An Eminent Engineer Comes Full Circle

Although the University of Pittsburgh Professor Taryn Bayles graduated as the top student—the Outstanding Senior—from the College of Engineering at New Mexico State University (NMSU), she still considered pursuing an MD in medicine and even applied to several med schools.

A cadaver changed all that.

After visiting Baylor College of Medicine and witnessing the excitement of first-year students when they saw their cadavers, she knew medicine wasn’t for her.

The world of engineering is better for it, and this spring during its Order of the Engineer and Sociedad De Ingenieros ceremony, the NMSU College of Engineering welcomed Bayles back to campus to recognize her again, this time as its Ingeniero Eminente, its eminent engineer. This title honors alumni who have made important contributions in the field—and for Bayles, that all starts with her students.

“When I was an undergraduate at New Mexico State, I was in Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society. Part of our service was tutoring,” said Bayles, who is also the Undergraduate Program Director of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. “I learned then that I loved to teach.”

That love has followed her throughout her career—whether working in industry for companies such as Exxon and Westinghouse, raising her children, or teaching at the University of Nevada - Reno, the University of Maryland - Baltimore County, the University of Maryland - College Park, and here at Pitt, where she earned her PhD and taught part time in the 1990s and today as a professor since 2016.

“There’s nothing more important to me than the students,” said Bayles. “How I view my success is through their success. They’re the source of my drive, and I feel so privileged to have this job.”

Bayles remembers when her daughter came home from elementary school with news that science had been cut from the curriculum. She jumped into action and was soon running an afterschool STEM program for elementary school students. Like her experience tutoring, this opportunity to reach young learners would guide so much of her research when she began teaching at the university level. 

As a veteran professor, Bayles has co-authored the INSPIRES (INcreasing Student Participation, Interest and Recruitment in Engineering & Science) curriculum, which engages high school students to explore engineering through hands-on learning. She has also taught other teachers how to inspire a love of STEM in K – 12 students.

In her classrooms at Pitt, where she teaches Senior Design—a capstone course where students work together to complete a project—she draws on her experience working as a chemical engineer. “I’ve always tried to incorporate my industrial experience into what I teach,” Bayles said. “I want to make what they’re learning and doing applicable in the real world.”

“Taryn is such a distinguished, passionate educator, and to be recognized by her alma mater is well-deserved,” said Steven Little, Distinguished Professor and Department Chair of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. “Whether in the classroom or through outreach and the curriculum she has helped develop, Taryn has inspired countless students at all levels to pursue engineering or other STEM-related fields.”

“I loved my time at New Mexico State,” said Bayles. “It meant so much to me that I graduated prepared for the different opportunities I’ve had—and loved—since leaving NMSU. I’m truly honored to receive this recognition.”