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Dr. Sheryl Sorby was recently a Fulbright Scholar at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Dublin,
Ireland and will return in the fall to the Engineering Education and Innovation Center at The Ohio State University.
She is a professor emerita of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University and
the PI or coPI on more than $9M in grant funding, most for educational projects. She is the former
Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the College of Engineering at Michigan Tech and she served at the
National Science Foundataion as a Program Director in the Division of Undergraduate Education from January
2007 through August 2009. Prior to her appointment as Associate Dean, Dr. Sorby served as chair of the
Engineering Fundamentals Department at Michigan Tech. In this capacity, she was responsible for the development
and delivery of the newly adopted First Year Engineering Program at Michigan Tech. She received a BS in Civil Engineering,
an MS in Engineering Mechanics, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, all from Michigan Tech.
Dr. Sorby has a well-established research program in spatial visualization and is actively involved in the development of
various educational programs. She received her first grant from the National Science Foundation in 1993 to develop a
course and course materials for helping engineering students to develop their 3-D spatial skills. She has received
numberous follow-up grants from the NSF to furhter her work in developing and assessing spatial skills. Her spatial
skills curriculum has been adopted by nearly 30 engineering programs across the U. S. In 2005 she received the Betty
Vetter award for Research on Women in Engineering through the Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network (WEPAN)
for her work in improving the 3-D spatial skills of engineering students. She has published more than sixty papers in journals
and conference proceedings and is the author of seven textbooks.
Dr. Sorby has been a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) since 1991 and has served the
society in various capacities. She was chair of the Engineering Design Graphics Division in 2002 and has served as
program chair for EDGD for several conferences. She was Director of Programs for EDGD from 2010-13. In addition,
she was conference chair for the 2010 midyear meeting of EDGD. She is one of the inaugural Associate Editors for Advances
in Engineering Education, ASEE’s online journal. She was recently elected to the Board of Directors for ASEE.
She was the recipient of the Dow Outstanding New Faculty Award in 1996 and the recipient of the Distinguished
Teaching Award in 1998, both for the North Midwest Section of ASEE. She received the Distinguished Service Award from the
Engineering Design Graphics Division of ASEE in 2007. In 2009 she was inducted as a Fellow in the ASEE and in 2011 she
received the Sharon Keillor award for oustanding woman engineering educator from ASEE.
Teaching Interests
- Advanced structural analysis
- Finite elements
- Computer applications/mechanics
Research Interests
- Advanced composite materials for use in civil infrastructure
- 3-D computer graphics for visualization of complex behaviors
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