Matt Rhode is a new teaching assistant professor in the Ann and H.J Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, but he is no stranger to the department.
Matt joined Smead Aerospace in 2001 as a member of staff and is being promoted to faculty starting this academic year.
A 1996 graduate of CU Boulder in mathematics, Matt’s dream was to be a high-school math teacher. After three successful years teaching in a Denver-metro area school district, he was called back CU Boulder and the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department in 2001 to help re-vamp the senior-projects course curriculum and manage the machine shop.
After 17 years of building successful educational programs, he was asked to facilitate the design and construction of the new Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building on East Campus, and to relocate the department there, a three-year monumental task.
Following completion of the building in 2019, Matt pivoted back to teaching, and has been teaching freshman projects, the Gateway to Space course and a new course he developed - Introduction to Rocket Engineering, as well as taking on a faculty advisor role for Senior Projects.
In recognition of his expanded role in the classroom, Smead Aerospace faculty voted this spring to elevate him to a Teaching Assistant Professor role.
With interests in mechanisms, manufacturing, and how mathematics underpins the way things work, Matt has always enjoyed helping students turn sketches and computer models into physical hardware.