Innovation, curiosity, and experimentation define how Dr. Lauren Logan, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Ohio Northern University, approaches her teaching.
Her dedication to developing these traits in future engineers recently earned her a Rising Star Award from the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), a prestigious honor given to just three faculty members nationwide each year. KEEN, a partner network of more than 60 schools, recognizes junior faculty members who excel at instilling an entrepreneurial framework in undergraduate engineering programs.
While many think of entrepreneurs in terms of starting a business, an innovative mindset is just as crucial for engineers, Logan says. This mindset is a framework based on the 3Cs—curiosity, connection, and creating value, she added.
“How do you incorporate those 3Cs in ways that are meaningful for students? How do you get students to be curious, ask questions, dig deeper?”
New and innovative approaches are a hallmark of Logan’s teaching, and a factor in her selection for the award.
“I have been trying out new things in the classroom consistently,” she says, “and every year I’m looking at how I can rework an existing project or how I can make something that’s going to add value for the class.” She particularly likes projects that reach beyond her classroom to other disciplines in the university.
One example is her museum exhibit class project that focused on geotechnical engineering— in short, working with soil. Students were tasked with developing unique museum exhibits to showcase engineering that involves soil. For example, one exhibit demonstrated how soil and drainage are important to sports fields—both natural grass and Astroturf. “People got to play in the dirt,” said Logan.
This past summer, she and her colleagues led a faculty workshop on environmental engineering that incorporated the KEEN entrepreneurship focus for the first time. The workshop was titled REnEW: Reviving Entrepreneurial Mindset for Environmental and Water Resources Engineering.
Logan, who also holds the James L. Kennedy Endowed Professorship for Energy Economics and is chair of the Kokosing Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, combines her interests in engineering and the environment in her teaching and research.
Growing up in Athens, Ohio, she was fascinated by how things worked. “I was always a curious kid: ‘Why do we do this or why does this plant grow here? Why is water that color?’”
Her interest led to a 4-H engineering project that ended up winning a STEM first prize at the Ohio State Fair. “That encouraged me and was the springboard to a career in engineering,” she says. She now encourages other budding engineers by serving as a judge for 4-H.
After earning her B.S. in electrical engineering and geosciences at Ohio University, she went on to earn a master’s degree in biosciences at Purdue and a doctorate in civil engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The interaction between energy and water use is one of Logan's particular areas of study. She leads the Logan Research Group: Water, Energy, and LCA, and she is currently looking for students who are interested in the power grid, economics, and engineering education.
The role engineers play in such issues as the environmental impact of large data centers is important, Logan says. Nuclear, solar, and other types of energy infrastructure can all have impacts on water use, she explains.
She sometimes uses the phrase “turn off the lights to save water,” a concept she shares with students. “Every type of power has a water footprint. The less energy we use, the less water we are going to use.”
That also leads to a tagline she uses for many of her classes—“Everything is a trade-off.” It’s up to engineers to be creative and look at the options, she says, and help figure out what parts of the trade-off are worth keeping and which ones to give up. “There is no one right answer.”
In her spare time, Logan enjoys what she calls a few “nerdy interests” like celebrating Halloween, visiting amusement parks, riding roller coasters, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Teaching is her passion, however.
“I like to see students think through complex problems and come up with new ideas. It’s exciting when they share something that even I hadn’t thought of before. Those moments in class are thrilling.”
Logan joins several other ONU faculty members in the T.J. Smull College of Engineering who have won the Rising Star Award in recent years, including Dr. Joshua Gargac, associate professor of mechanical engineering; Dr. Heath LeBlanc, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Dr. Blake Hylton, associate professor of mechanical engineering; and Dr. Stephany Coffman-Wolph, assistant professor of computer science.