By Madison Akers
Dr. Darryll J. Pines, dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor of UMD’s engineering school, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), which is one of the highest honors an engineer can receive.
Pines seeks to improve the welfare of the nation by utilizing the knowledge of prestigious engineers who can provide insights to the federal government on technological and engineering matters.
“The award speaks for itself,” junior engineering major Shawn Byrn said. “The fact that he was even considered for it should be a huge honor.”
Pines is among 21 other UMD engineering school faculty members who have been elected into the NAE in the organization’s history..
“I am honored to have been elected into this very prestigious academy,” Pines said. “I am very grateful for the people that I work with here at the School of Engineering, but also throughout my entire career. It’s not just that it is the embodiment of my own personal accomplishments, but it is also the embodiment of all the accomplishments of my colleagues within the School of Engineering.”
Shortly after he earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pines said he spent some time helping design the sensors for the Clementine spacecraft at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. While in a polar lunar orbit, the spacecraft discovered ice at the lunar south pole, furthering the idea that life could be sustained on the moon.
Pines said he has been interested in engineering since he was 12 years old.
“I would ride my bike to the local airport in Oakland, California, and I would watch planes take off and land,” Pines said. “I would marvel at how such heavy objects could gain altitude and fly. I didn’t know what the field was called at the time, but I knew that there was something there that was exciting and interesting to me.”
As for Molly Jones, a sophomore engineering major, she discovered her passion while taking a course that taught by Pines in her first semester as a freshman.
“I like him as a person and I like him as an educator,” Jones said. “I was kind of debating whether or not I even wanted to be an engineer, and he definitely solidified that it is a worthwhile job. He’s really passionate about what he does, and it definitely shows.
Currently, Pines is leading the university in a project partnering with Virginia Tech, Morgan State University, Arizona State University and Vanderbilt University. The team is working on developing an engineering curriculum that can be offered at every high school across the nation. The project, Engineering For US All (E4USA), has a mission to teach every high school student the engineering design methodology and engineering problem-solving skills.
“You may wake up one day and say, ‘I have an idea,’ but most people immediately forget about that idea because it usually involves an engineering solution and they don’t know how to solve it,” Pines said. “But with the E4USA course, they could actually come up with a solution. So to every person, no matter what your aspirations may be, always follow your ideas and passions.”