Joe Steinmeyer receives 2025 Distinguished Educator Award

Joe Steinmeyer, a senior lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), is a recipient of the 2025 School of Engineering Distinguished Educator Award.

Steinmeyer’s research previously involved the intersection of biology and neuroscience with electrical engineering and computer science, with a focus on automation and control.  More recently, he has focused on the instrumentation side as well as the digital design/signal processing on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). He is currently working on numerous projects in the FPGA/SoC/embedded space.

While Steinmeyer has taught a handful of classes at MIT over his career, he considers pretty much all of them his favorite, preferring variety in his courseload.

“I like studying different things and I like teaching in areas that are changing a lot,” he said. “Thankfully, engineering as a field is always changing, so that works out well for me.”

Steinmeyer is a problem-solver who likes to look at issues from all angles. For him, there is nothing better than the challenge of answering the question, “why?” He brings this approach to the classroom as a method of guiding his students.

“I think the best thing in the world is resolving a mystery or figuring out why a thing is the way it is in the universe or why we, as engineers, decided to do things a certain way,” Steinmeyer said. “I think I tend to frame a lot of my teaching with that in mind.”

As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Steinmeyer was fortunate enough to have a teacher who impacted his approach as an educator as well.

“Professor Fawwaz Ulaby was really inspirational, doing an amazing mix of history and technical content,” Steinmeyer said. “I definitely try to emulate him in teaching.”

Steinmeyer has been a member of the MIT community since 2008, when he began pursuing his masters degree in EECS. He continued on to receive his PhD at MIT in 2014 and has been a lecturer in the EECS department for eleven years. He considers himself lucky to get to advise interesting projects by talented students, and his dedication to their education is recognized throughout the department.

When asked what this recognition means to him, Steinmeyer said, “I’m very humbled and honored to receive this award.”