James (Jim) Frankenfield - Tutoring Services

Engineering Tutoring

I offer engineering tutoring for select courses and topics, primarily but not exclusively general engineering or pre-engineering. My B.Sc. degree is in ECSE (Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering) from RPI. Prior to returning to graduate school (and while working 11 hour days) I took graduate engineering courses at USU. Most of these graduate courses were in Mechanical Engineering on analytical topics (i.e. Gas Dynamics, Transport Phenomena, etc) but a few were in computer architecture and semiconductor physics.

For more about my tutoring in general follow the link at the top or on the side to the main tutoring page. To get started you can contact me.

My Engineering Background

I graduated from RPI with an engineering degree and a primary interest in semiconductor physics (devices and processes). During my undergraduate studies I worked for IBM in computer design (diagnostic microcode, logical design) and in semiconductor yield analysis and prediction. Following graduation I worked for Intel as a process engineer, moving after a year to Morton-Thiokol (which makes solid fuel rocket motors including the space shuttle boosters).

In addition to my industry experience I also worked in a few academic research labs. One at RPI was a a semiconductor device physics lab, one at the University of Utah was studying cloud physics, and one at Oregon State was studying vadose zone fluid flow and fluids in unsaturated porous media.

After working in engineering and becoming bored I returned to graduate school at Utah State University in the Physics department. During my time at Thiokol I had taken a significant number of engineering courses which allowed me to earn two degrees in physics and math. I taught a custom graduate course on semiconductor process physics and a senior/graduate seminar on non-linear dynamics. My text for the seminar was still in use by the Water Resources Research Lab for several years afterward. So while my degrees are in physics and math I developed strong connections with both the electrical and civil engineering departments.

I later taught some courses for Oregon Tech, including a senior elective in Systems Modeling and Analysis. I assisted the Civil Engineering Department with grading when they were short a faculty member. At RPI I assisted teaching Linear Systems Analysis and Computer Organization and Logic Design which was quite an honor as an undergraduate at a leading STEM institute.