My Teaching Philosophy
As an educator, my role is not only to convey engineering concepts to students but also to develop critical thinking skills and cultivate curiosity and creativity. As an individual who has been influenced by many great educators, I believe that it is my responsibility to pay it forward and provide students not only with the skills and knowledge they need but also to empower them to succeed in their chosen careers and lives. Teaching, to me, is not just being prepared and organized with material, delivering lectures, and assessing students’ progress, but it is also about demonstrating to students my genuine passion for the subject.
Courses Taught
AE/ME 2360: Dynamics
This course presents the principles of Newtonian Classical Mechanics. Dynamics (both Kinematics and Kinetics) is presented for three cases: particles (point masses), planar (2-D) rigid bodies, and spatial (3-D) rigid bodies. Kinematics covers the concepts of position and its derivatives in time, namely velocity and acceleration in different types of coordinate systems. Kinetics covers the concepts of inertia, force, moment (torque), energy, momentum, work, and impulse. These concepts are related to physical principles such as Newton’s laws of motion, the conservation of energy, and the conservation of momentum.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
- Ability to analyze the kinematics of a point mass and rigid body in one, two, and three-dimensional coordinate systems;
- Ability to apply Newton’s second law and work-energy equation to point masses and rigid bodies to predict forces and motion;
- Ability to employ this knowledge in analyzing mechanical and aerospace systems.
AE 3613: Aerospace Mechanics I
This course provides the fundamentals of astrodynamics and astronautics.
The learning outcomes for this course are:
- Ability to apply dynamics to derive the differential equations of motion that govern the motion of vehicles in orbit;
- Ability to describe Keplerian orbits: circular, elliptical, parabolic, and hyperbolic and be able to apply them to spacecraft mission design
- Ability to compute times-of-flight on orbital paths, using both Kepler’s and Lambert’s methods;
- Ability to compute propulsive maneuvers that will alter a spacecraft’s trajectory to another desired orbit;
- Ability to represent an orbit in three-dimensional space by the use of orbital elements and to represent the ground track of an orbit;
- Ability to apply the Patched Conic Method to design planetary flybys;
- Ability to apply the Rocket Equation to determine propellant mass fractions.
Office Hours
I hold office hours on both Mondays/Wednesdays from 1 pm to 3 pm and Tuesdays/Thursdays from 2 pm to 3 pm. Appointments can also be scheduled via email.
Resources for Students
Some handy resources to aid in your academic journey:
- Handy Cheat Sheets and Tables: Sponsored by Lamar University these sheets provide common properties and formulas in a variety of areas including trigonometry and calculus.
- Self-Paced Online MATLAB Onramp Course
- Quick Guide to Latex provided by Overleaf (rms, useful websites, recommended reading etc.)
Contact
Feel free to reach out to me at djennings@mst.edu or during my office hours for any questions or clarifications.