Universities and colleges in the United States conferred more than 80,000 engineering degrees in 2012, according to the National Science Foundation. Still, companies report that a large percentage of these recent graduates are not fit for the job market. Skills such as programming, leadership, critical thinking, and technical writing are said to be the biggest gaps in their knowledge. With that in mind, I believe that engineering students need to be trained in not only how to use construction tools and how to build things, but how to understand and question why they learn that and how it fits within a global view and approach to engineering topics, stimulating critical thinking and leading to a solid profile that will help them thrive when joining industry or academia upon graduation. My teaching philosophy as a faculty member of the Mechanical Engineering department at Penn State revolve around addressing current laboratory courses for their ability to provide these skills and working with the faculty to improve the outcomes, creating new opportunities for cultural exchange and study abroad experiences focused on global competencies in engineering and teamwork, and to update graduate level classes with a focus in Instrumentation and Measurement techniques to prepare graduate students for the logical thinking and responsibilities they will have in their research labs.

CLASSES TAUGHT:

• ME 504 – Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics (Fall 24), Syllabus
• ME 348 – Circuit Analysis, Instrumentation and Statistics (Fall 21, Fall 22, Fall 23), Example Syllabus
• ME 399 – Mechanical Engineering and Research – Study abroad in Manaus, Brazil (Summer 24)
• ME 422 – Principles of Turbomachinery (Spring 23, anticipated Spring 24), Example Syllabus
• ENGR 299 – Technical Presentation for Engineers – Study abroad in Christchurch, New Zealand (Winter 22)
• ENGR 802 – Engineering Across Culture and Nations (Fall 22), co-taught