Department of Mechanical Engineering VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY College of Engineering Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0238 Department

Office: (540) 231-7182 Fax: (540) 231-9100

! Re: IDEO Internship Recommendation for Rodrigo Sarlo Dear IDEO Internship Committee,

29 January 2014

I am extremely pleased to recommend Rodrigo for your internship this summer at your Boston studio. I am an associate professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Mechanical Engineering and I have had the pleasure of working with Rodrigo when he was a graduate teaching assistant for me and he developed a new laboratory that has now had over 600 students perform the experiment! Rodrigo is an ideal fit for IDEO because he has an outstanding grasp of engineering fundamentals, and he is extremely competent and able to think on his feet! As you know, these traits are CRITICAL for the successful development and realization of new designs. Oh, and did I mention creative? Rodrigo is extremely good at thinking outside of the box to solve complex problems. Did I mention scrappy? Yes! This guy can solve problems. Id be more than happy to have him in my own research group! He is an outstanding educator, engineer, and leader as I will explain in this letter all necessary roles to bring to a design team. Rodrigo joined our Direct-PhD program after finishing his BS at the University of Virginia. Because of his outstanding record, our department offered him a two-semester GTA contract very early in the graduate application process as a recruitment tool, and he joined our program in the Fall of 2011. That semester, he was assigned to me as one of ~20 GTAs for a large (~300 student) required laboratory course for our seniors in mechanical engineering. Every semester, out of the 19 GTAs assigned to the class, my co-instructor and I choose four to be Lead GTAs. These assignments are truly educational leadership positions that require the GTA to be responsible on all levels for one of four major laboratory experiments, including preparing and giving lectures to groups of ~75 undergraduate students (eventually cycling through all 300 students in the course), managing a sub-group of 4 GTAs assigned to that particular lab, insuring that experimental hardware and software is working properly, and addressing personnel issues with students and GTAs. Although Lead GTAs get a reduced number of lab sections, they additionally must perform regular GTA responsibilities including leading lab sections with 5 undergraduate students each through the experiment and grading substantial lab reports and student presentations. As you can imagine choosing the right people for Lead GTA positions is critical for the success of the course and the successful education of our students. During the pre-semester GTA training sessions, my co-instructor and I make decisions very quickly in the process on who will be a Lead GTA. We like to pick experienced GTAs or students that have graduated from VT (and this course) for these positions, but in 2011 there was no one in the ranks that met this criteria with background in automatic control theory and mechatronics. We took a chance and asked a new student, unfamiliar with VT, but with a working knowledge of controls and a leadership presence about him evidenced by our initial interactions with him. We asked Rodrigo Sarlo to step in as a Lead GTA, and this has proven to be one of the smartest choices we have ever made, which continues to pay off for our students.

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Let me explain Right away, Rodrigo proved to be a high-performer and someone who takes ownership and responsibility for the work he is doing. He immediately took charge of the logistical and educational aspects of his role, beginning with very in-depth questions and request for feedback as he prepared his lectures. While not explicitly part of his responsibilities, he explored and made meaningful modifications to the prepared laboratory material, seeking input from instructors, fellow GTAs, and undergraduate students. He did not hesitate to make good decisions based on his research, experience, and natural teaching intuition. Rodrigo actually took it upon himself to spearhead the development of a new tutorial based on the issues his undergraduate students were having with the existing tutorial for this experiment. He created the new material quickly, and made it available in a very short time into the semester. I was extremely impressed by his initiative as well as his ability to develop a highly-effective tutorial on complex automatic controls topics to help our undergraduates. I was also very impressed by Rodrigos ability to lecture extremely effectively to 75 senior mechanical engineering students at a time, where he presented complex control topics and experimental procedures in an articulate easy-going manner. What I realized as I watched Rodrigo teach his/my students (as well as his fellow GTAs) is that he was a natural educator. His dedication and commitment to student learning and improving his own teaching style, in conjunction with his ability to confidently communicate complex concepts in a straight-forward and intuitive manner, demonstrated that I was watching the development of an outstanding educator, engineer, and leader. While Rodrigo made vast improvements in the controls lab, the experimental apparatus was complicated and had some reliability issues. While I had no plans to create a new experiment, based on Rodrigos performance as a lead GTA in the Fall of 2011, I requested that the department assign him to me for a GTA during Spring and Summer 2012 in order to develop a new laboratory for the Fall 2012 course. As Rodrigo worked to develop a new lab experiment, he continually impressed me by his educational insights as he worked to create an effective experiment for 300 students to perform every fall semester. I watched as he successfully tackled technical challenges and communicated his findings in an articulate manner. He had a keen understanding of what level of expectations were reasonable for senior mechanical engineering undergraduates in the complex topic of the experiment. The result of his work was a new lab in controls that requires students to determine parameters to control a motor to open a padlock under certain constraints. Students model and test their controller designs with a real lock and motor system. Rodrigo not only developed the hardware and software interfaces and programs, but also developed lectures, quizzes, and a tutorial based on the experiment. He did this singlehandedly with only my periodic review and input. As always, I was nervous about launching any new experiment in a class this large, but any concerns I had proved unfounded. The first offering of the padlock lab went off without a hitch in the Fall of 2012, and quickly became one of the more popular experiments in the course. I was genuinely and very pleasantly surprised. There is usually a breaking in period for all experiments, and some early failures of hardware, software, and/or educational resources. However, we never missed a beat on this one the credit goes completely to Rodrigo for this educational success! I should add that Rodrigo found research funding starting in Fall 2012, but he (with the consent of his advisor) agreed to take a !-time GTA to shepherd in the new lab

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experiment including repeating his role as Lead GTA. His ownership of the experiment and more importantly, of the education of his students is outstanding. The laboratory experiment and educational resources that Rodrigo developed will be used for years to come. Already over 600 students have benefited from performing this experiment and hundreds, well, likely thousands, will follow. I have seen almost nothing but praise coming from undergraduates in their feedback for Rodrigo. The development of a successful major laboratory experience and receiving outstanding student feedback is quite a feat, period. Now add that Rodrigo just finished his undergraduate degree in May 2011, and while going above and beyond his GTA duties he also did very well in his own coursework and passed his PhD qualifying exam. Rodrigo is creative, scrappy, smart and competent. He is an outstanding educator, engineer, and leader. Why should IDEO care?? A talented educator has the ability to transform complex problems into smaller understandable components an essential talent for achieving successful design solutions. A strong understanding of engineering fundamentals allows correct and efficient application of knowledge to solving a problem. Leadership ability is necessary for making good decisions based on a logical process. In short, Rodrigo Sarlo, is an ideal intern to join the IDEO team as he embodies all of these traits. Best regards,

Mary Kasarda, PhD Associate Professor Associate Director, Virginia Tech Smart Infrastructure Laboratory http://vtsil.weebly.com/

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