Dr Jos Darling

National Teaching Fellow 2008 Dr Jos Darling is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering and Director of Studies to eight undergraduate degree programmes and 850 students at the University of Bath. During his career at Bath he has developed a portfolio of teaching and educational tools that are based primarily on community building, pragmatic diplomacy and play. Following his education, also at the University of Bath, Jos spent time in industry before his return. He is now successfully combining an active research career with teaching, and has used problems encountered through research to illustrate the excitement of engineering. One example of this is the Shell Eco Marathon, which his students have successfully competed in for ten years, winning over 6 of the various prizecategories. Their most successful vehicle managed 3661 miles pergallon! An EU sponsored project in which he was involved was selected by TIME magazine as one of the top six inventions in 2007 and was subsequently shown by his research students at the 2007 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. Another project, which was concerned with the loss of bone density in micro-gravity conducted on the MIR Space Station, was used as a practical design exercise for his first year students, their only problem being too much gravity in Bath! Recently Jos has worked with a software house to design a computer car racing game which, combined with a practical dragster design and build competition, supports his teaching of engineering dynamics. This project received the 2007 University of Bath Innovation in Learning and Teaching Award. Jos has been awarded a number of prizes for his educational initiatives, including the European Space Agency Team Achievement Award and the University of Bath Mary Tasker Award for best lecturer. One of his students remarked: "In teaching Jos brings enthusiasm and vibrancy... add to this his quirky sense of humour and his connectedness with the students it's easy to see why he's held in such high regard by the student body."