Forrest Brown, an engineering supervisor for the 309th Electronics Maintenance Group, was recently recognized by the Utah Engineering Council for his selection by the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers as the Utah Engineering Educator of the Year for his outstanding achievements in the field of engineering education.
Brown, who has worked at Hill Air Force Base for more than 25 years, has taught online math and engineering classes for both Park University and for Brigham Young University Idaho for 23 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering and two master’s degrees – one in business and one in political economy.
Receiving recognition as the educator of the year in engineering means a great deal, Brown said.
“I love teaching others how to solve problems,” he said. “I also meet weekly with engineers on base and we review various books on business and government. Learning is a lifelong event.”
Brown said teaching also helps hone his engineering, math and problem solving skills, “because I have to stay ahead of the students.” He said this also relates directly to his job at Hill where he leads a group of engineers in solving highly technical problems for the 309th EMXG production shops.
“We work with aging aircraft components and in order to keep the weapons systems functioning we must be innovative in our approach to their repairs,” he said.
Coworkers encouraged Brown to apply for the award and he said he was surprised to receive it.
“It is good to get recognized and to highlight how important education is to our engineering industry,” he said.
The Utah Engineering Council is a non-profit charitable consortium of the 15 most active engineering societies in Utah. The UEC holds an annual banquet around Engineers Week (celebrated Feb. 21-25 this year) to award scholarships to undergraduate engineering students at various Utah universities. This year the group awarded $1,500 scholarships to 13 students.
The UEC also selected Utah’s Engineering Educator (Dr. Paul J. Barr of Utah State University), Fresh Face In Engineering (Jake Merrill of Nano Composite Products, Inc.) and Engineer of the Year for 2017 (Justin Don Naser of ARW Engineers).
