Neil Wandmacher Teaching Award

I’m grateful to receive the Neil Wandmacher Teaching Award for Early Career Faculty from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

Teaching Thermodynamics and Computational Fluid Dynamics has been one of the most rewarding parts of my job. My approach is simple: students learn by doing, and they learn faster when feedback is quick. In CFD, that means students write their own solvers before they touch commercial software, so they know what the software is doing and when not to trust it. In Thermodynamics, it means team problem-solving in class, open-ended design projects with a group presentation every week, homework graded for method rather than the final answer, and, since 2025, gamified zyBooks activities that students can attempt as many times as they need.

Thank you to the students who put in the work, and to the colleagues and TAs who make these courses possible.