Dr. Steve Schmid Named Belk-Woodward Distinguished Professor
Dr. Steven R. Schmid has joined The William States Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as the first-ever Belk-Woodward Distinguished Professor in Engineering. A nationally known expert in manufacturing, Dr. Schmid will be collaborating with researchers in the college’s Center for Precision Metrology and with regional companies.
“It is a great opportunity to come here,” Dr. Schmid said. “I’m excited to start building research relationships with Center for Precision Metrology faculty members, and with industry representatives from companies such as Northrop Grumman, General Electric and Siemens.”
Dr. Schmid comes to UNC Charlotte from the University of Notre Dame, where he started in 1993 and rose to the position of Professor in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, in 1993, his thesis focusing on Lubrication with Emulsions. Dr. Schmid was the first Faculty Fellow at the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office in 2012-2013, where he helped develop the Preliminary Design Document for Manufacturing USA Institutes. From 2016 to 2019, Dr. Schmid served as Program Director for Manufacturing Machines and Equipment at the National Science Foundation.
While at Notre Dame, Dr. Schmid won its top teaching honor, the Kaneb Teaching Award, in 2000, 2003, 2008 and 2015. He was a Kaneb Teaching fellow from 2003-2020, and won the Spira Award for Teaching Excellence in 2005.
“I’m extremely dedicated to teaching, and it’s something I greatly enjoy,” Dr. Schmid said. “My teaching style is to use a lot of examples, experiments and questions that reinforce reading assignments. For example, in my manufacturing class I might ask students, ‘How would you make a million of these, how fast could you get it done and what would it cost?’ By working through such scenarios, they learn to apply the material.”
Dr. Schmid is the author of numerous engineering textbooks that incorporate his active learning philosophy. “I think when you write the book it’s because you really love the subject matter,” he said, “and that translates to the classroom.”
Some of Dr. Schmid’s most popular textbooks, which have been translated into multiple languages and are used throughout the world, include Manufacturing Engineering and Technology