2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Reflecting on Ten Years of Building a Community of Practice for Teaching Innovations in Fundamental Mechanics Courses

Presented at Mechanics Division (MECHS) Technical Session 1B

A community of practice (CoP) at a Midwestern university was formed about ten years ago to promote sustainable adoption of evidence-based pedagogies in three fundamental mechanics courses: Statics, Introductory Dynamics, and Introductory Solid Mechanics. Since its inception, the CoP has dramatically grown in the number of faculty members and innovative teaching projects. This work aims to highlight key initiatives and organizational structures that fostered the growth of the CoP. The college initially supported the creation of the CoP through an instructional innovations funding program, and the CoP has successfully secured further funding for continual development. The CoP is also supported by the department through a course coordinator faculty member who oversees training the course staff team and organizing weekly team meetings. The course staff team is composed of undergraduate course assistants and graduate teaching assistants. The staff team provides support to students via office hours, online discussion forums, and discussion sections, where students work in teams to solve engineering problems. The CoP has greatly benefited students and faculty by facilitating the coordination between courses. This has created standard course policies and languages to reduce student learning barriers. The latest pedagogical innovation endeavors from the CoP are integrating of computational tools and developing of open education resources for introductory mechanics courses. These resources include computational tools, online course reference pages, and a shared project inspired by grand challenges and current engineering events. This work shares the experiences of current CoP members that provide insights into how the community was self-sustaining over the past 10+ years.

Authors

Wayne L Chang University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Wayne Chang is an assistant teaching professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.
Mikayla R Hoyle University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Mikayla R. Hoyle is a PhD student in the Dept. of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering at the University of illinois Urbana-Champaign (UofI) with interests in bone biomechanics. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas. For the past three years, she as been a part of the Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP) team in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at UofI, contributing to advancing undergraduate engineering education.
Melany Denise Opolz University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Melany D. Opolz is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, specializing in equine biomechanics and bone chemistry. She holds a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Cameron University and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For the past two years, she has been a part of the Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP) team in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, contributing to educational advancements in engineering.
Jean-Christophe Raymond-Bertrand University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Jean-Christophe Raymond-Bertrand is an undergraduate student in Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and rising doctoral student at Virginia Tech. His interests are in Operations Research, specifically optimization under uncertainty and Markov decision processes. His current research uses Network Theory and Mixed Integer-Linear Programming (MILP) to determine unintended disparities in the impact of automated traffic law-enforcement on different groups in the city of Chicago.
Nikhil Chandra Admal University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Dr. Admal is a professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics and a Master's in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. His research focuses on multiscale modeling of materials, particularly the mechanics of defects. Dr. Admal has published over 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is actively involved in engineering education, especially in incorporating real-world examples into existing undergraduate courses in Solid Mechanics and in creating connections between different courses.
Dr. Thomas Golecki http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0750-8582 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

I spent 10+ years in industry as an engineer in structural mechanics and structural health monitoring projects, earning professional licensure as PE and SE. My PhD research focused on the structural optimization of dynamic systems including random loading and vehicle-bridge interaction. Now as teaching faculty, I try to connect course concepts to real-world examples in a way that motivates and engages students.
Dr. Kellie M Halloran http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1376-3069 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Kellie Halloran is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She holds a BS, MS, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois and is currently investigating ways to engage undergraduate students and encourage curiosity and creativity in larger engineering classes.
Prof. Shelby Hutchens University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Shelby Hutchens is an associate professor in the Mechanical Science and Engineering department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Oklahoma State University and the California Institute of Technology, respectively. Her research focuses on soft materials mechanics. Her approach to teaching is one of continued growth and improvement, for herself and her students.
Callan Luetkemeyer University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Callan Luetkemeyer is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She received her MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2020 following a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Saint Louis University. From 2020 to 2022, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. She began her tenure-track faculty appointment at UIUC in 2023, where she teaches courses on solid mechanics and conducts research combining nonlinear solid mechanics, imaging, and extracellular matrix biology. In 2020, she received several research awards, including the Schmidt Science Fellowship, the Savio LY Woo Young Researcher Award, and the Ivor K. McIvor Award for Excellence in Applied Mechanics Research. In 2024, she was included in the “List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students” at UIUC.
Dr. Brian Mercer http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2570-0823 University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Brian Mercer is a Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2016 and subsequently worked as a research engineer at the Illinois Applied Research Institute before turning to a career in teaching and education in 2018. His technical expertise lies in computational and theoretical solid mechanics, and he teaches a range of courses in these topics, including introductory solid mechanics, machine component design, computational mechanics, and finite element analysis. Brian’s pedagogical research efforts focus on developing and implementing effective teaching strategies for large lecture courses and increasing student literacy in using computational tools such as Python and to aid in performing calculations and simulations relevant to engineers.
Prof. Matthew West http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7605-0050 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Matthew West is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining Illinois he was on the faculties of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanfo
Prof. Mariana Kersh University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [biography]

Mariana Kersh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Health Innovation Professor in the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, and Director of the Tissue Biomechanics Laboratory. She also serves as co-chair of the Integrative Imaging Theme of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Her research focuses on the use of experimental and computational methods to evaluate the interdependence of mechanical, compositional, structural properties of bone, ligament, and tendon to investigate the progression and treatment of musculoskeletal diseases. Her work has been funded by NSF, NIH, and industry/foundation sponsors. She has received awards from the US and Australian Orthopedic Research Societies and the Beckman Foundation in recognition of her scholarship.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

« View session