Kazmer Teaching

Teaching Mission

“To enable UML graduates to utilize design and manufacturing knowledge in a successful, life-long career.”

Current Course Offerings

Teaching Strategy

My teaching mission is to enable UML graduates to utilize design and manufacturing knowledge in a successful, life-long career. This mission is motivated by the remarkable development in labor markets outside the United States. Increasing fluidity of money, information, human resources, and physical goods are all lowering barriers to development and utilization of professional labor markets abroad. I strive to understand the fundamental drivers behind global engineering trends, and provide mechanisms for assisting past, current, and external students to succeed in this competitive and dynamic environment.

Each course offering is evidence of a continued commitment to teaching and learning. With regards to pedagogy, I have investigated multiple forms of delivery including but not limited to traditional chalkboard lectures, overhead PowerPoint presentations, group work, projects, cases, and others. My objective in these pedagogical experiments is to motivate active learning on the part of students such that they learn how to approach realistic open ended problems, ask the right questions, and develop appropriate engineering solutions.

Currently, my favored teaching method uses PowerPoint slides at the onset of a session to frame the problem and engage the students followed by traditional written notes with just in time delivery of content. Core course concepts are emphasized and tested via redundant exposure through 1) written notes delivered in lecture, 2) structured homework assignments, 3) unstructured projects and/or cases, 4) unannounced but informal quizzes, and 5) scheduled and methodical exams. It is my belief that this approach allows the students to develop skills in a low stakes environment with continuous feedback and increased self-awareness. Extensive use of the web provides students access to all PowerPoint slides, assignments, solutions, and project support.

Course content is selected and created based on my assessment of the capabilities and educational needs of the students. It is my objective to truly educate or “bring out” the human potential in the students while ensuring adequate training in current engineering techniques; engineers must graduate with a full understanding of the fundamentals of why things work in addition to how things work (separating the engineer from the technician). I also fully support the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology’s requirements that engineers must possess knowledge of contemporary issues and an ability to engage in life-long learning.

Teaching Related Publications

D. Kazmer, “Domain-Centric Design Education,” ASME IDETC 10th Design for Manufacturing Conference, 2005.
Kazmer, D., "Declaring an Engineering Major: By Choice or By Chance?," American Society of Engineering Education New England Section 2004 Annual Conference, April 2-3, 2004.
Kazmer, D., S. Orroth, N. Schott (2003), “Future Directions for Plastics Engineering Education”, Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference: Injection Molding Division, Nashville, TN. Read paper.
Kazmer, D. O., “On the Divergence of Case Studies and Hardware Prototypes in Active Learning,” 1998 American Society of Engineering Education Northeast Regional Meeting. Read paper.
Kazmer, D., “Competing in the 21st Century,” Plastics Institute of America Quarterly Meeting, Lowell, MA, February, 2004.
D. Kazmer, "Interactive Learning: Simulating The Design Process," Symposium on Manufacturing Education, Stanford University, 2000.
D. Kazmer, “Trends in the Plastics Industry: Product Development Paradigms and Impact on Human Resources,” Society of Manufacturing Engineers Plastics Molding & Manufacturing Annual Trends Report, 2000.
Kazmer, D. O., “Commanding the Technical Frontier: Engineering Education for the 21st Century,” 50th Anniversary Celebration of the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Engineering, 1998.
Kazmer, D. O., “Reflection on Teaching and Learning,” speech to University of Massachusetts’ Celebration of Teaching and Learning, March 25, 1999.
Some thoughts on pedagogy
Some thoughts on the future of engineering careers