Bright mind, big heart, sharp wit: Engineering management faculty member retires

MALVERN, Pa. — Despite the efforts of staff, his fellow faculty and deans to persuade him otherwise, associate professor Kailasam (Kailash) Satyamurthy retired this summer, after 18 years of teaching at Penn State Great Valley, and an extensive prior career in quality improvement at Vanguard and manufacturing companies.

“I always liked teaching,” said Satyamurthy, who taught part-time throughout his engineering and quality improvement career. “I always wanted to be helpful to students.”

Many of his estimated 2,500-plus Great Valley students, as well as staff and faculty, wrote retirement tributes to him, expressing appreciation for not only his teaching but his kindness, joy, warmth and sense of humor.

“He started each day with a smile and was always willing to meet with students, even if they weren't his advisees or in his class,” said Michelle Whalen, academic program coordinator in the engineering division. “His willingness to do for others made him the heart and soul of our campus.”

Students frequently nominated Satyamurthy over the years for Great Valley’s teaching excellence award — “It’s all lies!” he said of their commendations, laughing. Several students noted how responsive he was to their questions, emailing them back late at night or on a Sunday afternoon, often within minutes.

“He really gave selflessly to help make us successful,” said Jen Jasper, who was provisionally accepted to Great Valley’s MBA program if she passed Satyamurthy’s statistics class. She got an A and attributed her success to his reassurance that no subject was too hard to figure out.

Michael Ramos-Yeo, a World Campus engineering management alumnus, said Satyamurthy’s weekly Zoom sessions provided a feeling of community for online students. Satyamurthy often stayed late to break down complex material and help students work through problems, whether for his own assignments or their day jobs, Ramos-Yeo said. He also noted that Satyamurthy’s variety of experiences in both the financial and engineering industries enriched his teaching.

“Most of what I teach is something I have done,” Satyamurthy said.

Whether he was teaching classes on Six Sigma methods for continuous improvement or engineering management, he told stories from his career about designing and troubleshooting problems with automotive products, including door seals, suspension components and tires, and consumer products, such as refrigerator gaskets, tennis balls.

“Fixing the failures and making them better is always an adventure,” he said. “It’s a dream for an engineer, because you have problems in almost every product!”

Seeing his skills as an engineer, his manufacturing company promoted him to be a manager — “the worst thing they did,” Satyamurthy joked. “Most of the engineers don’t know anything about budget, finance or managing people.”

But Satyamurthy learned to “go from the plant floor to the boardroom,” communicating with both technical and managerial personnel, according to former student Bill Teodecki, who earned master’s degrees in systems engineering and data analytics. Satyamurthy’s industry experience provided valuable insights, Teodecki said, recalling his professor’s stories about conveying sound technical concepts and results to non-technical staff as well as his methodologies to effectively communicate engineering data to senior management.

Teodecki said he valued Satyamurthy’s expertise so much that he took one of his classes even though it wasn’t required for his degrees.

“This is the guy who will teach me tried-and-true engineering management tactics and statistical tools to use in the work­place,” Teodecki said.

Sagar Basavanagouda, a former engineering management student, said Satyamurthy taught him almost everything he now uses in his continuous improvement career. Remembering a lesson on reducing the number of steps employees take, Basavanagouda added conveyor belts at his manufacturing company to give workers a shorter distance to travel. This allowed his team to optimize that process and save the company thousands of dollars.

Satyamurthy did not hesitate to share stories from his career about his struggles and failures as well as successes. He once started a company — “Never do that,” he warned, with a grin — without knowing the financial aspects and said he ended up with an expensive lesson that being a good engineer alone is not enough to run a successful business.

However, he reflected, “failure is not the end. It is one wrong step that needs to be adjusted.”

After this setback, Vanguard offered Satyamurthy a job in quality improvement, and he joined the company’s Center for Excellence and taught many crew members principles of quality and continuous improvement in their locations in Malvern; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Scottsdale, Arizona. He wanted to learn more about finance, so he enrolled in courses at Penn State Great Valley on this subject and earned an MBA. At Vanguard, he was given the prestigious Award for Excellence.

Satyamurthy became an adjunct faculty member at Great Valley, teaching business and statistics and helping to develop four Six Sigma courses. After eight years at Vanguard, he transitioned to full-time teaching at Great Valley — another bad financial decision, as Chancellor Colin Neill teased Satyamurthy at his retirement party.

In his role as associate professor, Satyamurthy helped develop and teach courses in the master’s in engineering management program, which grew into a popular degree, often with a waiting list and with high national rankings year after year from U.S. News and World Report.

When Parth Trivedi entered the program as an international student, Satyamurthy prepped him for internship interviews, gave him feedback, and urged him to follow up after applying. Like many international students, Trivedi applied for dozens of internships and faced frequent rejections. He said Satyamurthy asked how he was doing throughout that often-discouraging process, reassuring him that he would find the right fit.

“That kept me going,” Trivedi said. When he finally landed an internship, he tried to take Satyamurthy out to lunch, but Satyamurthy insisted on paying.

That was far from the only thing Satyamurthy insisted on doing beyond what was expected of him. Five years ago, despite being an avid marathon and half marathon runner, Satyamurthy suddenly learned he needed a quadruple bypass and could not leave the hospital before his surgery. But he surprised the doctor by asking to teach his class from the ICU that night, which the doctor allowed. Satyamurthy covered the tubes all over his body so as not to draw the attention of his students.

“For three hours, I did not think about any of this stuff; I was able to teach,” he said.

But eventually, someone noticed a tube and asked, “Are you in the hospital?”

“Busted me, right there and then,” Satyamurthy said, smiling.

He promised to email the class as soon as he got out of surgery.

“He was responding to us while in pain, explaining for a brief period they wouldn't let him have access to his computer yet,” said former student Connor Bracy. “It shows true dedication to his goal of teaching others.”

Satyamurthy showed similar dedication when others faced health issues. When Basavanagouda needed surgery for a ligament he tore just days before he graduated and his insurance expired, he said Satyamurthy served as a parental figure for him. Working with JoAnn Kelly, director of enrollment management and student services, Satyamurthy helped Basavanagouda get some student emergency funds from Great Valley and encouraged him during the recovery process.

And Satyamurthy’s care famously extended beyond students to include Great Valley’s faculty, staff and the wider community. He periodically treated staff to lunches from Indian restaurants while he taught workshops on how to use Excel. He offered meditation classes, served on Great Valley’s diversity council, taught staff about Indian culture and led Diwali celebrations on campus.

“Next to my family, this is my family,” Satyamurthy said, referring to Great Valley’s staff.

He also supported Camp Dreamcatcher, a nonprofit dedicated to children and
families affected by HIV/AIDS. He and the faculty and staff bought backpacks
and supplies for 120 to 150 children who attended the nonprofit’s summer camp
every year, and the campus adopted several families every holiday season and bought everything from the children’s wish lists.

“If the donations don't cover every child, Kailash quietly reaches into his own pocket to make up the difference,” said Mike Piovoso, former Great Valley engineering professor.

“He’s always there, always available, always helpful,” said Trivedi, who drove all the way from Pittsburgh to attend Satyamurthy’s retirement party. “He just has a very big heart.”