David A Brown Tribute

A Distinguished Alumnus of the College of 工程, 大卫•布朗 (Mechanical 工程 1968) was passionate about providing equality and access to STEM education to underserved 社区.

The 大卫•布朗 研究员hip in Mechatronics was established in 1996 to promote the professional development of students in the area of Mechatronics, and to advance the development of the Mechatronics program. The recipient of the $2,000 award is expected to contribute to mechatronics laboratory development and laboratory instruction during the fellowship year.

Fred Barez, Chair of Aviation and Technology, said:

Mr. 大卫•布朗 was instrumental in the formation of the Mechatronics curriculum in the department, the first of its kind in the nation. His passion for seeing this curriculum come to fruition was amazing. He further supported this initiative by providing an annual 研究员hip Award to two students.

His dedication to meeting the 研究员hip Award recipients each year made the students, and the college, very appreciative. He truly was a Distinguished Alumnus and a very generous friend of the Mechanical 工程 Department.

We all will miss his annual visit to the ME Department to meet the students and the 教师. 

Benjamin Lagace, a manufacturing engineer and alumnus said:

While any financial assistance is wonderful for a student, I believe there were many “hidden” benefits to being awarded the David A. Brown 研究员hip.

I enjoyed and learned a lot from being a lab instructor, which was required of the 研究员. The extended hands-on learning helped me get a much stronger grasp on the concepts taught in mechatronics, some of which I have applied to my current job.

I remember there were a few labs that I did not fully understand, and it wasn’t until the 2nd time teaching it that it finally made enough sense for me to be able to explain it correctly to my students!

Being a scholarship recipient also forced me to attend the awards events, where I ended up meeting people in the industry, attending other networking events, and was invited to to showcase a senior project with my senior design team. 

Nguyen Nguyen (Mechanical 工程 2017), Teaching Assistant, said:

I applied for the 研究员hip to assist with teaching Mechanical 工程 106 because I found it was challenging to take the class and I wanted to improve my skills in 这个话题. The 大卫•布朗 研究员hip gave me more confidence to continue as the TA.

After getting my Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical 工程, I have continued to ME106的TA. I've encouraged and inspired others to continue to study mechatronics. I am glad to see many of my students continue in the path. There was a happy moment when 一个 of my students said that he was inspired by me. I am working hard so that someday, later in life, I can contribute to the next generation like Mr. 大卫•布朗 and his colleagues did for the ME106 lab.

Browse a photo album about David's time at the Quantum Corporation, which he co-founded [pdf].