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Professor (Teaching) of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus
Beach teaches courses in the areas of design and manufacturing. Beach and Craig Milroy co-direct the Product Realization Laboratory which provides 1700 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 designing and making. 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 judgment and instinct regarding materials, devices, materials transformation processes, and design process complement classical analytical engineering education to create superior engineers.
MS, Stanford, Engineering (Product Design) (1972)