Kristin L. Wood

Dr. Kristin L. Wood is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Systems and Design Division at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Wood completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering (Division of Engineering and Applied Science) at the California Institute of Technology, where he was an AT&T Bell Laboratories Ph.D. Scholar. He received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science (Magna cum Laude, minor in mathematics) from Colorado State University. Dr. Wood joined the faculty at the University of Texas in September 1989 and established a computational and experimental laboratory for research in engineering design and manufacturing, in addition to a teaching laboratory for prototyping, reverse engineering measurements, and testing. He was a National Science Foundation Young Investigator and is currently the “Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professor in Engineering,” “University Distinguished Teaching Professor,” the Manufacturing and Design Division Area Coordinator, and the Director of the Manufacturing and Design Laboratory (MaDLab). Dr. Wood has published more than 200 refereed articles and books, and has received three ASME Best Research Paper Awards, three ASEE Best Paper Awards, an ICED Best Research Paper Award, the Keck Foundation Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, the ASEE Fred Merryfield Design Award, the NSPE AT&T Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, the ASME Curriculum Innovation Award, the Engineering Foundation Faculty Excellence Award, the Lockheed Martin Teaching Excellence Award, the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Teaching Innovation Award, and the Academy of University Distinguished Teaching Professor Award. He is currently supervising a number of graduate students on projects related to product design, development, and evolution. Such projects include design innovation, advanced manufacturing processes, such as Solid Freeform Fabrication, methods in product development, design for manufacturing and tolerance methods, machine-system design, design for product flexibility, design transformer theory, reverse engineering, and design teaching and learning methods for kindergarten through graduate levels. Example applications of this research include the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, micro-electro-mechanical systems, and flexible consumer products. Dr. Wood annually teaches a number of outreach short courses in Design Technology and Engineering for America’s Children (DTEACh), he was the conference and committee chair for the annual ASME International Design Theory and Methodology (DTM) Conference, he was an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, he served as an invited panelist for the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Innovative Manufacturing Research Centers, he serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Product Development (IJPD), and he was a founding Board Member of The Design Society, an international organization. Beyond these academic pursuits, Dr. Wood annually carries out a number of consulting projects with a variety of companies, focusing on intellectual property, design process assessments, systems design, and methods in creativity and innovation. Career Goal: The current and near-future objective of Dr. Wood’s career is to develop design strategies, representations, and methods that will result in more comprehensive design tools, innovative manufacturing processes, and design teaching aids at the college, K-12, and industrial levels.