Dr. Sarah Oman is an Assistant Professor of Teaching for the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering (MIME), specializing in senior capstone design and engineering education.

Dr. Oman received their Ph.D. in 2012 in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Industrial Engineering, from Oregon State University (OSU) under Dr. Irem Tumer. Prior to and during their graduate school education, they had two internships with NASA: a team-based design study at NASA JPL and an individual investigation into decision documentation at NASA Ames. They served as a postdoctoral scholar for one and a half years at OSU, teaching courses such as Senior Design and Bio-Inspired Design. Their research background during this time was in design theory and methodology in the concept design process, specifically creativity in concept generation and evaluation.

Dr. Oman taught at Northern Arizona University (NAU) from 2014 to 2021. They were the Senior Design Coordinator for the Mechanical Engineering Capstone courses at NAU from 2016 to 2021; in addition, they developed that department’s freshmen and sophomore design courses. Feedback from industry partners have proven that the capstone program in Mechanical Engineering at NAU was greatly improved in rigor, quality, and student experience over their tenure there. In 2021, Dr. Oman was hired by OSU to serve as the Senior Design Coordinator for the School of MIME.

Research interests
Dr. Oman’s research is focused on engineering education in two main areas: senior capstone design and supporting underrepresented minority students that identify as LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent.

Senior capstone design research includes how to prepare new instructors in teaching capstone for the first time, methods of utilizing faculty advisors and technical writer evaluators in capstone projects, adapting capstone to fully remote experiences, and strategies to create optimum project descriptions and scopes.

Regardless of how diverse a student or faculty population may be, there are always steps that can be taken to create a more equitable environment to learn and work. Dr. Oman’s research in supporting LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent students is looking at the big picture of what is currently being done and developing engineering educational pedagogy that can support a foundation for success in all students. Often students who conduct research with Dr. Oman in this field follow a choose-your-own-path approach in selecting a focus that speaks directly to their own experiences.