First Innovative Engineering Education Fellows Named
The College of Engineering has launched a new faculty fellowship program that recognizes innovation in teaching and encourages its further pursuit. Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen has named the first two Innovative Engineering Education Faculty Fellows: associate professors Don Wroblewski (ME) and Ari Trachtenberg (ECE).
Lutchen said the new fellowship program “honors these individuals as innovative educators in engineering and provides resources to further enhance engineering education here at Boston University in a sustainable way.”
The fellows were recommended to Lutchen by review committee comprised of members inside and outside of the College.
Wroblewski is the associate chair of the Aerospace Engineering Undergraduate Program and has been honored twice with the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Excellence in Teaching Award. His research pertains to experiments using plasma spray to develop a molten flux sensor.
Trachtenberg is a member of the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department’s Information Systems and Sciences group, and received the ECE Excellence in Teaching Award in 2003. His research focuses on security, algorithms and data synchronization, particularly in mobile devices.
Both IEEF winners plan to use their fellowships to work on practical applications that can be used to help students understand theoretical concepts.
Wroblewski will focus on a project titled “Herding CATS: Coordinate Application Threads through the ME Curriculum to Facilitate Course-to-Course Connectivity and Improve Material Retention.” By implementing specific application examples throughout the ME program, Wroblewski will attempt to increase students’ retention of significant concepts. In addition, Wroblewski plans to tackle other key academic issues, from putting engineering topics taught in the classroom in the context of the larger society, to exposing engineering students to the concept of life-long learning and new Engineering concentrations.
Trachtenberg’s project, “Engineering Evangelism,” will introduce two methods into the engineering curriculum that integrate tangible applications for the information and skills students learn in the classroom. Trachtenberg’s first method, “Tangible Expressions,” will play on the fact that engineers react well to tangible projects, and present real-world examples that coincide with the theoretical knowledge students learn in their first year. His second method, “Novel Devices,” will extend the use of computer engineering fundamentals to show their use in commonly used devices such as smart phones and game systems. This method aims to motivate and excite students by showing them real-world applications pertaining to their learning.