RichardCrawford

About

Richard H. Crawford is a Professor Emeritus at The University of Texas at Austin and is the Earl N. Margaret Brasfield Endowed Faculty Fellow. He is the former Director of the Design Projects Program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He joined the faculty of UT Austin in January 1990 and teaches mechanical engineering design and geometric modeling for design.

Since joining the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, Crawford has developed a research program to investigate a broad range of topics in computer-aided mechanical design, design theory and methodology, and education. In particular Crawford’s work is focused in three areas: (1) research in computer representations to support conceptual design, design for manufacture and assembly, and design retrieval; (2) geometric modeling for engineering design, engineering analysis, and manufacturing; (3) research in additive manufacturing, including geometric processing, control, design tools, and manufacturing applications.

Crawford is a co-founder of the Design Technology and Engineering for All Children (DTEACh) program, which provides teachers with curricula and pedagogical approaches for teaching applied mathematics and science within the context of solving design problems. Begun in 1992 as an in-service teacher training program, DTEACh has helped teachers across Texas to integrate hands-on units on engineering materials, statics and structures, mechanisms, energy, and automation and control into their classrooms.

Additionally, Crawford is one of three engineering faculty that have partnered with the highly acclaimed UTeach program to develop an engineering track, called UTeachEngineering, for training teachers of high school engineering courses. This program developed the Engineer Your World high school engineering curriculum, which has been adopted by over 200 school districts in the US. A dual-level option has been introduced that provides students who successfully complete the program with three hours of college credit and four participating University of Texas System institutions.

Educational Qualifications

• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 1989
• M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 1985
• B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University, 1982

Select Awards & Honors

• University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (2011)
• Ralph Coates Roe Award for exemplary mechanical engineering educators (2010)
• Fred Merryfield Design Award, American Society for Engineering Education (1995)

Related Websites

• LinkedIn Profile – Richard Crawford

Select Publications