Building Engineers and Mentors: A Model for Student-Led Engineering Outreach

Professor Lisa Pruitt has been on the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley since 1998. Her research is focused on structureproperty relationships in orthopedic tissues, biomaterials and medical polymers. Her current projects include the assessment of fatigue fracture mechanisms and tribological performance of orthopedic biomaterials, as well as characterization of tissues and associated devices. Attention is focused on wear, fatigue, fracture and multiaxial loading. Retrievals of orthopedic implants are characterized to model in vivo degradation and physiological loading. She uses medical implant analysis for structure-function-performance is performed to optimize device design. BAFM, confocal microscopy, wear testing, fatigue testing, fracture mechanics analysis, and nanoindentation. Teaching experience includes the freshman course entitled Introduction to Engineering Design and Analysis, undergraduate courses on Mechanical Behavior Materials, Structural Aspects of Biomaterials, and Principles of Bioengineering; graduate courses on Fracture Mechanics, Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Polymer Engineering, and Teaching Methodologies for Graduate Student Instructors.