Nikos J. Mourtos
Professor and Chair
Faculty Member, Ed.D. Leadership Program
Office: Engineering 272A
Phone: (408) 924-3867
Email: nikos.mourtos@sjsu.edu
Bio
Dr. Mourtos is a professor and the Chair of the Aerospace Engineering Department at SJSU. He received his Ph.D. degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University. He has developed and taught more than 20 courses in aerospace, mechanical, and general engineering subjects, and more recently in leadership, complexity and systems thinking. He has served as the Faculty Instructional Development Coordinator for the College of Engineering (1996-2002), a Faculty-in-Residence for Innovative Pedagogy (1998-2002) and the Assistant Director for the SJSU Center for Faculty Development and Support (2006-2008). He has published extensively on engineering education topics such as active, cooperative, and problem-based learning, teaching and learning styles, as well as on teaching and assessing problem solving, design, and lifelong learning skills. He conducts faculty workshops on research-based course design and in particular on how to teach and assess complex 21st century process skills. His research interests encompass aircraft design, any aspect of teaching and learning in STEAM education, as well as complexity and systems thinking both in education and engineering settings. His current focus is (a) analyzing educational challenges (e.g. achievement gap, inclusion) and engineering failures (e.g. recent Boeing 737-Max accidents) using systems thinking and (b) examining the intersection of art and engineering with a view towards increasing student creativity in engineering design.
