Fall 2007

Hi, my name is Sun Min Jung and I am pursuing a Master of Science in Engineering Sciences. Thus I do not belong to a research group, but I am interested in doing research next semester for a 299r. I will be going into industry as a stress engineer, so this course will prepare me to have the necessary background for the job, as well as prepare me for a 299r next semester.

I took the course of Theory of Elasticity during my undergraduate study and the course of Finite Element Method during my master's study.  And my major is Engineering Mechanics. Therefore, I have some fundamental knowledge in solid mechanics but not enough, since I have no background in the aspects of plasticity and large deformation theory. I am currently doing research under Professor Suo's group (http://www.seas.harvard.edu/suo/) and my research topic will focus on gel which is a kind of soft material.

My name is Eric Kiser. I am part of the seismology group at EPS.  I am currently working on a back-projection method for imaging earthquakes.  My undergraduate major was in geology at the University of Illinois.  Some of the topics we are covering in ES 240 I have seen in my undergraduate geophysics classes.  I'm hoping to obtain a better understanding of stress and strain from this course, so I can apply it to physical properties within the Earth.

Hi everyone

   - my prior courses are mechancis of materials (ES 120) and intro to material science (ES 190)

   - I am pursuing Harvard's co-terminal AB/SM degree, and have finished my undergraduate requirements in engineering scinces with a focus on Mechanical Engineering

   - A definate plus is having taken the undergraduate class only a few years ago, and having much of the material presented in a very similar style which i have grown accustomed to.  My weakness is always the math.

I have got the master degree of Solid Mechanics in University of Science and Technology of China. Actually, I have taken several courses related to this subject, such as strength of materials and the theory of elasticity. So, my strength may be that I have some  knowledge about it, but my poor ability to solve PDE or even ODE could be the specific obstacle for studying this course. I will do research in Suo’s group(http://www.seas.harvard.edu/suo/), and my research may be related to soft matters, such as gels.

 My name is Maria Persson Gulda. I am a first year grad student at Harvard. I did my undergrad in Engineering Physics, with a minor in Applied Math, at University of Colorado at Boulder.

The classes from my undergrad that are closest related to this course are Classical Mechanics and Solid State Physics. I think my strength in ES 240 will be my applied math knowledge and my weakness will be my lack of courses in mechanics and/or materials.

This entry is meant to summarize my personal information, and the reasons why I am taking this class.  Here are my responses to the bulleted topics:

 - I have taken three courses relating to solid mechanics prior to ES 240.  These were undergraduate classes taken at the Univ. of Delaware and they include:  (1)  Mechanics of Solids, (2) Material Science and Engineering,  (3) Design of Machinery

- My undergraduate major was Mechanical Engineering

   In terms of my background, I have taken two courses relating to solid mechanics.  The first course was Mechanics of Deformable Bodies, which was an introductory strength of materials course.  I have also taken a course called Aerospace Structures.  In this course, the first half was devoted to elasticity and the second portion of the course was about solving problems relating to failure in aircraft.  We were also introduced to Finite Element Analysis and performed labs using FEA software.

   I majored in Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate.

Part 4 of Elements of Elasticity. Please see attached.

This problem set is due on Friday, Oct. 12.

My name's Alison Forsyth, I'm a G2 biomedical engineer at Harvard.  I did my undergrad at Syracuse University where I majored in bioengineering.  Prior courses in solid mechanics are: mechanics of materials, materials processing and properties, and advanced biomechanics.

My name is John Peter Whitney, but I go by Peter.  My parents set it up that way--I don't know why.  This is my answer to Pset 2, problem 6:

* I last took solid mechanics Fall 2001.  This sophomore-level course was taught by Professor Mark Spearing.  We used Crandall, Dahl, and Lardner.  I have forgotten almost everything from that class.

* My undergrad degree is in Physics, and my masters is in aerospace engineering (which I also studied but did not get a degree in as an undergrad).

Overview

This is a blog entry about my background as it pertains to solid mechanics, written in effort to achieve maximum credit for Problem 6 on the ES 240 assignment due Friday, October 5, 2007.

Prior Courses in Solid Mechanics

My prior experience in solid mechanics is limited to half a semester of graduate "Mechanics of Materials" which I took as a listener at MIT in Spring 2005.  As such, much of the material covered in this subject is new to me.

Major History

- I took one undergraduate classical Solid Mechanics course.

- Mechanical Engineering undergraduate degree (Bucknell University).

-Strengths - most of the concepts aren't new since they were introduced in undergrad solids. I've never used index notation before and it's been a long time since I took multivariable calc and diff eq. so my math is a little iffy.

-Microrobotics Lab (Woodgroup)

-Autonomous biomimetic microrobotics

To all students in ES 240 this semester,

Due to popular demand my office hour is moved from Tuesday to Thursday 4~5pm starting from this week. The location is changed to Rm. 123, Maxwell Dworkin (33 Oxford Street).

Nanshu

Prior courses in solid mechanics: "Mechanics of Solids and Structures" was FBD's and strength of materials, and "Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering" focused more on building and aerospace structures.  But no prior solid mechanics course, per se.

Undergraduate major: Engineering, concentration in Materials Science

This problem set will be due on Friday, Oct. 4th.

Part 3 of Elements of Elasticity. Please see attached.

This problem set is due on Friday, Sep. 28, 2007 in class.

The lecture notes are prepared by Prof. Joost Vlassak based on a set of course notes put together by Prof. Suo when he taught ES 240 in 2006, as well as on course notes developed by Prof. Vlassak for ES 246.

Please see attached.