Outstanding Teaching Assistant 

A first-year graduate student through the Mechanical Engineering Department’s BS/MS program, Aleksei Dillon made quite an impression working with undergraduate students, receiving the 2023 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for the Mechanical Engineering Department.

“It’s nice to be recognized by students for the efforts that I put into make their learning and studying experiences better,” said Dillon, who will work for a medical device company upon completing his master’s degree.

As a TA for mechanical engineering design courses this year, Dillon embraced his role as a resource for students, making an extra effort to ensure that every student who visited his office hours left with a full understanding of the material.  

“I tried to make my office hours and exam review sessions useful, so it’s great to see that these efforts helped my students,” said Dillon, who was advised this year by mechanical engineering associate professor Elliot Hawkes, iterating the design of a soft robot that helps move endoscopes through blood vessels by improving the robot’s ability to turn and match the path of the vessels.