Four faculty members in the College of Engineering have received the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
The Joyce Award honors Notre Dame faculty members who have had a profound influence on undergraduate students through sustained exemplary teaching at Notre Dame. Each year, the award recognizes 20 faculty members across the University who create environments that stimulate significant student learning, elevate students to a new level of intellectual engagement, and foster students’ ability to express themselves effectively within the discipline.
The awards are presented by the Office of the Provost, and recipients are selected through a process that includes peer and student nominations.
This year’s recipients from the College of Engineering are:
Brian Smith, teaching professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. Smith teaches introductory engineering courses in the First-Year Engineering program as well as upper-level structural design courses for civil engineering and architecture students. He is a second-time winner of the Joyce Award (2018) and the 2023 recipient of the Notre Dame College of Engineering’s Outstanding Teacher Award.
Robert Stevenson, professor and associate chair in the Department of Electrical Engineering and director of undergraduate studies. Stevenson teaches Digital Design for Smart Interconnected Systems, Multimedia Signals & Systems and supervises undergraduate research. He has published extensively in the area of statistical and multidimensional signal and image processing and computer vision.
Kevin Walsh, associate teaching professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences. Walsh teaches a broad range of classes, including Principles of Practice, Senior Design Capstone, and Resiliency of Engineering Systems. He is a registered professional engineer (PE) or structural engineer (SE) in eleven states and has more than a decade of experience in industry.
Patrick Wensing, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Wensing directs the Robotics, Optimization, and Assistive Mobility (ROAM) lab and teaches Introduction to Robotics; Differential Equations, Vibrations, and Control; and Analytical Dynamics. His research focuses on topics such as extreme-terrain mobility in humanoids and quadrupeds as well as human-machine interface technologies for assistive exoskeletons in rehabilitation and lower-limb prostheses.
— Karla Cruise, Notre Dame College of Engineering