Michigan Technological University mechanical engineering professor Sheryl Sorby has been recognized with a national education award.
The American Society for Engineering Education has given Sorby its 2011 Sharon Keillor Award, which honors women who are making outstanding contributions to the field of engineering education.
Sorby was honored in part for her research on three-dimensional visualization skills, and colleagues at Michigan Tech heaped on the accolades with comments regarding her contributions to the school; her coworkers were the nominators for the award.
"I'm very gratified to receive this award and appreciate the efforts of Michigan Tech colleagues," Sorby says. "Things have changed for women in engineering since I started down this path--they aren't perfect, but it has gotten better. My two daughters are studying engineering. Hopefully the environment for them is better than it was for me."
She is the director of the Engineering Education Innovation Research Group at the Houghton university, which helps prepare both college and younger students for careers in engineering. On the research side, she's worked on advanced composite materials and 3D computer graphics visualizing complex behaviors.
Sorby's contributions to engineering education at Michigan Tech are far from at an end. Her current National Science Foundation-funded project is to develop a curriculum in service systems engineering at the school. The specialty incorporates people and human behavior and focuses more on processes than on products, looking at customer interactions with services like transportation, hospitality and food, utilities, financial and security, as well as health care and social services.
Writer: Sam EgglestonSource: Sheryl Sorby, Michigan Technological University
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.