Richard Whalen
Director & Teaching Professor, First Year Engineering Program
Research Focus
Engineering Education, Evidence-Based Teaching, Pedagogy, Assessment, Thermo-fluids Engineering, Microscale Heat Transfer, Numerical Modeling of Laser Welding of Plastics, Thermal Effects in Nonlinear Optical Material
Education
- PhD (1999), Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University
- MS (1992), Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University
- BS (1989), Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University
Honors & Awards
- Northeastern University, College Of Engineering Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Engineering Students Award, 2016.
- First-year Programs Division ASEE, Distinguished Service Award, 2014.
- Northeastern University, College Of Engineering Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Engineering Students Award, 2014.
- Best Paper Presentation(coauthor) –First-year Programs Division, 2014 ASEE, Indianapolis, IN, 2014.
- Northeastern University, College Of Engineering Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Engineering Students Award, 2012.
- Best Paper Presentation(coauthor) –First-year Programs Division, 2012 ASEE, San Antonio, TX, 2012.
- Best Paper Presentation(coauthor) –First-year Programs Division, 2011 ASEE, Vancouver, Canada, 2011.
- Best Paper Professional Interest Council Division 3(coauthor), 2011 ASEE, Vancouver, Canada, 2011.
- Best Paper Award First-year Programs Division(coauthor), 2011 ASEE, Vancouver, Canada, 2011.
- Best Overall Conference Paper(coauthor), 2010 ASEE, Louisville, Kentucky, 2010.
- Best Paper Professional Interest Council Division 3(coauthor), 2010 ASEE, Louisville, Kentucky, 2010.
- Second Place Best Paper Award First-year Programs Division(coauthor), 2010 ASEE, Louisville, Kentucky, 2010.
- Best Paper Presentation(coauthor) –First-year Programs Division, 2010 ASEE, Louisville, Kentucky, 2010.
- Best Paper – Freshman Division(coauthor), 2007 ASEE, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2007.
- Best Paper Presentation(coauthor) – Freshman Division, 2007 ASEE, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2007.
- Northeastern University, College Of Engineering Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Engineering Students Award, 2006.
- Best Paper Presentation(coauthor) – Freshman Division, 2005 ASEE, Portland, Oregon, 2005.
- Northeastern University, College Of Engineering Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Engineering Students Award, 2004.
- Northeastern University, The Lowell Institute School Excellence in Teaching Award, 2004.
Teaching Interests
- Cornerstone of Engineering
- Engineering and Design
- Problem Solving and Applications
- Thermodynamics
- Heat Transfer
- Fluid Mechanics
- Engineering Mechanics
Professional Affiliations
- The American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE)
- The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
- Airplane Pilots and Owners Association (APOA)
- Scuba Divers International (SDI)
Research Overview
Engineering Education, Evidence-Based Teaching, Pedagogy, Assessment, Thermo-fluids Engineering, Microscale Heat Transfer, Numerical Modeling of Laser Welding of Plastics, Thermal Effects in Nonlinear Optical Material
Selected Publications
- Bolognese, R. Whalen, E. Cordell, A. Link Cilfone, B. Williams, “A First-year Engineering Information Literacy Workshop Redesigned for Remote Delivery”. Proceedings of the 2021 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Virtual Event, 2021.
- Hertz, R. Whalen and C. Mukasa, “Fourth Time Around: Do Classes Get Better with Instructor Repetition?”. Proceedings of the 2020 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Virtual Event, 2020.
- Cordell, A. Link Cilfone, S. Freeman, R. Whalen and B. Davis Williams., “A First-year Engineering Information Literacy Workshop to Increase Student Awareness of Research Databases”. Proceedings of the 2020 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Virtual Event, 2020.
- R. Whalen , S. Freeman, J. Hertz, J. Ocif Love and S. Grahame, K.., “Cornerstone: Creating a First-Year Culture with a Multi-Faceted Approach “. Proceedings of the 2018 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, 2018.
- S. Freeman, C. Pluger, R. Whalen, J. Hertz, M. Sivak and B. Maheswaran, “The Cornerstone: Course Projects and Progress”. First-Year Engineering Experience Conference, Columbus, OH, 2016.
- S. Freeman, C. Pfluger, R. Whalen, K. Schulte Grahame, J. Hertz, C. Variawa, J. Ocif Love, M. Sivak and B. Maheswaran, “Cranking Up Cornerstone: Lessons Learned from Implementing a Pilot with First-Year Engineering Students”. Proceedings of the 2016 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, 2016.
- Love, J., Freeman, S., Jaeger B., & Whalen, R., “No Lab? No Shop? No Problem: Intentional Design of a First Year Engineering Learning Center with Enlightening Outcomes”. Proceedings of the 2015 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Seattle, WA., 2015.
- Variawa, C., Freeman, S. Grahame, K., Jaeger B., Pfluger, C. & Whalen, R., “First-year Student Assumptions on Diversity in Engineering Education”. Proceedings of the 2015 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Seattle, WA., 2015.
- Jaeger B., Freeman, S. & Whalen, R., “Making a First-year Impression: Engineering Projects that Affect and Connect”. Proceedings of the 2014 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN., 2014.”
- Whalen, R., Chirag P, Tortoriello, D., Speroni, J. &; Baldacci, J., “Augmenting a First-year Design Course with an Undergraduate Student Administered SolidWorks Module”. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013.
- Jaeger B., Whalen, R., & Freeman, S., “Programming is Invisible – or Is It? How to Bring a First-year Programming Course to Life”. Proceedings of the 2012 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX., 2012.
- Freeman, S., Forman, S., Whalen, R., & Jaeger B., “Service Learning vs. Learning Service in Engineering Design”. Proceedings of the 2009 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2011.
- Whalen, R., Jaeger, BK, & Freeman, S., “R U All There?Texting, Surfing, and E-Tasking in the Classroom and its Effects on Learning”, Proceedings of the 2011 American Society for Engineering Education for Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2011.
Dec 02, 2022
First Year Engineering Expo – Fall 2022
The First-year Engineering Program’s mission is to inspire and motivate our students to pursue an Engineering Education by providing them with a diverse and inclusive learning community centered around the First-year Engineering Learning and Innovation Center and the Cornerstone of Engineering 1- & 2-course sequence. In Cornerstone, students are introduced to the fundamentals of engineering […]
Jul 01, 2020
COE Presents at the 2020 ASEE’S Virtual Conference
College of Engineering faculty, staff, and students, published and presented virtual papers at the American Society for Engineering Education – Virtual National conference.
May 02, 2016
Faculty and Staff Awards 2016
2016 Faculty and Staff Awards Congratulations to all the winners of the faculty and staff awards, and to everyone for their hard work and dedication during the 2015-2016 academic school year. Faculty Fellow Kaushik Chowdhury, ECE Carol Livermore, MIE Marilyn Minus, MIE Rising Star Staff Award Gabrielle Fiorenza, Co-op Nicole Nightingale, Dean’s Office Outstanding Teachers […]
Nov 24, 2014
Battle Tops Competition
Many of the First Year Engineering class sections have been gearing up to compete with their 3D Printed Battle Tops. Students in Dr. Variawa, Dr. Pfluger, Dr. Goldthwaite and Dr. Whalen’s classes were involved in the competition, which took place Monday, November 24th, in a classroom in the basement of Snell Library. The students were split up into teams, […]
Nov 20, 2014
3D Printed Battle Tops
Professor Chirag Variawa’s First Year Engineering class has been hard at work lately, preparing their final software-design project. The assignment involves creating 3D-printed spinning tops with varied designs, which will be battled against each other on Monday, November 24th. The creations include all kinds of interesting features, such as different centers of gravity or curved edges. The […]
Sep 25, 2014
Engineering Excellence
MIE Senior Academic Specialists Beverly Kris Jaeger & Rich Whalen were invited to OSU to present on how the Gateway Faculty have transformed our First-year Engineering Program.
Apr 29, 2014
Congratulations COE Award Winners
Congratulations to the recipients of this year’s College of Engineering Faculty and Staff awards. Outstanding teachers of First Year Engineering students: Richard Whalen, Engineering; Robert Lupi, Mathematics; Enrique Moreno, Physics. Martin W. Essigmann Outstanding Teaching Award: Daniel Dulaski, CEE Outstanding Cooperative Education Coordinator Award: Lorraine Mountain, MIE Outstanding Staff Award: Kristin Hicks, CenSSIS; Christina McNeil, Dean’s Office Going […]
Oct 23, 2013
Egg drop on steroids
For 10 years, engineering professor Richard Whalen has held what he calls an “egg-drop competition on steroids.” If you haven’t participated in an egg drop competition yourself, chances are you’ve at least heard about it. Students are asked to build a contraption that safely delivers a fragile egg to the ground from a distance above. Increase that […]
Dec 16, 2011
Congratulations!
Beverly Jaeger, Richard Whalen, Susan Freeman, & Stanley Forman won Best Paper at the 2011 ASEE Annual Conference for their paper “Service-Learning vs. Learning Service in First-Year Engineering: If We Cannot Conduct First-Hand Service Projects, is it Still of Value?”
Jul 18, 2011
ASME is Making a Splash
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers student group designed and built a solar-powered boat that placed 8th in the sprint event at the national collegiate Solar Splash competition in Iowa.