Beach teaches courses in the areas of design and manufacturing.
Beach and Craig Milroy co-direct the Product Realization Laboratory
which provides 500 students annually with hands on experiences
in product definition, conceptual design, detail design, and
prototype creation. The PRL offers courses, mentors and tools
in support of integrated product creation.
Pedagogically, Beach believes that creation of experience from
which students (and teams of students) can interpret and internalize
their own conclusions provides an excellent complement to content
based teaching. His goal is to add strength in tacit knowledge
which derives from the hands-on synthesis of design, prototype
building, presentation and criticism.. The resulting judgement
and instinct regarding materials, devices, materials transformation
processes, and design process complement classical analytical
engineering education to create superior engineers
Beach teaches or co-teaches:
ME203: Manufacturing and Design
ME314: Good Products, Bad Products
ME318: Computer Aided Product Creation
ME324: Precision Engineering (with Professor Dan DeBra)
ME399: Special Projects in Product Development
The PRL has engendered many new companies which design, manufacture
and distribute products in diverse domains including Haptic
Devices, Medical Devices, Sporting Goods, Underwater Video Equipment,
Robotics, and Automated Genomics Laboratory Equipment.
David Beach