Mechanics courses tend to provide engineering students with a precise, mathematical, but less than engaging experience. Students often view the traditional approach as a mysterious body of facts and "tricks" that allow idealized cases to be solved. When confronted with more realistic systems, they are often at a loss as to how to proceed. To address this issue, this course empowers students to tackle meaningful problems at an early stage in their studies. Engineering Mechanics: Statics, First Edition begins with a readable overview of the concepts of mechanics. Important equations are introduced, but the emphasis is on developing a "feel" for forces and moments, and for how loads are transferred through structures and machines. From that foundation, the course helps lay a motivational framework for students to build their skills in solving engineering problems.
About the Author: Sheri D. Sheppard, Ph.D., is the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Senior Scholar principally responsible for the Preparations for the Professions Program (PPP) engineering study. She is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1985. Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design-related classes at Stanford University, she conducts research on weld fatigue and impact failures, fracture mechanics, and applied finite element analysis.
Dr. Sheppard was recently named co-principal investigator on a NSF grant to form the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), along with faculty at the University of Washington, Colorado School of Mines, and Howard University. She was co-principal investigator with Professor Larry Leifer on a multi-university NSF grant that was critically looking at engineering undergraduate curriculum (Synthesis). In 1999, Sheri was named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Recently Sheri was awarded the 20 04 ASEE Chester F. Carlson Award in recognition of distinguished accomplishments in engineering education. Before coming to Stanford University, she held several positions in the automotive industry, including senior research engineering at Ford Motor Company's Scientific Research Lab. She also worked as a design consultant, providing companies with structural analysis expertise.
Thalia Anagnos, Ph.D., is the Associate Vice President for Graduate and Undergraduate Programs at San Jose State University. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in mechanics, structural analysis nd design, probability and reliability, and technical writing. She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University and has focused much of her research on seismic hazard mitigation. Most recently she was involved in a multi-university study of older nonductile concrete buildings that are vulnerable to collapse in earthquakes. She is the Past-President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and served as the co-Leader of Education, Outreach, and Training for the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation from 2009 to 2014. She was named as San Jose State's Outstanding Professor in 2011 and received the College of Engineering Applied Materials Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2013.
Sarah L. Billington, Ph.D., is professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford University where she is a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Milligan Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. She teaches undergraduate and graduate design, as well as analysis and materials related classes, and her research focuses on durable and sustainable materials for the built environment. Sarah served as Associate Chair of her Department from 2009-2015. She is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute and has served on the Board of Directors for the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES Inc., 2006-2009) and the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC, 2012-2014). Prior to joining Stanford's faculty she was Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Cornell University from 1997 to 2002. She completed her M.S. and Ph.D. at The University of Texas at Austin and her undergraduate degree was from Princeton University.
