Learning is a contact sport.



Specialization

At the undergraduate level, I teach mostly engineering science courses in the areas of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.

Place in curriculum

These topics are among the core areas in any Mechanical or Aerospace curriculum. In conjunction with heat transfer, they constitute the basis for such applications as heat exchangers, air conditioning, aerodynamics, turbomachinery, pipe flows, energy conversion, and others. All these courses require a good command of calculus, and are eventually integrated into significant areas of engineering design.

My approach

I believe in being available for one-on-one and small-group teaching. I set three objectives in each of these courses:

--- Have the students use and develop fundamental analytical skills in the specific context of the course.

--- Develop the ability to combine these analytical skills with qualitative (graphical) thinking. The student should establish connections between the physical system at hand, the equations that enable us to calculate relevant properties, and the qualitative trends in the system's performance.

--- Integrate this knowledge with other courses and with common sense. This is accomplished in small group design projects, where some real-world skills can be learned and practiced.



Experience

At one point or another, I have taught the following courses:
o MEE 341 : Fluid Mechanics I
o MEE 342 : Fluid Mechanics II
o AEE 342 : Aerodynamics
o MEE 351 : Thermodynamics
o MEE 352 : Power and Refrigeration
o MEE 355 : Heat Transfer
o MEE 651 : Thermodynamics
o MEE 643 : Fluid Dynamics
o MEE 657 : Convective Heat Transfer
o MEE 741 : Turbulence
o MEE 746 : Viscous Flows
o MEE 849 : Special Topics in Fluid Mechanics

Jacques Lewalle, jlewalle@syr.edu