|
Harry Dankowicz, who became chair of the University of Maryland’s (UMD) Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2024, is an expert in dynamical systems whose many distinctions include a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Archie Higdon Distinguished Educator Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Fred Merryfield Design Award from the American Society for Engineering Education.
The seeds of his interest in science and math were sown young, but his journey into engineering didn’t begin with his undergraduate studies or even his grade school coursework. For Dankowicz, it started with a cartoon he grew up watching called Professor Balthazar.
The show, created in Yugoslavia in the 1960s and later broadcast around the world, featured a small inventor faced with various obstacles. After pacing back and forth across the screen, Professor Balthazar would have an insight. The music would shift as the inventor turned the knobs and pulled the levers of a magical machine until a brightly colored liquid poured into a test tube.
“He would take that test tube and pour it onto the ground, and as he did, this explosion would occur and there were all kinds of colors. Then this device would materialize,” Dankowicz said. “And that device obviously solved the problem. So clearly an engineer,” he added, laughing.
As an engineer, Dankowicz’s research has touched on the agricultural sector, medical technology, and even insect behavior. He explained that what ties all of his work together is the use of modeling to understand a range of complex systems.
“Once I've developed certain kinds of models, I then apply sophisticated mathematical tools to understand the implications of those models,” he said. “I’m then capable of doing something unique, which is at the abstract level, and then work with people who can bring it down to the point where it actually turns to something meaningful and impactful.”
He shared his work on bees as an example. Working alongside an entomologist and psychologist, Dankowicz studied bee colonies to understand how coordination may emerge in other leaderless scenarios (contrary to popular belief, a queen bee’s job is to lay eggs rather than rule the colony).
“We were trying to say something useful about how humans might respond to certain situations and how cooperation might emerge even without direct communication,” Dankowicz said. “The question was will coordination arise when you have such limited information, especially in circumstances where there are multiple choices for success.”
The study required modeling both to predict interactions among insects and to interpret the data collected from the colony and humans, offering the team insights into how individuals make decisions when there’s limited information and no one in charge.
It’s an example of the interdisciplinary nature of both Dankowicz’s career and modern mechanical engineering, which he says relies heavily on physics and mathematics and often requires working closely with scholars in aerospace, electrical, civil, environmental, chemical, and biomedical engineering.
At UMD, mechanical engineering students have a chance to explore a multifaceted field and also understand its real-world applications through a robust research program and the university’s connections to industry and policy organizations in the Washington, D.C. area.
“We think of ourselves as serving a mission for the state of Maryland, but also for the nation and, frankly, the world,” Dankowicz said. “Together with our peers across the country, we lead in the advancement of knowledge, the training of world-class engineers, and the achievement of a better tomorrow for all.”
September 20, 2025
|
