2017 Committee Members
Janet K. Allen, PhD
John and Mary Moore Chair and Professor
Fellow of ASME
The School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
The University of Oklahoma
Janet.allen@ou.edu
Janet Allen is the Chair of the Design Education Committee Conference (DEC), she is also active in Design Theory and Methodology (DTM) and the Design Automation (DAC) conference. With Farrokh Mistree she facilitates the NSF/ASME student design essay contest.
The focus of Janet Allen's research is in the area of simulation-based design, especially managing uncertainty in the design of processes and products and on design pedagogy. Her areas of interest include sustainability and energy production and distribution. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Mechanical Design and Professor Emeritus in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech.
Charlotte de Vries, PhD
Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Pennsylvania State University Erie, the Behrend College
cud142@psu.edu
Charlotte is an active participant in the BIOMED, DAC, and DEC conferences.
Dr. Charlotte de Vries is an Assistant Professor at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. She graduated from Penn State University with her M.S. (2013) and Ph.D. (2014) in Mechanical Engineering. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts in 2009. Dr. de Vries’s research interests lie in design methodology, specifically medical design and design for human variability. Her current research focuses on quantifying the variability of scapula in order to model changes in shape due to the effects of osteoarthritis. This model aims to provide surgeons and implant designers with suggestions to improve surgical outcomes.
Kate Fu, PhD
Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design (joint)
Georgia Institute of Technology
kfu@me.gatech.edu
ASME/DED Broadening Participation Committee – Co-Chair
Kate is an active participant in the DTM and DAC conferences.
Dr. Kate Fu is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology with a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design. Prior to this appointment, she has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). In May 2012, she completed her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2009, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University in 2007. Her work has focused on studying the engineering design process through cognitive studies, and extending those findings to the development of methods and tools to facilitate more effective and inspired design and innovation.
Kathy Jacobson
Lockheed Martin, retired
jacobsonk@asme.org
Primary Conferences – DEC and DFMLC
Kathy Jacobson recently retired after a 33 year career of industrial experience specializing in applying Design for Manufacturing and Affordability in the early product design phases. She held positions with General Electric and Lockheed Martin in manufacturing engineering, systems engineering, finance, and conceptual design. Kathy’s ASME involvement includes chairing the Design Engineering Division Special Committee on K-12 Awareness of Design Engineering and past chair of the Design for Manufacturing Technical Committee. Her active involvement in outreach to K-12 students has provided engineering and STEM opportunities for thousands of youth through Girl Scout and Science Olympiad programs.
She is leading the ASME Design Engineering Division committee developing a Girl Scout Councils-own Mechanical Engineering badge and actively participates in the IDETC conference Girl Scout badge workshops. A girl scout herself, she was her daughter’s Girl Scout leader for 12 years, and the last 16 years, she has been co-lead of a nationally ranked middle school Science Olympiad team and recently became involved at the State level of Science Olympiad. Kathy earned her BS engineering from UCLA and is an ASME Fellow.
Shraddha Joshi, PhD
Research Associate
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
joshis@andrew.cmu.edu
Shraddha is an active participant in DTM and DEC conferences
Shraddha Joshi is currently working as a Research Associate in Mechanical Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship with Professor Jonathan Cagan at Carnegie Mellon University in 2016. As post doc, she investigated the avenues of internet of things and connected products . She also currently teaches Engineering Design II (Capstone Design course) and Junior Seminar class in Mechanical Engineering Department at CMU. She earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University with her research focused on understanding the role of requirements in engineering design by novices under the guidance of Professor Joshua Summers. She received her MS in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University and her BE in Mechanical Engineering from Nirma University, India. Her research interests primarily include Requirements in Engineering Design, Internet of Things, Connected Products and Systems design, Design Education Research, Research Methods for Design.
Scarlett Miller, PhD
Assistant Professor
Pennsylvania State University
Engineering Design and Industrial Engineering
scarlettmiller@psu.edu
Scarlett is an active participant in the DTM conference.
Dr. Miller is an expert in innovation, technology, engineering design, and human factors product design. She is a professor in the School of Engineering Design, Technology And Professional Programs (SEDTAPP) and the Hal and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University. She also holds affiliate appointments in the Mechanical Engineering department and the College of Information Sciences and Technology.
Dr. Miller's research focuses on developing an in-depth understanding of human physical and cognitive abilities in order to develop next generation products and technologies that support human capabilities. Her research to date has had three main thrusts: ergonomic product design (e.g. laparoscopic surgical tool and a neutron detector), design cognition (understanding the design processes and example reuse in design) and human-computer interaction (developing computer tools that better support the design process).
Jacquelyn Nagel, PhD
Assistant Professor
James Madison University
Engineering
nageljk@jmu.edu
Jacquelyn is an active participant in the DTM and DEC conferences.
Dr. Nagel’s specializations are biologically-inspired design (biomimicry) and manufacturing automation. Specifically, her research interests include biomimicry, sensors, engineering design methods, systems analysis, rapid manufacturing, automation, and engineering education.
Dr. Nagel’s long-term research goal is to drive engineering innovation by applying her multidisciplinary engineering expertise to design, instrumentation, analysis, manufacturing and educational challenges.
Prior to joining the JMU Department of Engineering in 2011, Dr. Nagel was an engineering contractor at Mission Critical Technologies working on the DARPA funded Meta-II Project. For the project, she supported system-level design and analysis of complex cyber-physical systems through model library development, design requirement analysis, and system integration efforts.
Dr. Nagel worked as a PhD graduate student in the Design Engineering Lab. Her doctoral work explored the integration of biologically-inspired design with function-based design methodologies for the systematic creation of biomimetic products. Application of the systematic design methodology lead to the development of chemical and optical biomimetic sensor systems and a lichen inspired solar thermal collection device.
Tahira Reid, PhD
Assistant Professor
Purdue University
School of Mechanical Engineering
tahira@purdue.edu
Tahira is an active participant in the DTM conference.
Dr. Tahira Reid is an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. She completed a postdoctoral assignment at Iowa State University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In 2010, she completed a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in Design Science, with Mechanical Engineering and Psychology as her focus areas. She received both her BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Her general research interests include: product design and development; the use of methods from the behavioral sciences to quantify consumer and/or designer judgments and decisions; studying the role of perception in design.
Brian Sylcott, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Engineering
East Carolina University
sylcottb15@ecu.edu
Brian is an active participant in the DTM and DAC conferences.
Dr. Brian Sylcott is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering at East Carolina University. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Sylcott served as a visiting Assistant Professor at Bucknell University. After receiving his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University Dr. Sylcott worked in the energy industry for a few years. He then returned to Carnegie Mellon to complete his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. His work focuses on developing new approaches to model consumer preference for subjective product attributes such as form and emotion. This research combines methods from several disciplines including engineering, marketing, and cognitive neuroscience.
Janis Terpenny, PhD
Peter and Angela Dal Pezzo Chair and Department Head
Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Professor
Pennsylvania State University
jpt5311@psu.edu
ASME/DED Broadening Participation Committee – Co-Chair
Janis is active participant in the CIE, DAC, DEC, and DTM conferences.
