Sedat Serdengecti | In Memoriam | Harvey Mudd College

Engineering Professor Emeritus

Harvey Mudd College engineering Professor Emeritus Sedat Serdengecti died Nov. 30, 2014, following a heart attack. He was 87.

Professor Serdengecti joined Harvey Mudd in 1961 as an assistant professor of physics then moved to the Department of Engineering in 1963 as one of its first faculty members.

“Sedat was the person responsible for the development of the systems sequence which provides the foundation for our general engineering program,” says John Molinder, the James Howard Kindelberger Professor of Engineering. “He once told me that he enjoyed designing the sequence because he was not only given the responsibility but also the freedom to innovate. Like all courses, the content has changed over time, but the philosophy and the framework remain the same.”

Liz Orwin ’95, engineering department chair, describes Professor Serdengecti as a visionary. “Not only was Sedat a highly respected teacher and researcher, he was well known for his high standards. His contributions to the department are invaluable.”

Professor of Engineering Emeritus James Monson, who also joined the engineering faculty in 1961, says Professor Serdengecti was a wonderful friend and colleague. “His academic rigor, integrity and concern for students exemplified the HMC engineering way.”

This care for others extended to the faculty as well. Professor of Physics and Dean Emeritus Thomas Helliwell recalls how, in 1963, Professor Serdengecti substituted in Helliwell’s Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics class so that Helliwell could concentrate on his PhD oral defense, scheduled the same day. “He gave an absolutely splendid lecture. It was very clear and he obviously knew the subject very well,” says Helliwell. “I was very impressed with his ability as a teacher and his knowledge of physics.”

Professor Serdengecti provided crucial academic support to the Department of Physics during the early 1960s as the College’s student body began to grow. He was instrumental in guiding the College’s evolving computer science program. During the late 1960s, with faculty colleagues Monson (engineering) and Alden Pixley (mathematics), he developed a set of three courses to give students a basic comprehension of computing theory and practice. Under President Joseph Platt (1956–1976), Professor Serdengecti chaired the College’s computer science group to help evaluate emerging technology needs. He was a major contributor to the success of the Mathematics and Engineering Clinics.

Professor Serdengecti served on the faculty until his retirement in 1998, and after that time, he remained a regular presence at the College as an emeritus faculty member.

Professor Serdengecti was born in Izmit, Turkey, in 1927. He graduated from Kütahya Lyceum in Turkey in 1944 and went on to receive an M.E. from Syracuse University, New York, in 1951 and an M.S. (mechanical engineering, 1952) and PhD (jet propulsion and engineering cybernetics, 1955) from Caltech. He came to Harvey Mudd with industrial experience from Chevron Oil Research Co. His research areas included control and stability of systems; communication and information theory; computer sciences and numerical methods of computation, and his work in these areas was published in many journals and reports. He was a consulting engineer at several companies, including General Motors and Bell and Howell Co.

Professor Serdengecti is survived by his wife, Sue; his daughter, Alysa, and her husband; his son, Kemal, and his wife; two grandchildren and extended family in Turkey.

Memories of Sedat

Greg Felton ’85

Student & Admirer

After years of no contact, I had a wonderful reunion with Sedat when I was on campus just a few months before I learned of his passing. He was working away on the 4th floor of Sprague on something that he’d found of interest, the equations behind single-tower suspension bridges. As always, he had pages filled with print so neat it could have been done by a computer printer. I hope that, as a part of a memorial display, you will capture some of those sheets from his desk and show the world his brilliant mind and discipline right up to the end.

During my conversation with him, I mentioned that I still have a couple of cards I saved from a Trivial Pursuit game that the College once published. The front of the card said “What’s the 0-0-0 Club?” The answer on the back? “The group of students (note, not just one) that got zeros on the first three quizzes in Sedat’s class.” He had a great laugh and joyous smile. He was TOUGH but so inspirational, smart, and in the end striving to be the best he could for himself and all of us. What a great man!

Mike van Driel ’91

Student, fifth year advisor

I have never had the privilege of knowing a tougher, more disciplined engineering professor than Prof Sedat, I read the news about his passing with a heavy heart. He was amongst the handful of the engineering professors at Mudd that had the most direct influence on me, he was my advisor in the last years of the Fifth Year program back in the late ’90s and I will never forget him, ever. He could motivate you with a single look (everyone who had him as an instructor knows what I am talking about), and that same look made you want to be a better student and engineer. I really got to know him personally my senior year while I was doing an engineering internship at Shiley on a mass transfer device used during cardiac surgery called an oxygenator, I remembering talking to him late into the evening some nights after the internship to see if we could create a predictive model for it (and I did later, based on his insight/advice), I’ve built my entire engineering career on some of those discussions. He was so very wise, and so versatile, he could talk about anything, his spirit encompasses all that was good about my memories of the time I spent at Mudd – the frustration, the realization, the knowledge, the “ah HA!” moments of discovery and understanding, and most of all the compassion. He constantly reminded me that it is not only important to be a good engineer but to be a good person and a responsible part of society as an engineer, to and enjoy it. I think of him often, and I’ll miss him so very much. My deepest sympathies for his family’s loss, but speaking on behalf of so many of the students whose lives he touched, I can promise that he’ll never be forgotten.

eric johnson ’84

Student

As one of the founding members of the Association of Sedat Survivors (hi Cliff), it must mean something when so many years later I still clearly remember just how tough Sadat’s classes were. Talk about preparation for the real world. And in the end, very useful and applicable material for my engineering career.

Thanks Professor Serdengecti, you made difference.

Ross A. Watkins ’83

Student

Sedat had an amazing presentation style, right down to his blackboard writing and drawings–always clearly readable to me from wherever I happened to be in the lecture hall. As part of a lecture one day he tossed off a circle and continued. It was so perfect that, after he had left the lecture hall, at least six of us rushed the blackboard to measure it. The one-foot circle was accurate to one-half a chalk-width!

Thanks to his uncompromising standards, I always overbuild, erring on the side of safety. Thank you, Sedat; we keep you alive in our memories.

Cliff Sedlund ’84

Student

Professor Serdengecti’s Advanced Systems Engineering (E101/102) was such an ordeal that at the end of it Eric Johnson and I started a new (and short-lived) engineering society, the Association of Sedat Survivors. But that was all in fun because as tough as the class was at some point Sedat’s methodical teaching method eventually got through to me and things clicked so that the class became one of my favorites and control systems became my favorite subject. I remain a control systems engineer to this day.

During that class, one night before a midterm I pulled an all-nighter helping produce an issue of the Muddraker (which back in those days involved scissors and a lot of tape). As I rolled into bed around dawn I set my alarm clock for the mid-morning exam–or so I thought. I woke up a bit after the exam had finished, and rushed down to Sedat’s office to inquire about a make-up exam. “My alarm clock didn’t go off,” I said. His only response was “Better get a new alarm clock” and no offers for any way to make up the test. Well, after the test was graded, he decided that everyone had done so poorly that he would offer everyone a re-test opportunity at some fractional credit–thus saving my grade for the semester. So as tough and cold as his response seemed to me at the time, I think the real motivation behind it was a sense of fairness to the entire class.

Thank you, Professor Serdengecti.

Ben Wiseman ’85

Student, 5th year

Like many I recall the challenges of Sedat’s classes. He always challenged his students by showing them concepts he found interesting. The drive to excellence and learn beyond the text was frustrating but also invigorating. But, I will also fondly remember his almost childish laugh when I would finally grasp a concept I had struggled over. Thanks to Sedat, I still have an understanding of non-linear systems that eludes most of my colleagues.
I had the honor of Sedat as my Clinic team’s advisor not once but twice. In group meetings, he would sit back (often enjoying his pipe) while we debated how to solve problems or some logistical challenge. Then he would smile and offer a question or suggestion to the team. It wasn’t important to him whether we used his ideas, but rather that he could help us learn along the way. He truly understood that in Clinic the means (learning, teamwork) were more important than the ends (the project deliverable).
He was an exemplary mentor and coach. The model of a sharp intellect who could guide and teach without ego. He will be greatly missed.

Tony Li ’82

Student

Like many others, I was a victim of Sedat’s high standards. I remember getting a 14/100 on a final, and being very thankful that I got that. The high score was an 18.

While I deeply value the knowledge that I gained in his class, I treasure even more his commitment to high standards. As he used to say, civil engineers do not get partial credit if only a part of the bridge stays up. In this time of declining standards and grade inflation, Sedat has been a continuing inspiration to strive for perfection, to hold others to the same high standards, and to never accept anything else than excellence.

Linda Miller ’83

Student

Sedat was a very tough professor. I remember the average score on his first test was 0. Even though he was tough in class, he was very nice in person. I always enjoyed talking to him. RIP Sedat

Donald Remer

Colleague in the Engineering Department

It was a pleasure being a colleague of Sedat for many years. I still remember many of our conversations outside of Sprague Library while Sedat would be enjoying his pipe.

One of my fondest memories of Sedat is reviewing some of his lecture notes for the experimental engineering course. His handwriting was a very beautiful script that he did in ink. I found his notes very helpful as I prepared my lecture notes for this course.

We will really miss you.

Jim Rosenberg

Colleague

I served on the Engineering faculty at HMC with Sedat from 1992 to 2001. I have many fond memories, but the one that I think captures Sedat and his relationship with his students the best came from a semester in which he offered his advanced course in control systems.

It was a small class of students (six or eight, mostly seniors, including Beston Barnett and Bill Earner, as I recall), who really wanted to take a class from Sedat before they graduated. After the midterm exam, which had a mean score well below 50%, the students, as a class, complained to Sedat that the exam wasn’t hard enough.

As usual, Sedat was driving the class very hard, but the students goaded him into pushing them even harder. I got to hear this ongoing push-me/pull-you saga from both Sedat and the students all through the semester, and to watch this fun and wonderful challenge evolve.

At the end of the semester, Sedat gave the class a final exam that was truly remarkable … I might have been able to complete it with several days’ time and a small library. The students, however, performed quite well on it. I had to explain to the students how extraordinary a learning experience they had just had — one in which they had achieved a level of knowledge and proficiency in a topic that exceeded nearly all of the faculty’s. Equally important, though, was how much this class inspired and energized Sedat. Nothing made Sedat happier than students really learning and striving to live up to their full potentials.