I love to teach. And I greatly enjoy making websites. Combining these two passions led to the vision for Mechanics Academy, an online resource for anyone interested in learning mechanics. In particular, the project aims to use interactive, application-relevant simulations to engage and teach students an exciting blend of mechanics, applied mathematics and computational science.
The project consists of two primary technologies. The first is a system (in Django) that offers a selection of scientific computing software as a service.
A differential equation solver service.
The second is the actual mechanics education web app (in Ruby on Rails) that employs this service. I am busy architecting and prototyping this app at the moment.
Prototyping the frontend design of Mechanics Academy.
Working on this project has been so fulfilling that I’ve recently (end 2012) started to focus on it full time. I have since been working hard on the technology underlying the site and hope to have an initial release out by late March, 2013. Follow the Mechanics Academy blog for more up-to-date news, and do get in touch if you’re interested in collaborating with me on this project!