High School and College Tutor Specializing in Engineering

Peyton D.

Calculus

I hold a B.S. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, where calculus was the working language of nearly every course I took, from thermodynamics and reaction kinetics to mechanics of materials. I have spent the years since applying it professionally: modeling fuel cell systems with computational fluid dynamics in Python, designing precipitation reactions for battery cathode production, and building mass and energy balances for chemical process scale-up. That means I can answer the question most students actually have, which is not just how to take a derivative but why anyone would want one. My approach is to tie each concept to something physical you can picture, then drill the mechanics until the algebra stops being the hard part.

Chemical Engineering

My degree is in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, where my coursework was chemical process engineering in practice: thermodynamics, transport phenomena, reaction kinetics, chemical processing of materials, and statistical process control. I have since run those fundamentals in industry, building mass and energy balances for production scale-up, designing precipitation reactions for battery cathode manufacturing, and working a mixed-hydroxide precipitation pilot plant through oxidation, neutralization, counter-current decantation, and filtration circuits. I have tutored math and science since high school and spent my time at Nucor Steel training new metallurgists, so I am used to walking someone through a unit operation they have never seen before. I am strongest on balances, thermodynamics, transport, kinetics, and separations, and I will tell you up front if a question falls outside what I can teach well.

Mechanical Engineering

I hold a B.S. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, which shares its foundation with the mechanical engineering curriculum: statics, mechanics of materials, physics, calculus through differential equations, transport phenomena, and design in SolidWorks. My strength within mechanical engineering is the materials side, where I did both my degree work and my career: mechanical properties and testing (tensile, hardness, fatigue, fracture, creep), failure analysis, and materials selection. I worked as a metallurgist at Nucor Steel qualifying new steel grades for automotive manufacturers and running performance trials on high-strength steel, and I trained the incoming metallurgists there, so explaining why a part failed is something I have done for a paycheck. I tutor statics, mechanics of materials, materials science, and mechanical properties; for thermodynamic cycles, controls, or machine design I would point you to someone else.

Python

I taught myself Python on the job as a process engineer, where I built an automation tool for SEM image analysis that cut the work in half and gave my team back five hours a week. Since then I have used it professionally for data pipelines, API integrations, and machine learning models on production process data, and I currently maintain a Python service running against live customer data at the SaaS company I co-founded. I scored 100% on Wyzant's Python assessment. I have tutored math and science since high school and trained new engineers at Nucor Steel, and I teach Python the way I learned it: start with something you actually want to build, then pick up the syntax the problem demands.

Solidworks

I have used SolidWorks since my engineering coursework at the Colorado School of Mines, including a Design II project where I modeled a gearing system for an automated composting bin and a senior design project synthesizing nanoparticles, which meant translating a working idea into parts that could actually be manufactured. My background is metallurgical and materials engineering, so I bring a materials perspective to CAD: why a part fails, which manufacturing process a design assumes, and how tolerance and material choice interact. I also weld, solder, and fabricate, so I can tell you when a model will be a problem to actually build. I tutor sketching, part modeling, assemblies, mates, and drawings, and I am happy to work through your own project rather than generic exercises.