teaching

Teaching Assistant Experience

AerE 5490 / CE 5490: Structural Health Monitoring

Iowa State University | Teaching Assistant | Fall 2023

It was a great honor to serve as a Teaching Assistant for this senior/graduate-level course on Structural Health Monitoring, guiding students through both theoretical foundations and hands-on applications.

Course Information

   
Course AerE 5490 / CE 5490 (Dual-listed with CE 4490)
Credits 3
Contact Hours Lecture 3
Prerequisites Senior classification in an Engineering major or Permission of Instructor
Instructor Professor Dr. Simon Laflamme

Course Description

Introductory and advanced topics in structural health monitoring (SHM) of aeronautical, civil, and mechanical systems. Topics include:

  • Sensors — Selection and deployment of sensing technologies
  • Signal Processing — Time and frequency domain analysis techniques
  • Data Acquisition & Transmission — System design and implementation
  • Integrated SHM Solutions — Design of complete monitoring systems
  • Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) — Techniques for damage assessment without destructive testing
  • Feature Extraction Methods — Identifying damage-sensitive indicators from sensor data
  • Cutting-Edge Research — Current advances in the field of SHM

Graduate students (5490) have a supervisory role to assist students in 4490, plus an additional design project or more in-depth analysis and design.

My Responsibilities

As the Teaching Assistant, I was responsible for:

  • MATLAB Instruction — Teaching students coding skills for signal processing tasks, including time-domain and frequency-domain analysis
  • Office Hours — Holding regular office hours to provide one-on-one support and clarify course concepts
  • Student Support — Answering student questions on assignments, lab work, and project implementations
  • Lab Sessions — Guiding hands-on laboratory exercises focused on structural health monitoring techniques
  • Data Analysis Guidance — Helping students understand data acquisition systems and analysis methods in civil and aerospace engineering contexts

Special thanks to Professor Dr. Simon Laflamme for this opportunity to contribute to student learning and development.

Educational Content Creation

Ground Control Point (GCP) Mapping Tutorial Series

I created a step-by-step video playlist demonstrating the complete workflow for creating Ground Control Point maps—a critical tool in sUAS (small Unmanned Aircraft Systems) data collection campaigns.

Why GCPs Matter

Ground Control Points are essential for achieving high-precision georeferencing in drone-based photogrammetry and remote sensing. Proper GCP placement and retrieval directly impacts:

  • Positional accuracy of orthomosaics and digital elevation models
  • Repeatability of multi-temporal surveys for change detection
  • Survey-grade quality required for infrastructure monitoring applications

Playlist Contents

The tutorial series covers:

  1. Planning GCP distribution — Strategic placement for optimal coverage
  2. Field deployment procedures — Best practices for placing GCPs before flights
  3. GPS/GNSS surveying — Recording accurate coordinates for each control point
  4. Post-processing workflow — Integrating GCPs into photogrammetry software
  5. Quality assessment — Evaluating georeferencing accuracy and RMSE

Watch the Tutorial Series

This resource supports researchers and practitioners working with drone-collected imagery for applications including infrastructure inspection, agricultural monitoring, and terrain mapping.