Professor Marsha Wender Timmerman, Director, Masters of Engineering in Technical Entrepreneurship Program
Following the recently announced retirement of longtime mechanical engineering professor John Ochs, the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science has announced new leadership for key programs that emerged and flourished under his guidance.
Ochs, among other campus leadership roles, served as director of Lehigh’s Integrated Product Development and Technical Entrepreneurship capstone courses and associated master’s programs. He was also a tireless champion of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) and the Lehigh-KEEN Initiative—a comprehensive, multiphased process designed to revolutionize engineering education by integrating "entrepreneurial minded learning" and engineering skillset development in Lehigh’s engineering education ecosystem.
These initiatives will continue to move forward as follows:
- Capstone Design: Under the guidance of Sabrina Jedlicka, associate professor and associate chair of materials science and of bioengineering, the capstone design program will be scaled dramatically. Along with her research and teaching in biomaterials, Sabrina played a key role in the College’s 2017 "Envisioning Process" focused on the undergraduate experience, and has actively supported the TE Capstone program as a faculty mentor. Jedlicka’s vision for growing an interdisciplinary capstone design program will be detailed in the Spring 2019 issue of Resolve magazine.
- TE Master’s Program: Marsha Timmerman, who currently serves as professor of practice in mechanical engineering and mechanics associated with the TE program, will assume the role of director of the TE Master’s program. In this capacity, she will work closely with Michael Lehman and Marc de Vinck, also professors of practice in mechanical engineering associated with the TE program. Prior to joining Lehigh in 2017, Timmerman was a faculty member at La Salle University, where she designed and developed courses integrating the life sciences and entrepreneurship, and played a pivotal role in establishing its Center for Entrepreneurship and its Makerspace.
- Curriculum Innovation: Edmund Webb III, associate professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics, will assume our lead role in interfacing with the KEEN program and implementing its tenets throughout Lehigh’s engineering program. Most significantly, Webb will take the lead in cultivating a community of like-minded faculty who are integrating KEEN’s entrepreneurial minded learning techniques across Lehigh’s undergraduate engineering landscape.
“John’s leadership across his years of service to Lehigh brought these programs to life, and they have positively influenced the futures of countless Lehigh students, especially engineers,” says Steve DeWeerth, professor and dean of the Rossin College. “These innovative programs, cultivated under his guidance, will continue to flourish under this new model of leadership.”
