Karl Haapala is an Associate Professor and Tom & Carmen West Faculty Scholar in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University. His research addresses sustainable manufacturing challenges, including life cycle engineering methods, manufacturing process performance modeling, and engineering education. He has research funding from DOE, NIST, NSF, and a number industry partners, including Boeing, Blount, and HP Inc. He serves as Assistant Director of OSU's DOE Industrial Assessment Center and leads northwestern activities of the CESMII Western Smart Manufacturing Center. He serves in volunteer leadership positions within ASME and SME. He has been recognized by the NAE (2015 Frontiers of Engineering) and SME (2014 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award and 2012 & 2015 Distinguished Faculty Advisor Awards), and received Best Paper Awards from ASME (2015 & 2016 DFMLC), CIRP (2012 LCE), and ISSS (2017). He was recognized as a Fulbright-Tampere University Faculty Scholar in 2019-2020 to conduct research and teaching at the intersection of smart and sustainable manufacturing as applied to additive manufacturing processes.

Dr. Kyoung-yun Kim is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Wayne State University, where he directs the Computational Intelligence and Design Informatics (CInDI) Laboratory. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on Design Science; Design Informatics; Semantic Assembly Design; Welding and Joining; and Smart Manufacturing. Dr. Kim has received external funding from several U.S. federal agencies including NSF, DMDII, NIDRR, VA-CASE, DOD, and DOE, and industries including Ford, GM, ESTECO, Wenzel, and GDLS. Currently, Dr. Kim is Director of Smart Manufacturing Demonstration Center (SMDC) and a Site Director for the NSF Industry and University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for e-Design. Dr. Kim is a Fellow of the Society of Design and Process Science. He currently serves Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science. Dr. Kim received top cited article award (2005-2010) from Journal CAD and 2003 IIE Transactions Best Paper Award. Dr. Kim was an invited professor at Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM), France, 2017 and was a visiting professor at Kyung Hee University, South Korea, 2014.

Kamyar Raoufi is a researcher in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University. He was the primary graduate assistant over a multi-university research project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) 2014- 2019. He collaborated with undergraduate and graduate students and researchers from Oregon State University, Iowa State University, Penn State University, and Wayne State University. In 2017, Kamyar worked on an NSF INTERN supplement proposal and as a result, he paused his doctoral studies from Aug.-Dec. 2018 to intern at EarthShift Global, LLC, a sustainability consultancy in Maine. After returning to OSU, in Jan.-Dec. 2019 he led research under an OSU-HP research seed fund project to characterize the sustainability performance of competing conventional and additive processes, and a new HP 3D printing technology. Kamyar has supervised several high school interns and undergraduate and graduate students over the past few years. He has received multiple student travel awards from NSF and OSU’s Graduate School to present his work in the international venues. He recently received the 2019-2020 College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award at Oregon State University and completed his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering.

Peter Orazem has been on the faculty at Iowa State University since 1982 where he is University Professor of Economics. He also serves as director of ISU’s Program for the Study of Midwest Markets and Entrepreneurship that researches how firms develop human capital, input suppliers, customers, and venture capital sources in thin markets. He is a 1977 graduate in economics at the University of Kansas and received his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1983. He is a past member of the Ames City Council, the Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Ames Economic Development Commission. In 2018, he served as a Fulbright Fellow at the Univerza na Primorskem in Slovenia. His research deals with labor markets in the United States and in developing countries. He is coauthor of chapters in the Handbook of Development Economics and the Handbook of Agricultural Economics. He served as a member of the core team for the World Bank’s 2007 World Development Report and wrote papers for the 2008, 2012 and post2015 editions of the Copenhagen Consensus. He is coeditor of a book, Child Labor and Education in Latin America published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2009.

Gül E. Kremer is a Professor and C.G. “Turk” & Joyce A. Therkildsen Department Chair of Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at The Iowa State University. She has served in several leadership roles within Penn State, before joining Iowa State, including Chair of the Engineering Faculty Council, Engineering Caucus Leader, Chair of Engineering Curriculum Committee and Chair of the University Planning Committee. Dr. Kremer has degrees in industrial engineering from Yildiz Technical University, an MBA from Istanbul University and a PhD in Engineering Management from Missouri University of Science and Technology. She has been a National Research Council-US AFRL Summer Faculty Fellow in the Human Effectiveness Directorate from 2002 to 2004, and a Fulbright Scholar (2010-2011). She served as a Program Director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education between August 2013 and August 2016.
Dr. Kremer’s research interests include applied decision analysis to improve complex products and systems, and engineering education. The results of her research efforts have been presented in various publications (3 books, more than 280 refereed publications). Six of her papers have been recognized with Best Paper awards. She has active research collaborations in China, France, and Taiwan.
She is a Fellow of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a senior member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). She has served as the Chair of Design Education and Design for Manufacturing and Lifecycle Technical Committees of the Design Engineering Division of ASME. She has given several keynote talks on enhancing creativity in STEM students and sustainability in product and system engineering, and has served in the scientific committees for many conferences. Currently, she is serving in the editorial boards of Journal of Mechanical Design, Advances in Engineering Education, International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing and Journal of Industrial & Production Engineering.

Dr. Jeremy L. Rickli is an Associate Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. He received his B.S. and M.S. Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2006 and 2008 and received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech. Dr. Rickli is director of the Manufacturing and Remanufacturing Systems Laboratory (MaRSLab) and co-director of the Smart Manufacturing Demonstration Center (a collaborative effort with Cisco Systems). MaRSLab targets fundamental and applied research in manufacturing, remanufacturing, and disassembly processes and systems while encouraging considerations for sustainability and life-cycle thinking in design, manufacturing, use, and recovery. Research thrusts include: Uncertainty Management in Remanufacturing and Disassembly; Leveraging Data to Innovate Decision Making in the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise; Collaborative Robotic Automation in Advanced Manufacturing and Assembly Systems. Dr. Rickli is the director of the NSF REU Site: Summer Academy in Sustainable Manufacturing which offered summer undergraduate research programs in 2016-2018 and was renewed for 2021-2023. This site strives to expose undergraduate students to the forefront of sustainable manufacturing research; develop a sustainable manufacturing community of students, faculty, and industry partners; and encourage students to pursue future sustainable manufacturing research activities. Dr. Rickli is als Co-PI of an NSF Advanced Technology Education project that has developed collaborative robot based learning modules and curriculums for community college and four year university students.

Dr. Michael D. Johnson is a professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusion and Faculty Success in the College of Engineering. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas A&M, he was a senior product development engineer at the 3M Corporate Research Laboratory in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University. Dr. Johnson received his S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on engineering education, production economics, and design tools. Dr. Johnson has over 80 peer reviewed publications and several patents. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and industry.
Dr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, SME, and a senior member of IEEE. He served as the president of the Tau Alpha Pi Engineering Technology Honor Society national board from 2014-2018. He is past chair of the Mechanical Engineering Technology Leadership Committee. He is also a member of the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET. Dr. Johnson has won numerous departmental and college-level awards. He is also an ASEE National Engineering Technology Teaching Award and Fredrick J. Berger Award winner.

Dr. Federico Sciammarella serves as the President & CTO of MxD, he is in charge of developing and implementing the technology vision for the institute and is looking forward to leading the outstanding team that is currently in place.
Federico was previously an associate professor at Northern Illinois University where he directed the Advanced Research in Materials and Manufacturing for more than 10 years which generated over $2.5million dollars in funding and created a launch pad for many students and technologies in advanced manufacturing. He has a long list of publications and patents for applications in laser assisted machining and additive manufacturing. His experience in creating research which always focused on applications for industry fits perfectly into the MxD mission of providing value to its membership.
Federico received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Metallurgy and Material Science Engineering from the Illinois institute of Technology, as a native Chicagoan he is very excited to be in this role to help shape the future of manufacturing in this great city and beyond.

Conrad Leiva is Director of Ecosystem and Workforce Development at CESMII – the Smart Manufacturing Institute (https://www.cesmii.org/). In his role, Conrad works with regional centers, ecosystem partners, and academic institutions to accelerate manufacturing innovation and Smart Manufacturing adoption through a knowledge-building ecosystem. As a recognized industry authority, he engages manufacturing business leaders, solution providers, educators and practitioners across all dimensions of industry to develop and share knowledge on both How and Why to leverage information technology in manufacturing.
Conrad has over 20 years of experience in manufacturing systems implementation and holds an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and his writing includes guidebooks, whitepapers, online courses and articles on Smart Manufacturing, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Digital Thread, Lean, MES, MRO, quality management, regulatory compliance, and ROI analysis.

Kris Ward, Tooling U-SME, Marketing & Business Development Director. Kris Ward leads market intelligence and research efforts supporting Tooling U-SME sales, product, and marketing initiatives. She works to advance Tooling U-SME’s understanding of the manufacturing industry and its unmet workforce development needs. In this capacity, Kris helps shape business development opportunities and informs the development of strategy and direction for learning and development products, services, and markets served. Kris started her career with SME in 1996, holding various positions over the years in marketing, product development, and product management. Kris received an MBA from Wayne State University and a Bachelor’s in Business from Eastern Michigan University.

Linda Wechsler, Senior Manufacturing Consultant. As a Senior Manufacturing Consultant for OMEP, Linda works with manufacturers to help them achieve success through continuous improvement. She has extensive experience assisting consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers, especially in the food and beverage sector. Most recently, Linda has been helping companies improve their food safety programs to get them up to speed with current regulations. Linda also helps manufacturers train, retain, and develop their workforce. She leads a partnership with the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center (OMIC), with whom OMEP is developing a workforce pipeline for advanced manufacturing skillsets. Prior to joining OMEP, Linda spent 10 years working in the food and beverage industry, in the areas of product development, sensory and consumer testing, the culinary arts, and supply chain. She holds a Master’s Degree in Food Science and Technology from Oregon State University.