University of Kentucky engineering professor Jim Smart has published his first book, “Engineering Fluid Mechanics” in China. Smart teaches at the UK College of Engineering Paducah Campus.  He collaborated with three Chinese professors at the Chinese University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou, China (40,000 students).  It is a 300-page undergraduate textbook dealing with fluid flow and the principles of fluid dynamics.  “There is a real need for this book in China,” Smart said in a statement. “Chinese students learn English language in grade school, but are not exposed to technical English. This book is a bilingual book, to help students learn engineering as well as command of technical English.”  Smart made the connection to China through the UK international student exchange program, where students are sent to China for a year of study and vice versa. He made two trips to China and the Chinese authors also came to the U.S., as they worked together on the book. Smart taught several classes at the Chinese university.  “We have been going back and forth to each other’s countries and trading a lot of e-mails over the past couple of years.

Smart was the first faculty member recruited in 1998 for the then-new UK extended campus engineering school in Paducah. He was recruited from the University of Texas, where he was teaching after spending more than 20 years working in the private sector for such companies as IBM, Ashland Chemical and Great Lakes Chemical.  He moved to Paducah with his wife, who is the owner/operator of BeBe’s Artisan Market in downtown Paducah.

Feb. 2011 – Paducah Sun