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Derek Breid, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Engineering

About Derek Breid

Dr. Derek Breid's main goal in life is to defy expectations, including his own. What started out as an interest in the periodic table in high school chemistry somehow turned into a career focused on studying things like cuttlefish camouflage, how paint dries, and improving homework in engineering courses. He started at SVC the same year that the College introduced its four-year Engineering degree (2014), and his diverse background was immediately called upon, as the department had just two faculty members teaching the whole engineering curriculum at the time. Currently, Dr. Breid teaches thermal science and design-related courses, in addition to running the Engineering Capstone Design program. Other than grading student work, Dr. Breid enjoys playing disc golf and Ultimate Frisbee, singing in sacred music ensembles, drinking fancy teas, tracking the counties he's visited, trying new foods, and reading the entire internet.

Education

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Kansas (2005)

M.S. in Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts (2006)

Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts (2011)

Courses

Current

CORE 2400 - Learning Seminar

ENGR 240 - Engineering Design and Lab

ENGR 310 - Thermodynamics

ENGR 327 - Soft Materials

ENGR 340 - Heat and Mass Transfer

ENGR 440 - Capstone Design I

ENGR 441 - Capstone Design II

Past

ENGR 100 - Intro to Engineering

ENGR 115 - Intro to Engineering Computation

ENGR 223 - Statics

ENGR 224 - Dynamics

Research Interests

Responsive "smart" materials

Wrinkling, folding, and other mechanical instabilities

Soft robotic actuators

Mechanics of biological materials

Bio-inspired materials and structures

Active learning in engineering education

Effects of homework and assessment schemes on learning in engineering