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.
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)
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
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