Faculty Directory

Dr. Dankowicz's science scholarship is premised on a strong commitment to interdisciplinary research across a variety of platforms to leverage complementary research paradigms and expand the impact of his contributions. His work aims to uncover innovative solutions to challenges in food production, manufacturing, and energy generation using original contributions to rigorous control theory, complex systems analysis, and algorithm development. With his collaborators, he collects data, builds software tools, proves theorems, formulates heuristic models, and proposes engineering solutions.

Dr. Dankowicz's work has involved extensive industrial collaboration, including with C‐Motion Inc. on tools for dynamic gait analysis, Veeco Instruments on nanoscale surface characterization, and Deere & Co on a range of agricultural applications, such as a self‐calibration technology that resulted in a US patent in 2015. He has collaborated with pediatric orthopedists and entomologists, contributing to innovations in software and hardware tools for characterization and treatment of idiopathic scoliosis and high-throughput computer‐aided analyses of trophallaxis interaction networks in beehives.

Dr. Dankowicz has successfully engaged many undergraduate students in his research, through independent study projects and capstone design projects. He has mentored these students in co‐authoring of conference papers, poster dissemination of research, and intellectual property protection of original inventions, resulting in several undergraduates being listed as co‐inventors on a patent application. Dr. Dankowicz is committed to facilitating such integration of research and education throughout his professional work, including training in translational research and commercialization.

Consistent with his interest in interdisciplinary research, Dr. Dankowicz sees a great convergence within the engineering research community of diverse ideas and perspectives aiming to achieve significant impact on real‐world challenges and he is excited to be able to contribute to such developments. In his group, curiosity drives him to uncover original solutions to fundamental problems of engineering design, robot dynamics and control, complex systems analysis, and algorithm development. On a national and global scale, he hopes to inspire and enable new generations of scientists and engineers from all communities to pursue discovery and innovation.

As an instructor, Dr. Dankowicz aims to provide flexible and accessible learning modalities, including by making effective use of online materials and computer‐based assessment mechanisms. He is interested in student‐centered learning environments that rely on principles of active and project‐based learning. As a mentor, he is committed to his mentees’ professional growth and well‐being. His efforts have been recognized by national and institutional awards, including the ASEE Fred Merryfield Design Award, the ASEE Archie Higdon Distinguished Educator Award, awards for teaching excellence and innovation at Virginia Tech and University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign (UIUC), and for outstanding advising at UIUC.

Dr. Dankowicz has authored textbooks, built educational software, and produced online course content. In a junior-level dynamics course, he created short animated online video lectures to substitute for in‐class lectures, while the in‐class experience was dedicated to small teams of students exploring the theoretical material and problem‐solving strategies. This combination enabled him to interact directly with individual students and to ensure a level of engagement and active participation that is rarely seen in traditional teacher‐centered learning environments.

Dr. Dankowicz wrote the textbook Multibody Mechanics and Visualization as part of a multiyear effort to build a class on robot dynamics for computer‐savvy students with an interest in engineering design. The book was complemented by a computer‐algebra toolbox and a Windows‐based simulation and animation package for visualizing the dynamics of arbitrary multibody mechanisms. In addition to the extensive use of active‐learning exercises and programming assignments, the course relied on patent documents as the basis for project‐based learning. Students were expected to reduce the formal description of a mechanical invention to a mathematical model and reproduce its design and function in a realistic simulation and animation. Close integration of software tools enabled students to explore concepts iteratively and with freedom to make and recognize mistakes.

Dr. Dankowicz trains his graduate students and postdocs in the elements of a professional career, including interdisciplinary, industry, and international collaboration, as well as a responsible approach to the impact of their work and to maintaining the integrity of the research enterprise. He provide his mentees with opportunities to make visible contributions also outside of normal scholarship, including as coinventors of intellectual property and co‐authors of software tools and training material.

To achieve sustained impact across disciplines, Dr. Dankowicz has developed non‐traditional content accessible to a broad audience at multiple educational levels. He co‐produced a training resource on responsible conduct in computational modeling and research, available through the National Center for Professional & Research Ethics. During his tenure as Editor‐in‐Chief of ASME Applied Mechanics Reviews, he produced a podcast series of 22 full‐length edited audio interviews with researchers in applied mechanics and engineering science.