← yangran.org

What students
build in the lab.

Dr. Yang teaches the courses where physics leaves the textbook. In every class, students don’t just learn theory — theydesign, build, break, debug, and shipworking instruments as teams, developing the hard technical skills and the soft collaborative skills that define real-world engineering careers.

252·351·471/472·495/496
Now LiveEngineering Physics Capstoneep.yangran.org ↗
A Multi-Year Engineering Pipeline

Engineering Physics: Moving from educational theory to engineering reality with Multi-Years of Experiential Learning in Dr. Yang's labs

Dr. Yang doesn’t just believe in experiential learning — she has engineered a concrete, four-course progression that takes a sophomore who has never touched a breadboard and, over the years, transforms them into an engineer capable of leading a year-long product development cycle. Each stage builds on the last. Nothing is repeated. Nothing is skipped. The skills compound.

Sophomore

PHYS 252

Electronics

First EE course. Design in pairs, build alone. One breadboard, two weeks, one working circuit. Learn to trust your own hands.

Junior

PHYS 351

Advanced Instrumentation

Teams of three, three months. Raspberry Pi, sensors, motors, firmware, cultural research, professional documentation. Build a complete instrument.

Senior

PHYS 471/472

Capstone Projects

Interdisciplinary teams, one full year. A real problem, a real stakeholder, a deployable prototype. Budget, ethics, milestones, defense.

Senior / Post

EPAD 495/496

Honors Thesis

One student, one question, one year. Original research contributing to funded programs. The closest thing to graduate work an undergraduate can do.

“We shape clay into a vessel;
it is the space within that gives it purpose.”

Tao Te Ching · Chapter XI

Say hello.

rxyan2@wm.eduFaculty profile ↗