4 minute read
Jumbo Magazine - Fall 2023
BRIANA BOUCHARD
ASSISTANT TEACHING PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Most people tell Dr. Briana Bouchard that she must literally bleed brown and blue. It’s not hard to see why—she started at Tufts as an undergraduate and has since earned both her master’s and doctoral degrees here, and more recently was appointed as a member of the faculty. Within the School of Engineering, Professor Bouchard specializes in mechanical engineering, collaborating with both students and faculty members, exploring transdisciplinary areas of interest that fuel her passion for engineering education, problem solving, and systems-thinking approaches. Professor Bouchard is not only a dedicated educator but also a passionate engineer who recognizes the relationality between these historically separate fields and actively seeks out opportunities to expand her knowledge and push the boundaries of what it means to be an engineer.
Math and physics were always fields that resonated with Professor Bouchard. She explains that these disciplines were “always something that I just connected with. They made sense.” Having applied to colleges with intentions to study applied mathematics, she recognized that something was missing. As a natural builder and creator, she yearned for opportunities to merge her technical skills with her applied interests. It wasn’t until she attended an admitted students day at Tufts that she discovered engineering for the first time, the missing link she had been searching for. As the only college she applied to with a dedicated School of Engineering, she knew that not only was this the degree program for her, but Tufts was the exact place to chase her passions. “That’s it.” she remembers thinking, “I love math. I love science, and I can do these two things together in a way that can really impact the world.”
By definition, a Tufts engineering education is geared towards those students with a particular inclination towards a well-rounded education that extends far beyond traditional engineering coursework—students whose interests cannot be confined or defined by a specific set of disciplines. In addition to taking courses in engineering, students are encouraged to explore a variety of subjects, including the humanities, arts, and languages. Professor Bouchard highlights that Tufts is a place where you’ll find engineers who are also passionate about sociology, for example, and who are able to make connections between seemingly unrelated fields. She explains, “My entire career has been one exploration that I didn’t think I was going to take. I’ve ended up as a faculty member because I’m the kind of person who truly loves to learn and that is at the core of everything I do.”
Professor Bouchard’s research interests— integrating the practices of engineering and education—reflect the spirit of intellectual exploration that is central to Tufts’ culture. She thinks innovatively about ways to design, challenge, and improve the engineering classroom, and more specifically about portfolios, which capture the achievements, skills, and products of engineering students and are frequently used by employers to assess the competencies of these students. Portfolios and other formal assessment methods are at the center of the questions Professor Bouchard is asking about the way forward in engineering education. “We know that portfolios are a thing that employers want and we know students are going to end up doing them.” She continues, “But how can we think differently about portfolios in an engineering classroom? How can we look at different ways of doing things, acknowledging that every student learns differently?” As an instructor, she is consistently wowed by the creativity and dedication of her students as they tackle challenging assignments. She actively seeks out opportunities to refine her teaching practice, so that all of her students can fully engage in the joys of the learning process.
Along her educational trajectory, Professor Bouchard reflects on the reality of being the only woman in a field traditionally dominated by men. She vividly remembers being the sole woman in her senior year math class in high school, and has since prioritized mentoring, engaging with, and championing historically marginalized students in STEM fields. All of her inquiries and ambitions in revolutionizing the ways we teach engineers revolve around her central philosophy that “I really do fundamentally believe that so many more people can be engineers than think that they can be.” Empowered from an equity and inclusion framework, she asks how she can progressively realize an engineering environment that supports the growth of students from all backgrounds. She recognizes the high stakes involved in this work, but remains steadfast in her vision. For Professor Bouchard, teaching engineering isn’t just about imparting knowledge—it’s about teaching students how to learn.
