Member Profile

Chinedum Okwudire received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 2009 and joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at the University of Michigan in 2011. Prior to joining Michigan, he was the mechatronic systems optimization team leader at DMG Mori USA, based in Davis, CA. His expertise lies in smart and sustainable automation, where he leverages the fundamental engineering disciplines of machine design, structural dynamics, and control theory to tackle challenging problems in precision, throughput, and energy efficiency faced by the manufacturing and vehicle automation industries. Chinedum has received a number of awards including the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation; the Young Investigator Award from the International Symposium on Flexible Automation; the Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers; the Ralph Teetor Educational Award from SAE International; and the Department Achievement Award from the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Michigan. He has co-authored a number best paper award winning papers at Precision Engineering and Dynamic Systems and Control Conferences, including the 2016 ASME Dynamic Systems and Controls Division’s Best Paper on Mechatronics Award. His recent work on boosting the speed of 3D printers at low cost through feedforward vibration compensation has been featured internationally in popular news media, including NASA Tech Briefs and Discovery Channel Canada.