Faculty

Short Biography

Jack Mottley has been on the faculty at UR since 1986, and has won several awards and recognition for teaching, most recently the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2005. He has served in many department and University positions, including a nine year stint as associate dean for undergraduate programs of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (1996-2004).

After receiving a bachelor's degree on the Austin Scholars program at Austin College, he attended Washington University in St Louis and earned master's and PhD degrees in physics. His principal research area was in ultrasonic tissue characterization, with additional work in materials characterization as well. More recently his interests have turned toward acoustics and performance issues, with research just beginning in musical acoustics and haptics applied to music performance, and also to institutional research, to find patterns in the way students move through the University that might help to identify problems or opportunities as early as possible.

He has also been very involved with various student design projects, including the Navigational Assistance for the Visually Impaired (NAVI) project which sought to use RFID technology to provide navigational assistance, and which could be used by others as well. He has filed several patent applications, including one that was issued for a Signal Generating Endotracheal Tube, that could monitor the positioning of an ET Tube and sound an alarm if it was displaced (a potentially life-threatening situation).

Having been aware of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) programs for several years, he became involved with the area FIRST community as a judge at the FIRST Robotics Competition Regional Event in 2005 and was hooked. He volunteered to spearhead the introduction of the FIRST LEGO League, a program for middle school aged students, into the Finger Lakes and upstate area, and has served as the Operating Partner of the Finger Lakes FIRST LEGO League Tournament since its inaugural event in December 2005.