Incorporating Engineering into an Interdisciplinary Environment with Dr. Ehsan Behzadfar - Assistant Professor at TMU’s Creative School
Dr. Behzadfar is a faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Creative School. He joined academia in 2018 after spending more than four years in the packaging industry. With the decline of natural resources, his research focuses on developing sustainable solutions for polymeric material design. His approach is understanding the structure-process-property relationship in polymers and bio-composite materials through fundamental approaches to modern physics. He is the author of more than 25 peer-reviewed journal papers and has presented their research findings at several conferences.
In this interview, Dr.Behzadfar shares his thoughts on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, sustainable solutions, and the significance of continuous learning in addressing the world's complex challenges. Join us to have a closer look into his experiences, perspectives, and valuable insights.
**This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I like to work with the younger generations, which always inspires me. Once I see their passion for solving challenges that we face, it makes me feel more energetic and want to guide them through their roadblocks and help them navigate through the challenges. So, working with these young generations is one thing that is really appealing to me in my role as a professor. Also, seeing our research serve and make some big impacts in our community towards a better and more sustainable goal is another thing I like about the job.
I would say that my main motivation for this change and moving into an interdisciplinary program is based on the fact that our challenges are interdisciplinary. Whatever things we face out there in terms of sustainability or technical challenges, they are all interdisciplinary, and we need to gain knowledge and see the problem from different perspectives. That's one of the things that motivated me to get involved in this position.
“I believe that we cannot solve the world's challenges unless we start exchanging ideas between disciplines.“
We need to start talking with other disciplines to find comprehensive solutions for the challenges that we face. But, of course, it hasn't really been that easy. This switch and this shift have their own pros and cons.
Can you give us an example of this holistic approach?
We talk about this in our classroom; if we are looking at one problem, we should use the whole system and life-cycle approach. For example, if we want to make a polymer product more sustainable, it's not just about the material and technical features; it's also about the supply chain, cost, consumer behaviour, and more importantly the feasibility and scalability of the solutions we are providing. That's why we need to gain insights from different perspectives and make sure that our solutions will work in the real world.
I would say to be a continuous learner and to be open to learning and developing your skills every day. Essentially, never stop learning. Try to learn and gain new knowledge without any bias from any discipline, and try to hear different perspectives, then think about how you can implement those perspectives into the comprehensive solutions that we're working on.
We live in an era where it's very easy to get overloaded with information. Do you have any advice on how to be more selective while still continuously learning in an interdisciplinary environment?
That's a tough question, but I say it is an art rather than a science thing. Over time, you know which area you need more and which area works for you, and then you take it as a piece for your puzzle. And after a while, you will collect these pieces that are useful for the big puzzle that you're trying to solve, and that puzzle can go out there one day and become a real solution.
I really like to work with people and resolve challenges that benefit the community at large. So, it's very likely that I would end up in a career to do so, such as engineering. I would just love to be in a position where I can help the community at large and try to solve problems that we face out there and have a positive impact on our and the next generation’s lives.
To answer the first part of the question, sustainability means developing solutions without compromising the resources and needs of the next generation. If we find a sustainable packaging solution, we need to make sure that the material use, the energy use, and the product's life cycle are not compromising the resources of the next generation. We know that resources are limited, and we need to be more mindful about this.
About the second part of the question, about the challenges hindering our progress towards more sustainable packaging, I would like to talk positively about that. There are lots of great initiatives out there that are already in place or are forming up to help our process. But we need to face facts on what we need down the road and be realistic about that. For example, it's obvious that we can't solve the world’s energy issues overnight. We need to be realistic about how much energy we use and how much of it can be renewable and then plan for it accordingly. We can't eliminate fossil fuels, and we can't really take the cars off the roads overnight. But what we can do is we can plan and move towards those goals that we are setting for our communities and environment.
That's why I insist on an interdisciplinary approach to bring everyone in. This is a multifaceted problem, and we need to have a multifaceted solution. We can't have a solution that is just about the business, the material, or the energy.
“And I think bringing people together around the table is the biggest challenge right now, which is also the biggest thing we need to do these days.”
I always tell my students not to miss any chance to learn. We live in a fast-changing world, and we need to keep our knowledge and skills up to date. That's why we need to take every single opportunity to learn and develop our skills so that we can contribute to the solutions that we are talking about.
Another piece of advice that is to have continuous and inclusive discussions with others, with people with different perspectives, opinions, and thoughts.
“That conflict of thoughts is where ideas get generated, and those conflicts make us think in a better, different way to find innovative solutions.”
This is a tough question that gets me thinking. I would pick nitrogen because nitrogen is essential for our lives, environment, but, at the same time, it's inert in its molecular form. Some other chemicals out there like greenhouse gases, CO2, CH4 or some of the forever chemicals, even in a small amount, are hard to deal with.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What quality do you think one needs to excel in an interdisciplinary area?
If you hadn't first pursued chemical engineering, what do you think you would be doing today?
What advice would you give your students when they first start their careers?
Last question, what is your favourite element, and why is that?