(Fairly old winter picture; beard---much grayer now---off for summer!)
My teaching interests are in the areas of things that move, preferably under computer control. Robotics, dynamics, dynamic systems and control, microcontrollers, etc. I got into Mechanical Engineering from a misspent youth (not really :-) of dirt bikes, go-karts, dune buggies, and the like, all of which move. If it doesn't move, that's civil engineering...
The table below summarizes a few of the courses within the UNM Department of Mechanical Engineering with which I am involved. Both undergraduate and graduate courses are listed.
| Course Number | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ME 314 | Design of Machinery | The title of this course is wrong---it should be "Dynamics of Machinery." We don't really do much design here, rather we study the motions and forces of mechanisms: linkages, cams, gears, etc. I'm teaching this again after 25 years---the use of the CAD package ADAMS has really helped, IMHO. |
| ME 357 | Intro. to Mechanical Vibrations | Free and forced vibrations of one and two degrees of freedom systems for both steady state and transient forcing. Also vibrations of selected continuous systems and balancing. I try to do some good demos in this course, it's amazing what you can do with the rubber bands and lead weights! |
| ME 380 | Analysis and Design of Mechanical Control Systems | System dynamics and modeling; transfer functions; feedback and stability; transient and steady-state response; root locus and frequency response methods. I try to get in some state-space modeling and design too, but this is not the main focus. We usually have a realistic final project that involves modeling, controller design, and simulation. |
| ME 416/516 | Intermediate/Applied Dynamics | This is an analytical course covering some Newton-Euler dynamics, but focuses more on the Lagrangian formulation, which stems from variational methods. I try to assign projects that are realistic and require simulations to illustrate the resulting motion. |
| ME 470/570 | Microprocessors in Mechanical Systems | This is a course on the basics of microcontrollers and interfacing them to simple mechanical systems. We still use the venerable 68HC11 here, and still program in asssembler language! Hey, it's still the best way to learn the architecture and operation...how else can you learn addressing modes, for example? |
| ME 487/587 | LEGO Robots | This course is fully described on my Lego Robot page. Go there to learn more about the best course in the Department :-) |
| ME 480/580 | Linear Dynamic Systems | This is our higher level control course, for people who really get into it. A little more mathematical, including more state space material; controllability; observability; stability. |
| ME 481/581 | Digital Control of Mechanical Systems | This is one of my favorite courses. Analysis and design of systems using digital computers in the real-time control of dynamic processes. Design methods include classical techniques using the Z-transform and modern techniques based on state space. Great midterm and final projects, and a memorable aliasing demo! We always have a final project in which students must identify a plant model from experimental data, design both a transform-based and state-space controller, and evaluate them on actual hardware. |
| ME 482/582 | Robot Engineering | While this is primarily an analytical course covering kinematics, dynamics, trajectory generation and control, I do include several demos of kinematics, trajectories, force control, etc. Lots of programming of the kinematics, dynamics, and control of a planar three-link robot, since that's more tractable than with more degrees-of-freedom. |
If you're interested, send me some mail at starr@unm.edu