Robert J Ribando

About

After purchasing his first home PC in the early 1980’s, Bob soon realized that the education of engineers could never be the same, and resolved to be a leader in that change.  He received plenty of encouragement while teaching regularly in the Commonwealth Graduate Education Program (now Cardinal Education), where by spring 1987 Bob had a live computer demonstration in each of that semester’s 28 sessions.  After seeing the possibilities, he went to work and four years later (1991) had the first technology-equipped classroom in the building.   The computer could be seen live in all classes and not just those limited few originating in the TV studio.  Bob was awarded the Lucien Carr III Chair in Engineering Education, a temporary chair established to recognize and promote the use of technology in instruction.  In 1995-96 he chaired a University-wide task force charged with recommending infrastructure needs and planning faculty development programs.   Out of that effort the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) received continuing funding for a technology classroom cluster that included three hands-on classrooms equipped with a computer for each student or pair of students. 

Also, the University-wide Teaching + Technology Initiative was established as per recommendations, and Bob was selected as one of the first class of fellows supported.   With the support of the TTI, he developed MAE 3140 (Elements of Heat and Mass Transfer) into a “hands-on” class in which students participated in a weekly, active learning session in one of the new computer classrooms.  Later Bob turned MAE 4120 (Air Breathing Propulsion) entirely into an active learning experience, emphasizing modeling and simulation, hypothesis testing, technical data visualization, validation and verification, etc.  Software he developed through these efforts and even after retirement in 2013 is being shared with the wider world at my website and on my YouTube channel.