Introduction

My name is Chase Swanson, and I am a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at the University of Victoria. I absolutely love my degree and have seen first hand the impact great teacher have on a class and its learning. Because of this I have decided to pursue a master’s and eventually a doctorate in engineering, with the goal of become for those future students what those great instructors were for me. By extension this is why I chose EDCI 335 as my elective; I want to begin developing the skills and knowledge that will my long term goals of academia and teaching.

Outside of coursework, I am actively involved in research. I am a member of the Hybrid 3D Lab at UVic where I work on Shape Memory Polymer research, as well as the Sustainable Metal Additive Manufacturing Team. My personal research interests are mostly in tunable vibration damping characteristics in additively manufactured elastomers like TPU, Combining my passion for 3D printing with vibration analysis. Being part of these research teams has strengthened my interesting in teaching, as an academic career would allow me to pursue both research and education.

When I am not doing research I run the environmental engineering club at UVic (UVEEC) where we are developing a low-cost autonomous underwater sea glider for oceanographic research. Current market solutions cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, effectively pricing out smaller universities and undergraduate research groups. Through this project we hope to expand access to this tool and improve ocean monitoring effort, ultimately contributing to a better understanding of climate change.