Joran is a research scientist and lecturer at Yale University and a Co-Advisor with Professor Tahira Reid. He received the degree of D-PhD in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the Brigham Young University. His research focuses on how students abstract and solve complex problems in early design phases, with a special emphasis on functional decomposition and sketching/visualization. Other research interests include prototyping, engineering history, education, family science, and history. Joran spends his free time volunteering, playing board games, hiking, playing music, or spending time outdoors. His past projects include starting the Purdue Maker’s club, various sketching workshops, and simple robots. He recently finished an internship at IMMI, a top automotive safety products company. Joran is a member of ASME and the Order of the Engineer. You can find more information at http://joranbooth.wordpress.
Understanding Abstraction In Design: A Comparison of Three Functional Analysis Methods for Product Dissection
In design classes, functional analysis is a process that is typically used to assist students with identifying essential functions to aid in the development of their concepts. However, it has been observed that students sometimes struggle with this part of the...
Makers’ Faire 2012
In 2012, our lab represented Purdue for the first time at the annual Makers’ Faire in San Mateo, California. We taught sketching workshops for well over 200 people over 2...
NERF Blaster Dissections
In 2012, we were invited to lead a workshop in ME 297 (How Stuff Works) for NERF blasters. We brought blasters for the students to take apart. After the students took the blasters apart, they created a function tree to describe how it works. They were then shown...
