Janis Terpenny

Janis Terpenny is a Professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Engineering Education and Mechanical Engineering and is an affiliate faculty in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. She collaborates with industry and community partners in research and in teaching in her roles as Director of the 5-university NSF Center for e-Design, as the Course Coordinator for senior capstone design for Mechanical Engineering with over 280 students enrolled annually, and as a member of the teaching team in Engineering Education of 900+ first-year engineering students. The focus of her Diggs Roundtable was on realism and its power for tapping into students' passion for learning. She described her experiences of how learning and engagement are improved with the use of real problems with real partners and guided attendees in a conversation of how to identify their passion and opportunities for bringing realism into the classroom. She is an Advance Professor and a Dean's Faculty Fellow in the College of Engineering. Her research in engineering design and design education has been supported by numerous grants from NSF and industry.