Aimee Cloutier

ME welcomes new assistant professor

New Assistant Professor Aimee Cloutier says she came to Rose-Hulman because of its emphasis on teaching and learning. She quickly found strong support for new faculty and for women.

“Everybody has been welcoming and supportive,” says the Lone Star State native who earned two degrees at Texas Tech. “The transition could have been difficult, coming directly from grad school.”

Like all new faculty, Cloutier is teaching a single course at first: Conservation and Accounting Principles (ES 201). She notes that Rose-Hulman is one of only a few institutions that teach conservation of mass, momentum and energy in an integrated study, rather than split among various courses.

A former National Science Foundation graduate research fellow, she appreciates the many active efforts to support women at Rose-Hulman. At Texas Tech, Cloutier helped with outreach to encourage women in engineering.

Her dissertation explored Grasping Force Optimization in Robotic and Prosthetic Devices, suggesting a possible future course in rehabilitation engineering. For now, she’s concentrating on fostering student learning, both in the classroom and through experiences such as research and competition teams.

John Guess

Guess-work: New ME tech joins department

John Guess, mechanical engineering technician, has worn several hats over the years, serving as machinist, machine builder, foreman, and machine designer/draftsman. Now, he’s the one who sets up equipment for student labs and projects, along with all the tweaking, tuning and troubleshooting that entails.

That’s a tall order given the range of technology and assignments ME students have to master. But, after decades of experience with Numerical Concepts in Terre Haute, Guess is up to the task. His work as a technician has taken him to many places in the U.S., as well as to Canada, England and Malaysia.

John knew he was inheriting a well-run, fast-paced endeavor when he took the job. What surprised him, he says, is “the outgoing-ness of everyone here. The people have been great.”