While I may not be a billionaire, have fancy old lady glasses, or a superhero, I can still relate to being an Engineer who is constantly mentoring the next generation coming through my school. It’s an obligation I take seriously and more importantly, I seriously enjoy!
One of the things I have learned from my past is, communication is the key to successful learning and mentor ship. To this end, I attempt to raise the bar for the standard honors contract. I require my students to meet with me an hour + per week. Additionally they are required to send out weekly updates at least two days prior so we have material to discuss on their current progress.
At this point, the standard work product expected from my honors students consist of:
10+ page report on the topic of your choice
Presentation at the end of the semester to your peers
The final work product should include some form of engineering design / analysis utilizing MATLAB
Now throughout the semester our meetings consist of:
- Mini lectures on a related topic to the research
- Setting up plans of actions
- Guidance in the use of MATLAB
- Introduction to other useful engineering software
- Help with proper technical writing
The skills gained during this process are invaluable in my humble opinion, as it is the case that all these “soft skills” translate to other courses in the future in the form of proper report writing, formatting, MATLAB, etc…
The following students are those who had the determination, intelligence, and work ethic to successfully complete an honors project in one of my courses. In each link you will find a picture of their smiling faces, a brief bio, and what they are currently up to.
MAT 275 – Modern Differential Equations
2019 – Colton Acosta – Aerospace Engineering
2019 – Michelle Tieu – Biomedical Engineering
2019 – Jason Ronstadt – Chemical Engineering
2018 – Julia Zimmerman – Civil Engineering
2018 – Jeremiah Mcdowell – Mathematics
MAT 267 – Calculus for Engineers III
2014 – Erick Ramirez Cordero – Computer Systems Engineering
MAT 266 – Calculus for Engineers II
2024 – Jesus Munoz Ortiz – Computer Systems Engineering
2018 – Jennifer Norton – Chemical Engineering
2018 – Brodie Clemmer – Biomedical Engineering
MAT 242 – Elementary Linear Algebra
2018 – Rachel Eisinger – Mechanical Engineering
PHY 121 – University Physics I