2008 ASEE National Award Recipients

Linda Schmidt, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland-College Park, received the 2008 Fred Merryfield Design Award. Schmidt is recognized for teaching and innovations in engineering design and for her impact on design education and research as an active researcher in design theory and methodology.

At the University of Maryland, Schmidt served as director of the Design, Reliability, and Manufacturing Division of the Mechanical Engineering Department for three years. She has served as director of the Design Educational Laboratory since 1998. She has received numerous certificates of appreciation from the American Society for Mechanical Engineers Design Engineering Division. She chaired the 2004 Design Theory and Methodology Conference. Schmidt initiated the graduate course in Engineering Design Methods and is active with special project student design teams. She works with women freshmen and upper-class students in design-related summer projects through the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program and the Research Internships in Science of the Environment (RISE) Program.

Prior to her current position, she served as assistant professor within the department (1995-2001); and Research Assistant in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University (1988-91).

She was PI for a NSF program of a university coalition based at the University of Maryland that developed the BESTEAMS (Building Engineering Student Team Effectiveness and Management Systems) Project. The goal of this project was to create standardized teaching modules on design team effectiveness and management for engineering educators. Over the period 2000-2006 she participated in 16 workshops, mostly at ASEE conferences, for over 200 faculty members. As a result of the BESTEAMS Project she conducts scholarly research to model the engineering student-project team environment to develop better ways for students to work in design teams.

Schmidt lead the effort that resulted in the NSF-funded RISE project which addressed a critical void in the education of women and minorities in STEM fields. The RISE Program was awarded the 2003 Exemplary Program Award from the American College Personnel Association’s Commission for Academic Support for Higher Education.

An active researcher, she participated as one of three co-investigators of an NSF sponsored project Open Workshop on Decision-Based Design (1997-2004). A significant outcome of the workshops is the book Decision Making in Engineering Design (ASME Press, 2006). This is the first graduate level text on decision making in engineering design.

Schmidt has been a member of ASEE since 1997, and is a member of ASME, SME, SWE, and Pi Tau Sigma. She is recipient of a number of awards, including the Outstanding Gemstone Mentor Award (2004); Faculty Service Award (UMd - 2003); Outstanding Advisor for a Student Organization Award (UMd-2002); ASME Student Chapter Best Professor Award (1999-2000); and the Pi Tau Sigma Student Chapter Special Faculty Award (1996-97 and 1997-98). She received her B.S. (1989) and M.S. (1991) degrees in Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University, and her Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering (1995) at Carnegie Mellon University.

The Fred Merryfield Design Award, established in 1981 by CH2M Hill, recognizes an engineering educator for excellence in teaching of engineering design and acknowledges other significant contributions related to engineering design teaching.