In memoriam: Michael M. Stanisic, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering | News

Michael M. Stanisic, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame and a beloved teacher acknowledged for his wit and generous spirit, died April 11. He was 65.

Stanisic joined the Notre Dame college in 1988 just after earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels in engineering from Purdue University. An qualified in robotics, he authored and co-authored textbooks and various papers in primary journals on kinematics, a branch of mechanics that bargains with mathematical descriptions of motion. He also invented and patented new types of robotic joints.

He is very best recognized for his famous teaching and obtained various awards for instruction and advising, such as Notre Dame’s Joyce Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Instructing in 2001, 2007 and 2022.

Between his former college students are quite a few associates of the Faculty of Engineering faculty.

“As a junior, I took Professor Stanisic’s kinematics training course,” Mike Seelinger, the Dunn Household Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering, claimed. “He experienced a great feeling of humor and exuded enthusiasm. His program lit the hearth of my passion for engineering.”

Craig Goehler, affiliate teaching professor of mechanical engineering and Stanisic’s previous graduate scholar, described his adviser’s approach to mentoring as empowering. “He encouraged us to determine out on our very own the investigation concerns that most necessary responses,” Goehler stated.

Stanisic encouraged college students to use the mechanical rules and mathematical tools they uncovered in the classroom to create operating devices — a thing they did with enthusiasm in the golf equipment he led.

Hundreds of student-created robots and off-road autos arrived to daily life during the 30 several years that “Doc,” as the students affectionately known as him, served as adviser for Baja SAE, the intercollegiate engineering structure competition, and the 12 several years that he led the Robotic Soccer Club.

“Doc thought that good engineers will need simple expertise,” Kevin Alvarez, mechanical engineering big and Notre Dame Baja Club president, reported. “If it weren’t for Doc, I wouldn’t have realized how to weld, use a mill or a lathe, or how to thoroughly do CAM (computer system-aided manufacturing) or run FEA (finite element analysis) on elements. Doc was not just our faculty adviser, he was the No. 1 member of our workforce.”

Stanisic was as caring with his colleagues as he was with his pupils.

“He was an astounding chef who enjoyed sharing his abilities in the kitchen area and enjoy of meals with his colleagues,” explained Jim Schmiedeler, professor of mechanical engineering, who recalled Stanisic as his initially mentor. “He also loved his job. He would usually inform new hires that this was the ‘greatest occupation in the world’ to instruct engineering to this kind of gifted pupils on such a attractive campus.”

Stanisic’s infectious snicker and his set-gear bicycle, his most popular manner of transportation, will be drastically skipped by his colleagues and learners.

“Mike was put on this earth to be an educator,” Goehler claimed. “There is no way that an person could interact with Mike and not be modified for the far better by the practical experience.”

Stanisic is survived by a few daughters, two sisters and a brother.

A funeral support was held Tuesday (April 18) at Sts. Peter and Paul Serbian Orthodox Church in South Bend.