Assistant Professor Michelle Blum was honored by the Technology Alliance of Central New York (TACNY) as the organization’s College Educator of the Year at the 18th Celebration of Technology awards banquet in March.
Associate Dean Julie Hasenwinkel and Assistant Professor Michelle Blum at the 2017 TACNY Awards.
Blum joined the College of Engineering and Computer Science in 2012 and has taught a wide range of classes, including the senior design courses in mechanical engineering. She also serves as the program director for mechanical engineering. Blum has consistently worked to find new ways to actively engage her classes. Students have praised her student-centered group-learning approach in course evaluations and find it improves the effectiveness of their learning.
“Professor Blum is very deserving of this award based on my observations of her student-centered approach to teaching and mentoring, her commitment to academic excellence through inclusion, and her enthusiastic attitude, compassion and teamwork,” says Julie Hasenwinkel, the college’s associate dean for academic and student affairs.
Blum has also worked to help promote the education and advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. She served as an instructor for a one-week summer camp on biomedical engineering for eighth-grade girls hosted on campus.
In her research, Blum specializes in high-performance materials development and characterization for tribological (friction and wear), structural and biomedical applications. Her primary research interests are in the development of orthopedic biomaterials and biomaterial characterization utilizing a combination of experimental techniques, nanoindentation and computational modeling.
This is the second year in a row that a College of Engineering and Computer Science faculty member was named TACNY’s College Educator of the Year. In 2016, Assistant Professor Shikha Nangia won the award.
