Before
Teaching philosophy | Reflecting on my years of learning, teaching, and conducting research, I realize that my knowledge of fundamentals and applications have mutually strengthened each other. In both my research and courses, experiences in diverse fields have allowed me to approach challenging problems from multiple perspectives. Consequently, I believe that one of the most important roles of a successful teacher is to help students connect the subject matter to the world beyond the problem.
Teaching at Northwestern | Right after joining Northwestern, I developed a new graduate course called Fracture of Soft Materials and offered it in 2023 Fall. I designed this course to empower students to understand and engineer soft materials by integrating solid mechanics, polymer physics, and material science. In this course, I review sequential milestone papers in the 100-year history of fracture mechanics in which different fields have been combined. Students learn theories as well as the synthesis and characterization of soft materials by solving problem sets. The focus of problem sets is to materialize the scientific concepts they learned. At the final, the students take one-on-one oral exams, where they explain the concepts and how to solve problems. I ask a few questions on potentially confusing concepts to evaluate the level of understanding.
One coherent feedback was that there was too much content. In the 2024-2025 academic year, I will divide the course into two: Elasticity of Soft Materials (2024 Fall) and Fracture of Soft Materials (2025 Winter), and I will spend more time discussing the subject with students in each course.
Starting the 2025-2026 academic year, I plan to teach undergraduate-level thermodynamics in addition to the graduate courses. Both elasticity and fracture of soft materials are largely based on thermodynamics so teaching thermodynamics will naturally and significantly benefit both research and teaching. The curriculum connecting thermodynamics, elasticity, and fracture will provide an essential education for students interested in emerging soft technology.
Long-term teaching goals | I have three long-term goals regarding teaching.
1) Reinvent the undergraduate-level thermodynamics education for Mechanical Engineering students
Traditional thermodynamics education was developed in the 1980s when engines and turbines were leading technologies in Mechanical Engineering. Now, the performance of these applications has almost reached the theoretical limit. Meanwhile, other topics in Mechanical Engineering requiring thermodynamics, such as soft mechanics, energy devices, and medical devices, have emerged. Traditional thermodynamics education is missing many key subjects for these new areas.
2) Make fracture mechanics accessible to undergraduate students
Fracture is an essential subject in making materials sustainable, which is one of the grand challenges in our society. However, the fracture has been limitedly taught in high-level graduate courses, although it requires thermodynamics and introductory-level solid mechanics.
3) Develop an interdisciplinary course on the fracture of soft materials.
To research soft materials, one should learn subjects from various fields such as solid mechanics, fracture mechanics, polymer physics, polymer chemistry, and manufacturing. The interplay between theory and experiment is leading the field, so they are supposed to be taught.
Expectations for the Searle Fellow | To achieve my long-term goals, I would like to hone my teaching philosophy and learn technical skills for course development and efficient teaching. Advice and mentoring from education experts and faculty who have been teaching similar topics for a long time would be greatly valuable to develop a new and creative curriculum in the field of soft materials. With support from the Searle Center, I would like to invest my time and efforts to establish a clear direction for my teaching journey.
Project idea | I propose project ideas as below, considering my long-term goals in teaching.
1) Reinvent the undergraduate-level thermodynamics education for Mechanical Engineering students
Stage 1: Review three MECH_ENG 222 courses: Thermodynamics & Statistical Mechanics – I, II, and III.
Stage 2: Survey ME faculty on what thermodynamic concepts are missing in the traditional curriculum.
Stage 3: Propose a revision.
2) Make fracture mechanics accessible to undergraduate students
Stage 1: Identify prerequisite to teach basics of fracture mechanics.
Stage 2: Identify students across the disciplines who will be interested in studying fracture.
Stage 3: Develop an introductory fracture mechanics course targeting juniors and seniors.
3) Develop an interdisciplinary course on the fracture of soft materials.
Stage 1: Expand the existing problem sets to include material science and chemistry aspects.
Stage 2: Develop experimental sections that are essential to characterize the fracture of soft materials.
Stage 3: Clarify the connection between theories and experiments.
After
Teaching philosophy | Engineering is the process of solving problems through science. Science allows for a rational approach to engineering problems and facilitates effective communication among engineers and scientists. Engineering education can be structured to practice this process. Students learn engineering by understanding scientific concepts that provide essential background knowledge and applying them to real-world problems. Throughout the curriculum, engineering skills from various courses accumulate, enabling students to develop a comprehensive skill set for problem-solving.
Reflecting on my years of learning, teaching, and conducting research, I realize that many challenging problems require knowledge from various classes from diverse fields. The problems we face outside the classroom are not controlled systems designed for education but often involve multiple interconnected phenomena. Discovery and breakthroughs often happen when the system is viewed through an interdisciplinary framework.
I believe that one of the most important roles of a successful teacher is to prepare students to connect fragmented knowledge from various classes to tackle complex engineering problems. Toward this, I emphasize a solid understanding of scientific concepts. New knowledge can link to existing knowledge when the underlying scientific principles are shared, creating a cohesive yet comprehensive framework for problem-solving. With this approach, students will be able to maximize their learning when addressing real-world problems.
Teaching at Northwestern | At Northwestern, I developed a new graduate course called Fracture of Soft Materials and offered it in the 2023-2024 Fall and 2024-2025 Winter. I designed this course to empower students to understand and engineer soft materials by integrating solid mechanics, polymer physics, and materials science. In this course, I review sequential milestone papers from the 100-year history of fracture mechanics. This review highlights how the theories evolve through interdisciplinary approaches and suggests that this is not a complete story, where the students can contribute to the next chapter. Additionally, students learn about the synthesis and characterization of soft materials by solving problem sets. The focus of the problem sets is to materialize the scientific concepts they learned. Also, I often bring an open question to the class, allowing students to practice utilizing the concepts they have learned. Since there is no definitive answer, students can express their views without fear of being wrong. To foster intellectual curiosity, I frequently facilitate discussions among students about the questions they pose. During the final assessment, students participate in one-on-one oral exams, explaining concepts and problem-solving approaches. I ask a few questions about potentially confusing concepts to evaluate their level of understanding.
I also offered an undergraduate-level thermodynamics class in the 2024-2025 Winter. Traditional thermodynamics education was developed in the 1980s, when engines and turbines were the leading technologies in Mechanical Engineering. Now, the performance of these applications has nearly reached their theoretical limits. Meanwhile, other topics in Mechanical Engineering that require thermodynamics, such as soft mechanics, energy devices, and medical devices, have emerged. Traditional thermodynamics education lacks many key subjects for these new areas. To accommodate this transition, I emphasize the fundamental aspects of thermodynamics more than specific traditional applications, allowing students to quickly learn emerging technology as needed. I especially teach various concepts in this class using a single principle: entropy. This coherent approach to explaining different thermodynamic systems will help students understand the scientific background deeply, building a solid foundation for the next advanced courses, including the Fracture of Soft Materials.