Education.Ph.D. - 2014, University of Michigan Aerospace Engineering M.Eng. - 2012, Virginia Tech University Mechanical Engineering B.S. - 2008, Montana Tech University General Engineering |
Teaching.ME 533 - Machine Design I ME 563 - Machine Design II ME 575 - Senior Design II ME 656 - Mechanical Vibration ME 940 - Experimental Mechanics |
Professional Experience.Professor Hobeck received a bachelor's degree in general engineering from Montana Tech at the University of Montana in 2008, where he was an undergraduate researcher at the Center for Advanced Mineral & Metallurgical Processing (CAMP). He earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2012. While earning his master's, he was a graduate research assistant in the Center for Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures (CIMSS) and in the Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems (CEHMS) from 2009 to 2011. Hobeck received a doctorate degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan in 2014. He completed his postdoctoral appointment as a research fellow in the aerospace engineering department at the University of Michigan in 2017. During his postdoc, Hobeck was lab manager for the Adaptive Intelligent and Multifunctional Structures (AIMS) Lab. Since 2007 he has performed research in multiple academic, private, and government lab settings. |
Academic Highlights.Dr. Hobeck secured funding for, and is director of, the MNE Characterization and Advanced Testing (CAT) Lab which is a new facility that provides broad-based experimental and analytical support in the areas of deformation, stress, strain and failure of engineering materials, components, structures, etc. The CAT Lab provides support for multiple undergraduate and graduate courses, helps create new courses, bolsters research productivity, and encourages industry collaboration. As a faculty member, Hobeck has been awarded grants from NSF and NASA with collaborators at Iowa State University, Wichita State University, and the University of Kansas. In 2019 he had the honor of be named the Burk-Ice Keystone Research Scholar. Dr. Hobeck has published numerous peer-reviewed journal and conference articles. He is on the organizing committee for the ASME SMASIS smart materials conference and is an ASME Adaptive Structures & Material Systems (ASMS) Branch member. He was invited to give a research lecture at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC and he was selected to participate in the Science of Signatures program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was interviewed by a FOX television show that featured his research on ‘piezoelectric grass’ and is also a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. |
Research.
Hobeck is the director of the Multifunctional Structures Lab (MSL) at K-State. The research performed at MSL ultimately seeks to develop advanced structural systems capable of active or passive vibration suppression, monitoring their own structural integrity, remembering extreme or traumatic events, providing advanced damage detection warnings, wirelessly transmitting data, environmental sensing, and scavenging enough ambient energy to power the entire system making it automated and self-sustaining. Structures with these capabilities will have unprecedented safety, performance, and reliability thus drastically reducing inspection and maintenance costs for industries including aerospace, automotive, and civil infrastructure.
Dr. Hobeck's research interests include:
Dr. Hobeck's research interests include:
- Data-driven and machine learning approaches to design and analysis
- Experimental and analytical structural dynamics
- Smart and multifunctional structures
- Structural health monitoring
- Composite structures
- Energy harvesting
- Metastructures