Jeffrey R. Mountain, Ph.D., P.E.

Biography

Following an 11-year career in the Houston Area construction industry, Dr. Mountain attended the University of Texas at Arlington, earning a BSME, a MSME and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. He has held faculty positions at UT-Arlington, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was the third full-time faculty member hired to start the Mechanical Engineering program at The University of Texas at Tyler, where he became a tenured faculty member, faculty senate president, and frequent National Science Foundation proposal evaluator. Following his 13-year engagement at UT Tyler, Dr. Mountain joined the faculty at Norwich University in Northfield Vermont as a tenured faculty member and the Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering.

He developed and taught approximately 16 different required and elective courses while at UT Tyler, including the Computer Aided Design/Graphics, Electro-Mechanical Systems Design, HVAC Systems Design, Process Controls and Automation, Industrial Robotics and Alternative and Sustainable Energy Systems. Dr. Mountain was instrumental in the first two ABET evaluations at UT Tyler and was the primary contact and self-study author during the most recent ABET evaluation at Norwich. He most recently authored the ABET self-study and was the primary contact for the UHCL Mechanical Engineering program’s initial accreditation evaluation, which has resulted in a positive recommendation from the visiting team. Currently, Dr. Mountain is a mechanical engineering program evaluator for ABET, representing the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Dr. Mountain is a currently registered professional engineer and licensed master plumber in Texas. He is also a very active member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He has served as chair of the ASME Design Education Committee and a reviewer for the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, and was elected to two terms as honors and awards chair for the Design Engineering Division. He is currently a member of the ASME Ralph Coats Rowe Medal selection committee and chair of the ASME South Texas Section Gas Turbine Technical Committee. He has also been an active manuscript reviewer with the Engineering Design Graphics and the Educational Research and Methods Divisions of ASEE.

Dr. Mountain has facilitated the acquisition and mentoring of multiple undergraduate design projects supported by NASA and other local industrial partners.

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Areas of Expertise

Dr. Mountain's primary areas of expertise have been Mechatronics, Industrial Robotics, Applications of Fuzzy Logic and Laser Fabrication Applications and has published papers related to powder coating and particle technology. He has been heavily involved in the scholarship of engineering education, attracting and retaining engineering students and the pedagogy of design engineering.

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Publications

• “Capstone Project Selection and Evaluation Processes: More Fair for the Students and Easier for the ABET Evaluator,” Jeffrey R. Mountain, Proceedings of the Northeast Regional Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Boston, MA, April 30-May 2, 2015.
• “Creating an Economical Solar Decathlon House,” Edwin R. Schmeckpeper, Matthew Lutz, Michael Puddicome, Jeffrey Mountain, and John Patterson, Proceedings of the Zone 1 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Bridgeport, CT, April 3-5, 2014. (Winner of University of Bridgeport School of Engineering Award).
• “Initiating Development of a Concept Inventory For Engineering Design,” Jeffrey R. Mountain, Proceedings of IDETC/CIE 2013, ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Paper DETC2013-12984, Portland Oregon, August 4-7, 2013.
• “Fuzzy Logic Motor Speed Control with Real-Time Interface using an 8-bit Embedded Processor,” Jeffrey R. Mountain, Proceedings of the IEEE 42nd Southeastern Symposium on System Theory (SSST-2010), Tyler Texas, 2010.
• “Design and Fabrication of a Microfluidic Pressure Inverter,” Andrew K. Palican, Silvio A. Chavez, and Jeffrey R. Mountain, Proceedings of IDETC/CIE 2008, ASME 2008 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Paper DETC2008-49813, Brooklyn, New York, August 3-6, 2008.
• “Rapid Prototyping of Printed-Circuit Boards with an Engraving Laser,” David Beams and Jeffrey R. Mountain, Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Chicago Illinois, 2006.
• “Development Of A Breadboard System For Process Control Design: Part I,” Jeffrey R. Mountain, Successes in Mechanical Engineering Design Education, Proceedings of IMECE 2002 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, New Orleans, La, 2002.
• “Electrostatic Effects on First Pass Transfer Efficiency in the Application of Powder Coatings,” R. A. Sims,
• M. K. Mazumder, X. Liu, W. Chok, J. R. Mountain, D L. Wankum, P. Pettit and T. Chasser, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Application, Volume 37, Number 6, pp. 1610-1617, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2001. 
• "Triboelectric Charging of Polymer Powders in Fluidization and Transport Processes," J.R. Mountain, M.K. Mazumder, R.A. Sims, D.L. Wankum, T. Chasser and P.H. Pettit, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Applications, Volume 37, Number 3, pp. 778 - 784, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2001.
• "Transfer Efficiency Enhancement of Powder Coating Application Using Response Surface Methodology," J. R. Mountain and M. K. Mazumder, Particulate Science and Technology, an International Journal, Volume 14, No. 3, pp. 255-266, Taylor and Francis Ltd., Washington D.C., 1996.

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Courses (Current Academic Year)

• ENGR 1304 Engineering Graphics
• MENG 2301 Statics
• MENG 2361 Intro to Mechanical Design
• MENG 3210 Experimental and Statistical Methods (Old Curriculum)
• MENG 3210 Mechanical Engineering Lab I (New Curriculum)
• MENG 3211 Mechanical Engineering Lab II
• MENG 3314 Design Methodology
• MENG 4240 Senior Design Project I
• MENG 4241 Senior Design Project II
• MENG 4307 Alternative Energy Systems
• MENG 4310 Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems
• MENG 4340 Mechanical Engineering Capstone I
• MENG 4341 Mechanical Engineering Capstone II
• MENG 4389 Independent Study

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Research Projects

Dr. Mountain has prior and ongoing research in a variety of technical and educational areas. These include microfluidic device fabrication using additive and ablative techniques, applications of fuzzy logic control, advancing and enhancing design engineering education and developing strategies and techniques to attract and retain a diverse pool of engineering students.

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Awards and Accomplishments

• Member Alpha Chi – National Honor Society.
• Member Tau Beta Pi – National Engineering Honor Society.
• Member Pi Tau Sigma – Mechanical Engineering Honor Fraternity.
• Tau Beta Pi (Vermont Beta Chapter) Distinguished Service Award - April 2017
• Alpha Chi Outstanding Faculty Member for College of Engineering and Computer Science – 2005.
• Alpha Chi Outstanding Faculty Member for College of Engineering – 2000.
• Engineering Student’s Association Best Professor of the Year: Mechanical Engineering – 2001.
• Who’s Who in Science and Engineering – 2005 Edition.
• Who's Who in Engineering Education – 2002 Edition.

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