Manufacturing Faculty

Thomas R. Kurfess , Ph.D., P.E.
BMW Endowed Chair in Manufacturing
Professor, Department of Automotive Engineering

Thomas R. Kurfess is the Professor and BMW Chair of Manufacturing in the Department of Automotive Engineering at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research. His research focuses on the design and development of advanced systems targeting the automotive sector (OEM and supplier) including vehicle and production systems. He has significant experience in high precision manufacturing and metrology systems. He has received numerous awards including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Young Investigator Award, an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award, the ASME Pi Tau Sigma Award, SME Young Manufacturing Engineer of the Year Award, the ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award, the ASME Gustus L. Larson Award, and the SME Education Award. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, the SME and the ASME.

Beshah Ayalew

Dr. Ayalew works on distributed parameter process estimation and control for automated manufacturing applications. He recently received an NSF CAREER award to pursue research in mobile control of radiant source actuated processes. Applications include robotic UV curing and IR drying of coatings, robotic welding and heat treatment processes. In many of these processes, deficiencies of existing sensing technologies are circumvented with carefully designed state estimation methods. His expertise and interest is in detailed process modeling and analysis for designing optimal process control schemes that save energy and minimize the environmental impact and overall cost of processes.

Laine Mears

Laine’s current research interests are focused on improved sensing and data analysis for manufacturing, flexibility in manufacturing systems, friction modeling, and its application to motion control. Laine has more than 10 years’ industrial experience in manufacturing engineering and engineering management. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and ASQ Certified Quality Engineer.

Mohammed Omar

Mohammed Omar received his Bsc. in mechanical engineering from the University of Jordan in 2001, and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Kentucky in 2005. He had been a visiting scholar at Toyota Motor Corporation, instrumentation Engineering Division in Aichi-Japan in 2005. His research focuses on the development of automated quality assurance and nondestructive testing systems for automotive plants products and processes control. Several of these systems are patented in the United States, Japan and Europe.