Rate My Professor Patrick O'Malley

Dr. Patrick O’Malley is the Professor and Chair of the School of Engineering at Benedictine College. He received his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (BME) in 2006, Master of Mechanical Engineering (MME) in 2007, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2012, all from The Catholic University of America. During his graduate studies, he specialized in laser Doppler vibrometry, a technique for performing vibration measurements without contacting the object under test by using a laser beam.

Dr. O’Malley previously worked for a contractor at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Washington, D.C. His roles there included serving on the analysis team for the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument and UVIS instrument, analyzing the failure of the ICES instrument, and contributing to the development of robotic satellite servicing capabilities. Since joining Benedictine College, he has taught various general and mechanical engineering courses, such as Statics, Dynamics, Design of Machinery, System Dynamics and Control, Mechanical Measurement Lab, Robotics, and Finite Element Analysis. His research specializations encompass acoustic imaging systems for the detection of roadside explosives, apparatuses for detecting buried landmines based on their vibration signatures, and the characterization of vibration patterns in Caribbean steelpans. He has published research in peer-reviewed journals and presented at numerous conferences. Additionally, Dr. O’Malley earned the Outstanding Teaching Award from the American Society of Engineering Education Midwest Section in 2019.