The Mechanical Engineering Department Proudly Recognizes the College of Engineering Faculty Award Recipients: Dan Inman, Bob West, Nakhiah Goulbourne, Clay Gabler, Janis Terpenny and Chris Williams.
BLACKSBURG, Va., May 5, 2009 -- Dan Inman, George Goodson Professor of Mechanical Engineering received an award for outstanding research for attracting some $6 million in research contracts in recent years. While his research funding is impressive what he accomplishes with this funding is extraordinary, including his many scholarly publications, his leadership in Ph.D education and productivity, and his management as the Director of the Center for Intelligent Material Systems & Structures (CIMSS). Dr. Inman is a recognized international leader in his field who has brought enormous external visibility and prestige to the Mechanical Engineering Department and Virginia Tech over the past two decades in his commitment to research.
Bob West received a well deserved award for Excellence in Teaching. West has invested great effort into the reorganization of the finite element courses he teaches by refining his “staged problem” approach and has introduced relevant projects into these courses with strong industry connections. In addition to his teaching excellence, West serves as a faculty advisor to senior design projects and a co-advisor to the Formula SAE Senior Design project. In his capacity as a faculty advisor he is particularly interested in introducing engineering students to model-based design, rapid prototyping and hands-on experience with mechanical parts, assemblies, and machine elements during their freshman and sophomore years leading to better support design, analysis and testing their junior and senior years. His overall teaching evaluation scores of 4.0 is a testament to his excellent teaching. Additionally he is progressing to expand the vision of Virginia Tech’s hands-on engineering education approach and its partnership with industry. West is an outstanding educator dedicated to the educational mission of the ME Department, College of Engineering, and Virginia Tech.
Nakhiah Goulbourne was named Outstanding New Assistant Professor. Goulbourne received a 2008 NSF CAREER award for her work with membrane sensors, and she is conducting innovative work on a new type of heart stent sensor. Goulbourne is credited for assuming an active role in teaching, outreach, and service which is being integrated with high quality research in innovative areas, thereby quickly developing a reputation both nationally and internationally. Furthermore, Goulbourne's dedication to teaching is exemplary. She has brought innovation into her classroom enabling a high level of classroom interaction with students and fostering advancement and application of course concepts through development of in-class learning modules. She is applauded for her research achievements, her professional involvement in societies such as ASME and ASEE, her teaching and service dedicated to departmental goals and for the high level of visibility that her work has earned Virginia Tech.
Clay Gabler was named an Engineering Faculty Fellow. He is an internationally recognized expert in crash injury biomechanics and is recognized as authoring the world's leading book on automobile crash analysis. He recently was named a Fellow in the Society of Automobile Engineers. The fellow results in a $5000 account for three years to be used for supporting his research. Since joining Virginia Tech he has participated in more than $6.9 million in research funding, with his own portion being $2.7 million.
The College Award for Outreach Excellence went to the members of the ROXIE Faculty Group. ROXIE stands for the Real Outreach eXperiences in Engineering. Among the winners were Mechanical Engineering faculty, Janis Terpenny and Chris Williams, who hold joint appointments with engineering education. The ROXIE faculty group placed engineering teams in the community assigned to solving engineering design problems they discovered while working with community organization partners. The project resulted in 185 teams working with 87 community partners on service-learning projects for the semester.
These awards demonstrate the fine work our faculty are doing in furthering the mission of the department, the college, the university, and many contributions being made globally.