“Tufts students rise to the occasion when they find interest in a subject and see a relevant connection to the real world.”
The fundamental role of an engineer is to design solutions to problems that arise in the world. This is not always easy to emulate in an academic setting, but Professor Ronald Lasser creates a classroom environment in which students make connections between their curriculum and real-world problems. One class that Professor Lasser teaches is called Medical Devices and Apps. Offered to senior engineers, in tandem with the Graduate School of Occupational Therapy, students are tasked with developing electronic devices and mobile applications to help patients receive appropriate care. Lasser fondly remarked, “When the students realize, ‘We can really help somebody who is a pediatric patient who had a traumatic brain injury, and we can make his or her life easier,’ they give it 250%. The key to developing learning is finding relevant projects and courses that students feel they can claw into.”
As a mechanical engineer, I enrolled in Professor Lasser’s section of Introduction to Electrical Systems during my sophomore year. The course is particularly challenging, as it introduces a wide range of concepts regarding the fundamentals of electrical circuits. Now, I can appreciate the class for being equally as important as it was difficult, since it developed principles which have been critical in higher level engineering courses. Lasser taught the class based on his philosophy of making concepts relatable to his students. In the lab, we examined ideas through the actual use of electrical equipment like oscilloscopes and amplifiers. He connected our lab and lecture content directly to real examples like how headphones utilize amplifiers for sound control by increasing voltage (and thus power) of an output signal to increase volume. Professor Lasser strives to relate to his students on both an academic and personal level. He also