My scholarly activities are representative of my diverse background and experience, and, consequently, have been focused in three core areas: Bio-inspired Design, Engineering Education, and Mechatronic Systems. I have made significant impacts in the areas of hybrid manufacturing, bio-inspired design, solar energy, and engineering education, which has resulted in published manuscripts, either as conference papers, journal papers, or book chapters, awards, funding, and student opportunities. While I have pursued multiple scholarship areas, they overlap, influence, and, at times, facilitate each other.

Bio-inspired Design

Research on the process and pedagogy of bio-inspired design.

Engineering Education

Research on the pedagogy of teaching engineering.

Mechatronic Systems

Research on manufacturing and control systems.

Current projects:

  1. Exploring the Application of Bio-inspired Design for Sustainable Design:  This project aims to understand the connection between biological forms and functions, and uses additive manufacturing techniques to create nature-inspired designs that reduce material diversity, quantity or waste while still achieving desired functionality.
  2. Understanding Bio-inspired Design in Industry: This project aims to understand how industry professionals perform BID and what tools they value.
  3. Instructional Resources for Teaching Bio-inspired Design:  This project focuses on the development of instructional resources that scaffold the discovery and knowledge transfer processes that support bio-inspired design.
  4. Bio-inspired Climate Adaptable Solar Energy System:  This project focuses on the construction of a fully automated, solar energy system inspired by lichen.  The system regulates the heat and light collected from the sun to maximize the energy efficiency. 
  5. Inspection System for Railroad Safety:  This project focuses on the design and construction of a small autonomous rail cart that uses machine learning to identify and classify rail defects.  The system is meant to supplement the abilities of trained manual inspectors.