantly change your house with what suits the progression of your life,” she said. “That’s the trend I want to focus on.”

Listen to our podcast with Afrah Khan at eng.auburn.edu/ginning

She just has to pass that test first.

BY CASSIE MONTGOMERY

JEFF FERGUS Associate Dean

Undergraduate Studies and Program Assessment

Jeff Fergus has always put students first, whether that’s the graduate students working under his advisement or underserved engineering student populations. In his current role as associate dean for undergraduate studies and program assessment, that sentiment takes on a much larger meaning. It encompasses the entire undergraduate student body in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

“I would hope students would say I had their best interests in mind and that I was there to try to help them progress in their studies, graduate and be successful,” he said when asked how his former students would describe him. “I think we need to think of what’s best for the student first, and I would hope that’s what they thought I was trying to do.”

Throughout his more than 30 years on The Plains, Fergus’s passion for helping underserved engineering students, including underrepresented minorities, women and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, has continued to grow.

“There’s the social justice side where I’ve tried to work to create opportunities for those who didn’t have them and then there’s a business case for diversity. It’s not just about doing the right thing, but it’s about doing things right. In the context of engineering education, it’s about preparing our students to be able to work with people who are different from them and design solutions for people that are not like them,” he said. “This is what we need to do to prepare our students to be successful, wellrounded engineers.”

BY AUSTIN PHILLIPS

KELLEY TERRY Director, Research Program Development and Grants Engineering Business Office

Since 2017, the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering has more than tripled its annual new research awards and grants per year to more than $76 million.

And Kelley Terry has played a vital role in making that happen.

Terry, director of research program development and grants, joined the college in 2017 after serving 17 years with the College of Agriculture, from which she graduated in agriculture business and economics in 1995.

The timing of Terry’s arrival to the College of Engineering and the upward trajectory of the college’s research trajectory is no coincidence.

In her role, Terry provides direction for daily sponsored programs operations in the college, coordinates educational programs related to sponsored programs efforts by faculty and staff and manages proposal reviews for the engineering administration, the Auburn University Research and Innovation Campus in Huntsville and the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security. In addition, she ensures the college is up to date and compliant with all state and federal regulations.

While she loves many aspects of her job, it’s working with faculty members and assisting in their successes that brings her the most joy. And although she treasures the moments when faculty receive multi-million-dollar grants or awards, it’s those first grants that are worth it the most.

“Helping junior faculty with their first proposal, helping them land their first grant and knowing I contributed to their success is why we love our jobs here in the college,” Terry said. “That’s a milestone in their career, and we hope it is just the first of many.”

BY BETHANY DEUEL

METRICK HOUSER, ’93 Chemical Engineering Director of Global Sourcing North America/Europe, Sylvamo

“The pride of being an Auburn engineer is awesome,” said Metrick Houser, ’93 chemical engineering.

Houser serves as the director of global sourcing North America/ Europe at Sylvamo in Memphis, Tennessee. His focus on pulp and paper while earning his undergraduate degree, as well as his master’s degree in business administration he earned from Auburn in 2001, help him lead all aspects of global sourcing from manufacturing raw materials to supply chain.

As a young alumnus, Houser quickly became involved with the university, thanks to help from Dennis Weatherby. As the inaugural director of the Center for Inclusive Engineering

Excellence (then the Minority Engineering Program), Weatherby encouraged Houser to stay involved through visiting campus to speak to student groups along with getting involved in the Alumni Engineering Council.

“He and I worked together a lot. I could see his passion for what he was doing, and I thought ‘hey, if he’s that passionate about it, I can be equally as passionate about it,’” Houser said.

Today, Houser is involved on campus as a Board Member of the Alumni Association, Auburn Alumni Engineering Council and the Department of Chemical Engineering Alumni Council with hopes to be an example to current Auburn Engineering students, especially African American students with a similar background.

“I hope to show a path to students so they can see themselves down the road getting an opportunity to excel in their career and enjoy their life to the fullest. I think Auburn absolutely provides its alumni with that ability to be what they want to be in life.”