Amy Banzaert
Associate Teaching Professor in Engineering and Director of Engineering Studies
Mechanical engineer and educator dedicated to integrating engineering within a liberal arts context. As the Founding Director of Engineering Studies at Wellesley College, she has been instrumental in building the college’s engineering identity, creating pathways for students to engage with real-world problems through the lenses of technical design, equity, humanitarian innovation, and sustainability.
At Wellesley, my work focuses on making engineering accessible and impactful for students across all disciplines. I founded We-Lab (Wellesley Engineering Lab), a space where students apply collaborative, humanitarian design approaches to address both local and global challenges. My teaching philosophy emphasizes:
Human-Centered Design: Teaching students to prioritize empathy and cultural context in the engineering process.
Project-Based, Community-Based Learning: courses like Fundamentals of Engineering (ENGR160) and Project Creation for All (ENGR111) apply theory to hands-on prototyping to address real world problems
Multidisciplinary Integration: Bridging the gaps between engineering and technology with the liberal arts, including in the courses ENGR/PEAC 305 Intersections of Technology, Social Justice, and Conflict and ES/PEAC 125H Climate Crisis (& Hope)
I have been honored for pedagogical excellence, receiving both the Pinanski Prize and the Apgar Award for teaching at Wellesley.
My doctoral work at MIT focused on the environmental and health impacts of cooking fuels, specifically investigating charcoal briquettes made from agricultural waste as a sustainable alternative to wood fuel in regions facing severe deforestation.
Education
- B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Current and upcoming courses
Product Creation for All
ENGR111
This hands-on class will explore how products are created, including an exploration of ideation and brainstorming, reverse engineering, and the product development process. An emphasis will be placed on the role of human factors engineering, including usability successes and failures of specific products. Students will learn about these topics through two approaches: disassembly and study of existing products and creation of simple product prototypes for specific, local nonprofit organizations serving populations such as those with developmental or physical limitations. By the end of the semester, students will be able to comprehend and independently apply both the product development process and specific human factors engineering approaches used in the design of many everyday objects; they will also have developed their own creativity and better understand how to further develop and apply that skill.
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Renewable Energy Applications
ENGR121
ENGR 121 engages students in understanding the applications of small-scale, sustainable energy technology in resource-limited regions where compact, robust, and low-cost systems for generating power are required. The technologies are focused primarily at the household level; students will explore the benefits and limitations of existing and proposed solutions. For each renewable energy technology studied, students will use hands-on lab experiences to deepen their understanding of the application’s function, gain an understanding of the fundamental physics governing them, and develop engineering estimation strategies to assess them. Methodologies for participatory development and co-creation will be explored in the context of evaluating the trade-offs for energy-related engineering projects. Students will learn to use life cycle assessment to analyze processes and products and look at energy infrastructure globally.