Mary Kasarda

Mary Kasarda is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech. Her research has included work in magnetic bearing, rotor dynamics, health monitoring, and engineering education topics. She has six years of professional engineering experience, and her background is in various aspects of turbomachinery engineering. She is the 2010-11 chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Committee on Engineering Accreditation (CEA). In 2003-2004, she acted as an education consultant through Virginia Tech to Sweet Briar College to help facilitate a new engineering program at this all-women liberal arts college. She is currently working with Dr. Brenda Brand in the VT Department of Science Education on a partnership involving two VT mechanical engineering courses to support a high-school robotics course, including the FIRST robotics competition, in the local Montgomery Public School System. She is conducting research to identify components of engineering and pre-engineering programs that are successfully retaining and graduating women in an effort to replicate these components in other engineering programs.