University of St. Thomas

Career:

AnnMarie's focus is on the design process and preparing undergraduates to create solutions to challenging design problems.  She has worked on projects associated with underwater robots (as a student at MIT and Caltech, and at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) with an emphasis on propulsion methods.  She has been involved with many biologically inspired design projects, and helped develop courses on this topic at both MIT and the Art Center College of Design.  AnnMarie is a strong supporter of undergraduate research and supervised over 10 undergraduate researchers while working on her doctorate at Caltech. 

Prior to starting at UST, AnnMarie was on the faculty of the Art Center College of Design for two years, teaching classes on robotics and biologically inspired design.  She has consulted on projects ranging from a book on earthquake preparedness in Los Angeles to the creation of an automated giant xylophone that can play music from seismological data.  She has lectured widely on the synergy between Art and Design, for both public audiences and at colleges.  AnnMarie is very active in educational outreach and has designed and taught robotics courses and workshops for middle school and high school children.  She founded the Caltech Robotics Outreach Program as well as an annual Caltech/JPL robotics conference for middle school students and teachers.

Courses:

            Machine Design and Synthesis (ENGR 320)

            Engineering Graphics (ENGR 171)

            Senior Design (ENGR 480)

Education:

            S.B.  2001,   Ocean Engineering (minor: Music), M.I.T.

            M.S.  2002,   Mechanical Engineering, Caltech

            Ph.D. 2006,   Mechanical Engineering, Caltech