Ken Jansen, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, and Mechanics, has been nominated for the Poly Person of the Year.
Jansen’s classes include Introduction to Engineering Analysis and some graduate-level courses in fluid dynamics. Additionally, he holds joint appointments in computer science and information technology here at Rensselaer.
Jansen is also involved in the student orientation and advising. He has an active role in the faculty intervention program and is on the Faculty Senate. His past experiences include being a research assistant and having a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University.
Jansen is impressed by how hard RPI students work. He appreciates the fact that the students here "want a good education and are striving to learn."
Jansen also says that he acknowledges that the students who come into his classes come from very different backgrounds. For instance, some have taken two years of physics in high school and some have not taken any. He tries to work with that and give everyone in his class a level playing field by starting with the basics.
Jansen also notices that when the tests he gives become more difficult as the semester progresses, students try harder and harder to get the A. They take it as a challenge and it helps motivate them to excel in the field of engineering. He enjoys the work he does in Undergraduate Research Projects as well.
Jansen noted that what makes Rensselaer so unique is that they allow professors to have "a great balance between teaching and research," unlike other schools that focus too greatly on one or the other.
As far as educational background, Jansen received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from University of Missouri-Columbia in 1987, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1988, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 1993. He has also earned many honors and awards, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award on February 1, 2000, and the R.H. Gallagher Young Investigator Award from the United States Association of Computational Mechanics for 2001. He was also a Scientific Committee Member for the First and Second AFOSR International Conference on Direct Numerical Simulation and Large Eddy Simulation in 1997 and 1999.
Keep an eye out in The Poly for details if you are interested in voting for Jansen.
