Dr. Ed Bednarz III

Dr. Bednarz was a Senior Mechanical Engineer for 12 years for the U.S. Army before becoming a full-time professor at Wilkes in 2013. He has a passion for teaching and working with students and enjoys working on a variety of research projects with his undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Bednarz has presented at a number of conferences, is published in several academic journals and has been awarded several US Patents.

"I am a proud father to five kids at home and to an extent, my students are kind of like my kids as well. We have fun in the classroom but we also know when to be serious and when to work. In a lot of ways my parenting style is similar to my teaching style. My goal is not to do it for them, but to guide them and inspire them to do greater things than they or I can even imagine. It is amazing watching my students do the first presentations in my early classes and be so scared and timid. Then I love watching them stand in front of a couple hundred people at Senior Projects and confidently announce 'This is what I accomplished!'"

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering | University of Maryland Baltimore County (2012)
• M.S. in M.E. | UMBC (2006)
• B.S. in M.E. | Wilkes University (2001)

Dr. Bednarz' lab is entitled “Inverse Engineering,” where students design, build and test a variety of strain gage-based transducers. The forward problem is where the input is known and the output is calculated. The inverse problem is more applicable to the real world where the response of the system is known and the cause must be determined.

• Male student with highest GPA at Wilkes University, Class of 2001.
• Male Scholar Athlete Award for Wilkes University Varsity Men’s Tennis Team 2001.
• Inducted in Order of Engineer 2014.
• Innovative & Non-Traditional Teacher of the Year 2015.
• Chair for the First Year Foundations Committee 2017-2018.
• Career Development Champion 2019.
• Co-chair of Teacher Recognition and Effectiveness Committee 2019-2022, chair (2022-2023).

• ORCID ID 0000-0001-6341-0574
• Bednarz III, E.T., Smith, S.A., and Zhu, W.D. (2013). “Identifying the Magnitude and Location of a Load on a Slender Beam Using a Strain Gage Based Force Transducer” - Journal of Strain (Vol. 49, Pg. 276).
• Bednarz III, E.T., and Zhu, W.D. (2014). “Identifying Magnitudes and Locations of Loads on Slender Beams with Welded and Bolted Joints Using a Strain Gage Based Force Transducer with Application to a Portable Army Bridge” – Journal of Bridge Engineering (Vol. 19, Pg. 254).
• Bednarz III, E.T., Smith, S.A., and Zhu, W.D. (2016). “Identifying Magnitudes and Locations of Multiple Loads on a Slender Beam Using Strain Gage Based Methods” - Journal of Experimental Techniques (Vol. 40, Pg. 15).
• Bednarz III, E.T., and Mulligan, R.R. (2019) “Investigation of a Cross-Section with a Constant Transverse Shear Stress Distribution Using a Numerical Approach” – Applied System Innovation (Vol. 3, Issue 1, 3).
• Socha III, B.J., Bednarz III, E.T. and Zhu, W.D. (2020) “A Combined Loading Transducer for Calculating the Bending Moment and Torque in a Slender Circular Beam Using the Minimum Numbers of Strain Gauges, Strain Grids, and Measurement Channels” – International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks (Vol. 16, Pg. 6).

• Bednarz III, E.T. and Causer, B.J. (2013). Radar Antenna Safety Brace, US Patent # 8,573,550
• Bednarz III, E.T. (2016). Deflection Plate for Mobile Dynamometer, US Patent # 9,285,281
• Bednarz III, E.T., Bednarz, H.T., Murphy, R., Sekula, J., Willchock, M. and Brown, T. (2017). Adjustable Width Wheelchair, US Patent # 9,655,794
• Bednarz III, E.T. and Zhu, W.D. (2017). Force Transducer, US Patent # 9,772,237
• Bednarz III, E.T., Bednarz, H.T., Aguilar, M., Moyer, R., Pilai, A., Ugwu, J., and Werner, A., (2019). Pressure Redistribution System, US Patent # 10,251,798