Engineering Expert Kirk Gomes
Life poses many challenges, one of the biggest being how to decipher what career to pursue. With endless possibilities, it can be hard to sift through it all and find a calling in life by college. For Dr. Kirk Gomes, a new assistant professor of engineering at PVCC, it was never a question in his mind.
Gomes grew up in Mumbai, India, where most of his family still resides. His interest in engineering started at a young age, which he attributes to his father taking him to work with him at Otis Elevators manufacturing plant in Mumbai.
“It was fascinating to see all the machines in action and all the mechanical and electrical equipment lying around the factory,” Gomes said in a recent interview. “I have also always liked tinkering around with toys and things at home and even ended up shocking myself as a kid with 220 volts of electricity.”
Gomes graduated from the University of Mumbai with a Bachelor of Engineering before coming to the U.S. for graduate school with his wife, Katie. From there, he received a masters and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Toledo. During grad school, he discovered his interest in teaching when he became a teaching assistant for several semesters.
“I had never, ever planned on joining the teaching profession, and in fact, I was terrified on my first day of being a teaching assistant,” Gomes said. “That was mainly because I was from another country and all I knew about how American students behaved was from what I had seen in movies and television. What I didn’t know was that everything that I had seen on television depicted high school students, and that college students, especially those in engineering, were completely different. On that first day, they were respectful, friendly, and they followed instructions. I really enjoyed the interaction and all of that is still unchanged to this day.”
Gomes moved from teaching assistant to part-time adjunct while he finished grad school, then took on a full-time teaching job after graduation. He worked at Central Virginia Community College (CVCC) while his wife pursued her own education, then began looking for a different college that was closer to the university she intended on attending.
“Katie was planning on starting grad school at Mary Baldwin, which would have been a 90-minute commute one way,” Gomes said. “So I checked to see if there were any VCCS schools that were closer to Mary Baldwin, and I found PVCC. What was even more awesome was that they were looking to hire an engineering professor. Fortunately, everything worked out, what with COVID-19 and all, and here I am.”
During his time at PVCC, Gomes has found both positives and negatives about online classes compared to in-person. Although he prefers teaching in person, he has found that there are advantages that are exclusive to an online structure of teaching.
“I miss the face-to-face interaction,” Gomes said. “I have a very sarcastic sense of humor, so it takes a lot longer for my students to get that when we’re meeting online only. I’m also not teaching any classes that have a mandatory physical laboratory component. Other than that, I have my Surface and screen-sharing and with the ability to record lectures and post a PDF of whatever I have written on the screen, I think online classes have an advantage.”
Gomes currently resides in Lake Monticello with his wife, Katie, and their three pets: a Maltese dog named Eleanor Mae “Ellie” and two cats named Joseph Lawrence “Joey” and Charles Xavier “Charlie.”
“Katie and I thought it would be funny and cute to give our pets somewhat old-fashioned first and middle names,” Gomes said.
For more information, contact Gomes at kgomes@pvcc.edu.
