Location
Thornton D202
Google Scholar

About

Esther Tian is an associate professor of engineering. She also serves as the faculty advisor for the Engineers for Sustainable World at UVA club. Before joining the inaugural First Year Engineering Center, Esther helped establish the Engineering program at Eastern Mennonite University and led the program to attain the initial ABET accreditation.

Esther champions students’ success. She directed numerous students’ projects, some of which led to provisional patent, publication, and 1st-place winner at ASEE Zone II conference. Esther deeply cares about her students’ intellectual, personal, and professional growth. She aims to help students discover their interests, hone the technical skills needed to develop toward their career goals, and practice the ethics of working together and serving the whole of society. She believes the ultimate objective of engineering education is to make engineers good people. 

Esther’s hobbies are reading and hiking. When hiking she enjoys striking new routes, although there is one trail that she is especially fond of, it happens to be called Old Trail.

Education

Ph.D. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia

M.S. and B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Changsha Institute of Technology

Research Interests

Bio-inspired Robotics
Engineering Design
Engineering Education

Selected Publications

STEM Scholars Engaging in Local Problems. Proceedings of the 129th American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN (2022) Tian J., Showalter D., Kishbaugh T.L., Barge S.
A design approach in an Introduction to Engineering course. Proceedings of the 121st American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Indianapolis, IN (2014) Tian J.
Mechanisms underlying rhythmic locomotion: Dynamics of muscle activation. Journal of Experimental Biology 214: 1955-1964 (2011) Chen J.*, Tian J.*, Iwasaki T., Friesen W.O. (*authors contributed equally)
Analysis of impulse adaptation in motoneurons. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 196: 123-136 (2010) Tian J., Iwasaki T., Friesen W.O.

Courses Taught

ENGR 1010 Engineering Foundations I
ENGR 1020 Engineering Foundations II ENGR 2595 Special Topics in Engineering
Courses taught in other areas: Statics, Dynamics, Systems and Control, Capstone Design Project