Department of
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Faculty

Dr. Linda Schmidt Visiting Associate Professor Office: Bu Hasa Building, Room 2001 Phone: +971 2 607 5297 Fax: +971 2 607 5200

• Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University, 1995

Linda C. Schmidt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland. Schmidt earned B.S. (1989) and M.S. (1991) degrees in from Iowa State University for work in Industrial Engineering. Schmidt completed her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering (1995) at Carnegie Mellon University with research in grammar-based generative design. Schmidt earned a National Science Foundation Career Award (1998) for research on generative designer assistance tools.

Dr. Schmidt's research interests are in understanding the process by which early stage, engineering design tasks are successfully completed so that we can devise effective methods for learning design and preserving knowledge that arises in the process. She has been actively teaching and reflecting upon engineering design issues for over 16 years. Dr. Schmidt is working with co-author George Dieter on the 5th edition of the McGraw Hill text "Engineering Design". Linda Schmidt authored over seventy-five refereed publications in the areas of mechanical design theory and methodology, mechanism design generation, graph isomorphism issues in generative design and effective student learning on engineering project design teams. Four of the referred conference papers were cited for excellence, two on design theory and two on research to improve the effectiveness of student project teams.  Dr. Schmidt’s current projects include developing a framework for generating evaluation and testing plans with uncertain stakeholder inputs; formalizing the design paradigm for military prototyping, and refining rubrics for cognitive activities as recorded in student design journals.  She has supervised 10 completed M.S. theses, 3 Ph.D. dissertations and is currently supervising 3 additional Ph.D. Candidates who will graduate in 2011 and 2012.

Honors and Awards

• 2008 ASEE Fred Merryfield Design Award Recipient
• 2003 Faculty Service Award, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland
• 2002 Outstanding Advisor for a Student Organization Award, University of Maryland

Professional Service

• ASME Press Advisory Committee
• Chair, ASEE Merryfield Design Award Committee
• ASME Design Engineering Division Chair, Constitution and Bylaws Committee

Expertise

• Design theory and cognition
• Rapid response engineering
• Design team behavior

Representative Publications

• Sophoria Westmoreland, Ashley Ruocco, and Linda C. Schmidt, “Analysis of Capstone Design Reports: Visual Representations,” Journal of Mechanical Design, 133:5 (2011).
• Weiss, B., and L. C. Schmidt, “The Multi-Relationship Evaluation Design Framework: Producing Evaluation Blueprints to Test Emerging, Advanced, and Intelligent Technologies,” ITEA Journal, 32: 2, pp. 191-200 (2011).
• Daniel Fitzgerald, Jeffrey W. Herrmann and Linda C. Schmidt, “A TRIZ-based Design Tool for Resolving Contradictions,” The TRIZ Journal, July, http://www.triz-journal.com/, (2010).
• Daniel Fitzgerald, Jeffrey W. Herrmann and Linda C. Schmidt, "A Conceptual Design Tool for Resolving Conflicts between Product Functionality and Environmental Impact", Journal of Mechanical Design, 132, 091006 (2010).
• Dieter, G. E., and L. C. Schmidt, Engineering Design, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education(2008) (5th Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education in preparation for 2012 publication.)
• R. W. Lent, H-B. Sheu, D. Singley, J. A. Schmidt, L. C. Schmidt, C. S. Gloster, "Longitudinal Relations of Self-Efficacy to Outcome Expectations, Interests, and Major Choice Goals in Engineering Students," Journal of Vocational Behavior, (2008) 73(2):328-335. (ISSN:0001-8791)
• Brown, J., L. C. Schmidt, J. Schmidt, P. E. Schmidt, “Discovering Functional Role Specialization: The Effect on Undergraduate Student Learning on Engineering Project Teams,” in Proceedings of the National STEM Assessment Conference: October 19-21, 2006, D. Deeds and B. Callen (Eds.), National Science Foundation and Drury University, (2007).
• R. P. Sunkari and L. Schmidt, “Structural Synthesis of Kinematic Chains by Adapting a Mckay-Type Algorithm,” Mechanism and Machine Theory (2006) 41(9):1021-1030
• R. P. Sunkari and L. Schmidt, “Reliability and Efficiency of the Existing Spectral Methods for Isomorphism Detection,” Journal of Mechanical Design, (2006)Vol. 128(6):1246-1252.
• L. C. Schmidt, “Engineering Teams: Individual or Group Sport?” International Journal of Engineering Education (2006) 22(3):659-664.
• R. W. Lent, J. Schmidt, L. Schmidt, “Collective Efficacy beliefs in student work teams: Relation to Self-Efficacy, Team Cohesion, and Team Performance,” Journal of Vocational Behavior (2006) 68(1): 73-84. (DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2005.04.001)
• D. P. Fitzgerald, J. W. Herrmann, P. A. Sandborn, L. C. Schmidt, T. H. Gogoll, “Beyond Tools: A Design for Environment Process,” International Journal of Performability Engineering (2005) 1(2):105-120.