David Wallace Honored by ASME for Furthering Engineering Design Education

NEW YORK, Aug. 9, 2012 – David Wallace, Ph.D., a resident of Lexington, Mass., and professor of mechanical engineering and MacVicar faculty fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, will be honored by ASME.  He is being recognized for setting a national example by transforming a mechanical engineering senior design course into one of the most respected and exciting educational activities on MIT’s campus through the artful and intelligent blending of digital media, hands-on experiences, analysis, aesthetic design and multidisciplinary mentoring.  He will receive the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award.

The award, established in 1998, recognizes a person who exemplifies the best in furthering engineering design education through vision, interactions with students and industry, scholarship and impact on the next generation of engineers, and a person whose action serves as a role model for other educators to emulate.  It will be presented to Dr. Wallace during the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences to be held in Chicago, Aug. 12 through 15.

Wallace joined the faculty at MIT in 1994.  His goal is to provide students with an understanding of creative processes and design techniques that will help them to innovate more reliably.  Wallace teaches the senior mechanical engineering design class 2.009 Product Engineering Processes; featured in the May 2012 issue of Technology Review, which focuses on innovative product development; the graduate class 2.744 Product Design, which focuses on user-centric design; and the freshman design class 2.00b, Toy Product Design, which provides incoming students—nearly one-tenth of incoming freshman take this elective—with a motivating and confidence-building introduction to product design.

An overarching philosophy that guides Wallace’s approach to teaching is the importance of both what and how one teaches, and he fully embraces active learning concepts.  For example, the senior course, 2.009, is framed as an immersive story that transports students through the process of identifying opportunities and developing new products—ending with a prototype launch that is attended by nearly 1,200 guests from industry and academia.

Wallace has a history of pioneering new educational approaches, ranging from early quantitative experiments on the use of new media in the classroom to a television program intended to inspire youths to pursue science and engineering careers.  He was a content director and animation designer for the Peabody Award-winning (2008) program “Design Squad.”

He is the author/co-author of nearly 100 publications and holds four patents.

An ASME member, Wallace is a regular participant in the International Design Engineering Technical conferences.  He received an IBM Best Paper Award (1998) from the Design for Manufacturing Committee of the Society’s Design Engineering Division for a co-authored paper titled Integrating Environmental Impact Assessment Into Product Design.

Wallace received bachelor’s degrees in engineering and in industrial design at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) in 1986 and 1989, respectively.  He earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at MIT in 1991 and 1994, respectively.

About ASME ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.