{"555611":{"#nid":"555611","#data":{"type":"news","title":"In the Classroom with: Julian Rimoli","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022intro-text\u0022\u003EWhen he was a child, \u003Cstrong\u003EJulian Rimoli\u003C\/strong\u003E shared a dream with many other kids who grew up watching space missions: he wanted to be an astronaut.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022People thought I was crazy because I was in Argentina \u2014 in a small town,\u0022 said Rimoli,\u0026nbsp; laughing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut it was no joke.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERimoli put his dreams to work, earning an aeronautics engineering degree at Argentina\u0027s Universidad Nacional de La Plata before coming to the U.S\u0026nbsp;to earn a master\u0027s and doctoral degree from Caltech. Prior to accepting a faculty position at GT-AE in 2011, he spent two years as a post-doc at MIT\u0027s\u0026nbsp; Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBecoming an astronaut is no longer on his wish list, but Rimoli is not complaining...\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I really like this place,\u0022 Rimoli said of\u0026nbsp; the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I haven\u0027t been able to find another place with the level of energy we have on this campus. The students are very active, and they always have ideas and want to participate in research. The faculty is the same \u2014 lots of people are willing to collaborate all the time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EClassroom Strategies\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the five years that he has been at GT-AE, Rimoli has excelled as a teacher, receiving both the Lockheed Dean\u0027s Award for Excellence in Teaching\u0026nbsp; and the Goizueta Junior Faculty Professorship.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the classroom, he says, it\u0027s important to reconstruct the process and build on the story.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Each lecture has its own story,\u0022 he said. \u0022I spend a lot of time thinking on the concept of how something comes to be the way it is.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOf his statics class (COE 2001), Rimoli said it was as important for students to gain an intuition about the subject as it is for them to gain technical knowledge. He is frustrated - and a little inspired - when he fails to convey both.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022When I perceive that students are not understanding, I think about how to fix it the next time I teach it,\u0022 he said. \u0022But at that moment, I try to come up with new ways of explaining, and try different examples or angles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd it\u0027s okay, he tells his students, if they don\u0027t understand everything in class.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022In the classroom, you get the big picture and, hopefully, you get a good set of notes to help you study. But at the end of the day, there\u0027s no way around studying.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch3\u003EReaching Students\u003C\/h3\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERimoli is excited by the exchange of energy in his classes - whether he\u0027s teaching undergraduates or doctoral students.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The moment I walk into the classroom, I get energy. I give them energy, and they give me energy back,\u0022 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022It always helps if the students are engaged, and it takes time to build a relationship with the class. The classroom dynamic is not the same the first week of class as it is at the end of the semester.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERimoli said the excitement level varies according to what he is teaching.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022When I teach an advanced graduate level class, what excites me is that it really forces me to learn,\u0022 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I have to prepare for these smart Ph.D. students who are going to ask tough questions. I want to \u2014 as much as possible \u2014 know the answer or be ready to think about the answer on the spot. It\u0027s a very stimulating intellectual challenge.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen teaching statics, an undergraduate course, Rimoli faces a different set of challenges.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022What I enjoy is the challenge of how to teach what, to me, is obvious,\u0022 he said. \u0022I have to put myself in the mindset of the students, and try to remember where I was [at their age].\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe also has to be mindful about actively expressing the commitment he has to his students. Rimoli said that students are really good at reading the commitment of the faculty.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I think students appreciate the commitment,\u0022 he said. \u0022They may or may not like your teaching style, but if you are committed, they will respect it.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERimoli\u0027s commitment shows. When he was teaching his students about trusses, he took the time to create \u0022Truss Me! \u2014 an app that employs a video game format to coach students to think intuitively about truss behavior.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis commitment has had an impact that goes far beyond his classroom.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EReleased in 2014, Truss Me! has had 120,000 downloads in more than 140 countries, including 36,000 downloads from educational institutions. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe app has gained a popular following here at Tech, but, Rimoli observes, the most important feedback he\u0027s received for his efforts has had nothing to do with it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The best reward is on the last day of class when a student shakes your hand and says, \u0022I enjoyed your class.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"AE Professor Julian Rimoli Inspires the Next Gen"}],"field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"AE Professor Julian Rimoli inspires next gen aerospace engineers"}],"uid":"27836","created_gmt":"2016-07-26 12:11:04","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:22:12","author":"Kathleen Moore","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-06-10T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-06-10T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"543001":{"id":"543001","type":"image","title":"In the Classroom with Julian Rimoli","body":null,"created":"1465412400","gmt_created":"2016-06-08 19:00:00","changed":"1475895333","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:33","alt":"In the Classroom with Julian Rimoli","file":{"fid":"90769","name":"rimoli2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rimoli2.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/rimoli2.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1074129,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/rimoli2.jpg?itok=MRJwEP1W"}}},"media_ids":["543001"],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}