Robert Michael Sorem
- Director of Undergraduate Studies
- Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
- Associate Professor/Executive Associate Chair
Contact Info
Education —
Research —
Engineering Education. New teaching strategies and programs with an emphasis on freshmen retention and graduation rates. Control and stability of electric vehicles. Experimental and computational mechanics. Development of new techniques in the finite element method, such as composite materials, singular problems, geometrically nonlinear and material nonlinear problems. Experimental verification of new techniques. Application of the finite element world to design problems. Special emphasis on composite materials including environmental degradation on material properties and prediction of material properties for honeycomb core material.
Research interests:
- composite materials
- finite element analysis
- vehicle dynamics
- computational mechanics
- control strategies of electric vehicles
Teaching —
I do not have one mode of teaching that I force across the board. I firmly believe in experiential learning as a basis for education.
I teach Mechanics of Materials in a mixed setting where I lecture on theory, with examples, for approximately 1/2 the class period and students work in formal small groups the other 1/2. Students are required to submit homework every class period. All my notes, solutions and example problems are available online. I believe this works well for this class as evidenced by student learning and evaluations.
In the Finite Element Method, my lecture is dedicated to theory with supporting examples. It is a very mathematically-oriented class in which many engineering students struggle. 1/3 of the grade is a analysis lab in which students use MSC Patran/Nastran to solve problems. I am working on an online textbook for the class.
For Vehicle Design/Capstone I focus on preparing the students for real-world work as design/manufacturing/test engineers. Students are required to document all aspects of the their design including analysis. All design files are maintained through software and are cloud-based.
Teaching interests:
- composite materials
- finite element analysis
- vehicle dynamics
- mechanics of materials