CARNEGIE MELLON DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICA L E NGINEERING


Meet MechE’s Undergrad Teaching Fellows T


he Undergraduate Teaching Fellows program provides exceptional undergraduate students with experience as instructors and mentors in core MechE classes. After they


have been selected through a rigorous nomination and screening process, Fellows are assigned a professor and a course that matches their own interests. The Spring 2010 Fellows at MechE include a diverse group of students.


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As Fellow for Computational Fluid Mechanics—working under Associate Professor C. Fred Higgs III—MechE junior Jacob Beatty runs the labs that use Fluent, a finite volumetric software for analyzing fluid systems. Beatty applied to be a Fellow so that he could give back to the Department. Beatty has enjoyed not only helping his classmates, but also learning more about fluid mechanics himself. . . . . .


Junior Patrick S.M. Dougherty is serving as a Fellow for Fluid Mechanics, reporting to Associate Professor Shelley Anna. He enjoys helping other students and is especially inspired by those who put forth the effort required to understand a difficult subject. Dougherty finds his new perspective on the Department interesting. “Instead of seeing only your class moving through the MechE curriculum, you get to see the evolution of a single course as it serves multiple classes of students,” says Dougherty. . . . . .


MechE senior Jason Huber applied to be a Fellow so that he could interact more closely with a faculty member, as well as other students. His assignment as Fellow for Dynamic Systems and Controls has given him this opportunity. Huber converts Professor William C. Messner’s class notes into a fill-in-the-blank form that students can print prior to class, so that they can focus more on listening to the lecture. As a side benefit, Huber has found that going back over these notes has aided his own understanding and retention. . . . . .


Mikey Lara


Because senior Mikey Lara plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Bioengineering after graduation, he wanted hands-on teaching experience. Serving as a Fellow in Thermal Fluids Experimentation and Design has helped Lara be more patient as he helps students work through experiments and analyses—relying upon them to come up with


their own answers. Lara has been guided in this invaluable experience by Professor Yoed Rabin.


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Also working as a Thermal Fluids Experimentation and Design Fellow under Rabin is senior Daniel Liptz. He has always enjoyed explaining concepts to others, and as a Fellow, he has learned how to pay more attention to the needs of students and support their discovery process. “I really enjoy facilitating those ‘aha’ moments when students figure out the answer to their own questions,” Liptz says.


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Junior Sean Lubner’s teaching fellowship is focused on Fundamen- tals of MechE, and he reports to Adjunct Faculty Robert Reid. Lubner wanted to increase his involvement with Carnegie Mellon and MechE by aiding students in understanding key engineering concepts. As a Fellow, he has the satisfaction of knowing he is helping others, while improving his organization and time management skills. . . . . .


Justin Perry is a junior serving as a Fluid Mechanics Fellow to Asso- ciate Professor Shelley Anna. Perry has enjoyed teaching and seeing the “other side” of running a class. He’s also increased his own under- standing of the course material. While balancing his many priorities can be challenging, Perry—like the other Undergrad Teaching Fellows for Spring 2010—has found the experience to be very rewarding.•


Shown left to right are Teaching Fellows Sean Lubner, Jacob Beatty, Daniel Liptz, Patrick Dougherty, Jason Huber, and Justin Perry.


C ARNEGIE M ECH I 19


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