Dr. Daniela Faas is currently the senior preceptor in design-based instruction at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Harvard University. Currently, she teaches courses in Mechanical Engineering and multidisciplinary offerings on engineering design. Daniela is also a research affiliate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Her research focuses on developing low cost immersive Virtual Reality applications in Mechanical Engineering and design methodology for engineering education. Her work has been published in a range of publications and proceedings including Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing (AIEDAM) and Developmental Dynamics. Daniela received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction from Iowa State University, where she developed a methodology to support low clearance immersive, intuitive manual assembly while using low-cost desktop-based Virtual Reality systems with haptic force-feedback. Her method combined voxel-based collision detection and boundary representation to support both force feedback and geometric constraint recognition. She graduated from Bucknell University with her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and joint B.S./B.A. in Mechanical Engineering and International Relations.
Research interests: virtual reality (VR) applications in mechanical design, design methodology and engineering education.
In the news:
Ingenuity is the driving force behind ES 51, June 1, 2016
Practicing Unapologetic Innovation, May 3, 2016
ES51 Turf Wars, May 8th, 2015
The case of the disappearing dishes. SEAS News, Feb 17, 2015.
Refreshable Braille gets an engineer's touch, SEAS News, Nov 12, 2014
Collegiate Inventors Competition, Sept. 17, 2014.