Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UVA

David W. Lewis

Professor Emeritus
Office: MEC 210B
Telephone: (434) 924-6208
E-mail: dwl@virginia.edu

David Lewis , Professor Emeritus of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia, holds patents in magnetic bearings, flywheel system, and other design fields. He has earned B.A., B.S. and M.S. degrees from Rice University and Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University.

Industrial experience includes work with IBM and summer experiences with Shell Research, Allison Division of General Motors, and Bell Helicopter. He formed a small company to exploit one of his patents in the field of electronic measurements for the tire industry. These instruments have functioned in the US, Canada, Korea, and South Africa.

Creative design, financial decision making, and vibrations have been areas of specialty in university teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School, Northwestern University, and at the University of Virginia. The hands-on experience of generating a concept, filing personally and obtaining a US Patent, design for manufacture, and sales of the specialty instrument for the tire industry provides a background suitable for guiding others in new product concepts.

With Henry Bolanos, he wrote the book "Creativity And New Product Development" and initiated a course of the same name at the University of Virginia and Yale University. It has become so successful at Yale that they have to limit undergraduate enrollments to 60 per year. The course has been expanded at Yale as a two semester graduate course.

I look forward to hearing from former students and those interested in creativity via email.

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