Mechanical Engineering PhD with Teaching and Industry Experience

Ricardo D.

I am a Mechanical Engineering PhD, graduating with honors from Stevens Institute of Technology (B.E., 2005, 3.7 GPA), Rochester Institute of Technology (M.E., 2010, 3.9 GPA), and Rutgers University (PhD, 2018, 4.0 GPA). I specialize in Heat Transfer, but have a broad range of knowledge in Mathematics, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Physics, CAD/FEA, Microsoft Excel, and Matlab.

I gained classroom teaching experience as a TA during my Ph.D. studies, teaching an introductory CAD/SolidWorks course for 7 semesters (3.5 yrs). I have also done one-on-one tutoring with undergraduate and graduate students (largely in the subjects of Engineering Mathematics and Heat Transfer), and feel comfortable teaching at or below graduate-level topics. In work settings I have acted as a Modeling & Simulation SME, providing one-on-one mentoring for coworkers in the use of Matlab/Simscape (for multi-physics systems modeling) and FEA software (Ansys) as well as running educational workshops in said subjects. Finally, I have 2 middle school-aged children (11 & 13) and often assist/provide them with mathematical instruction as needed for school work or when they are curious about more advanced topics.

I have always preferred one-on-one teaching/tutoring, and try to get students to understand underlying theory through the use of instructive (preferably real-world and/or visual) examples. As opposed to dumping procedures for solving problems all at once I prefer to work more incrementally, asking students bite-size questions along the way to get them to understand why they are doing things before arriving at a final answer.