Teaching

Here are some classes that Sarah teaches – for detailed course catalog and class schedules, please see the Smith College course catalog page.

EGR100: Engineering for Everyone

EGR 100 serves as an accessible course for all students, regardless of background or intent to major in engineering. Engineering majors are required to take this course for the major. Those students considering majoring in engineering are strongly encouraged to take EGR 100 during their first year. Students develop a sound understanding of the engineering design process, including problem definition, background research, identification of design criteria, development of metrics and methods for evaluating alternative designs, prototype development, and proof of concept testing. Working in teams, students present their ideas through oral and written reports. Reading assignments and in class discussions challenge students to critically analyze contemporary issues related to the interaction of technology and society.

EGR110: Fundamental Engineering Principles

The design and analysis of engineered or natural systems and processes relies on a command of fundamental scientific and engineering principles. This course provides an introduction to these fundamental underpinnings through a study of the conservation of mass, energy and charge in both steady and transient conditions with non-reactive systems. Specific topics covered include a review of process variables and their relationships, open and closed systems, differential and integral balances, and basic thermodynamics.

EGR350: Engineering and Cancer

The understanding, diagnosis and treatment of human disease all increasingly rely on contributions from engineering. In this course, we study some of the ways in which engineering is contributing to the study and clinical management of cancer. Students gain an understanding of the molecular, cellular and genetic basis of cancer, and use that perspective to consider ways that engineering approaches have been and can be used to study and treat cancer.

EGR351: Introduction to Biomedical Engineering

There are countless challenges in medicine that engineering can help to address, from the molecular scale to the level of the entire human body. This course introduces students to engineering problem solving approaches to explore important biomedical questions. We integrate our learning of underlying biological systems with developing engineering thinking to examine those systems. We use mathematical tools to interpret and model the behavior of various biological phenomena. Upon completion of this course, students are able to identify open medical needs and propose ways in which engineering can contribute to understanding and meeting those needs.