Working notes on engineering education, program design, vehicle technology, and the practical work of building experiential programs. Written from the field, not the lectern.
Climate tech posted a near-record funding year while early-stage capital quietly collapsed. The lab-embedded accelerator model is becoming load-bearing infrastructure for American energy innovation, and we should treat it that way.
Read essay →The data says we need a six-fold larger battery workforce by 2030. The model that produces hire-ready engineers already exists. The reason it doesn't scale is an incentive problem inside universities, not a funding problem outside them.
Read essay →AI is in your students' workflow whether you want it there or not. The interesting question is not how to detect it, but how to teach engineering judgment when AI handles the easy parts.
Read essay →A short practical guide on how to adopt open course materials in your engineering course without doing the unhelpful kind of work that usually accompanies textbook adoption.
Read essay →Five years after I co-founded the Shell GameChanger Accelerator at NREL, the portfolio has crossed a billion dollars in cohort fundraising. Here is what worked, what did not, and what I would tell anyone running an accelerator inside a national lab.
Read essay →A practical playbook for launching an experiential, industry-connected engineering track inside a university with no dedicated department, no new faculty lines, and no permission-asking culture.
Read essay →In May 2024, the Mines/ACC team won the inaugural DOE Battery Workforce Challenge. A year later, we placed 4th. Here is what the standings did and did not capture about a year of student-led EV battery integration.
Read essay →Most engineering students will eventually write a federal proposal. Almost none of them learn how. Here is the assignment structure I use in MEGN 455 Aerospace Systems Engineering to put students through a real federal proposal cycle in a single semester.
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