Thomas Kurfess

Dr. Thomas Kurfess is Chief Manufacturing Officer at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI), and HUSCO Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control at GT. He is also Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and  Professor and BMW Chair of Manufacturing Emeritus at Clemson University. Previously, he was Assistant Director for the Advanced Manufacturing Office of Science and Technology Policy for the Executive Office of the President of the United States of America (2012-2013), and the Chief Manufacturing Officer of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2019-2021). During the early stage of his career, he was an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. 

He has taught courses in subjects such as advanced manufacturing systems; quality control and quality assurance; vehicle testing; automotive electronics; real-time signal processing and control; precision systems and manufacturing; robotics and advanced dynamics.

Dr. Kurfess' research focuses on manufacturing, automation, and mechatronics; precision manufacturing, metrology, and technology policy. Also, on the design and development of advanced manufacturing systems by integrating new technologies into production operations and on national and international manufacturing policy issues.

He is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering; currently Chair of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) study on “Options for a National Plan for Smart Manufacturing”; member of the U.S. National Materials and Manufacturing Board; and a member of the Board of Governors of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), to name a few.

Since the early ’90s and up to this day, he’s been Principal and Co-Principal Investigator in over 120 projects with grants and/or contracts like the “Fog-based Data Analytics and Embedded Sensors for Predictive Maintenance and Process Control - Phase 2” project for Ford Motor Company (Jan. 2020 - Dec. 2021); the “Systems Monitoring Platform for Manufacturing Operations” project for Georgia Pacific (Feb. 2020 - Jan. 2021); the “Data Sensing and Total Preventative Maintenance – Phase 3” project for Delta Airlines Technical Operations (2020), among many others. 

Dr. Kurfess has collaborated with multiple top-range scientific journals. He is currently an Honorary Editor for the Computer Aided Engineering and Applications journal and he also worked as an Associate Editor in publications such as Research in Engineering Design and Computer Aided Engineering and Applications.

Professor Kurfess led the “Autonomous Materials Discovery and Optimization: A DMMI Workshop” as Vice Chair in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 2022) and has also participated remotely as keynote speaker in conferences such as the 2020 International Symposium on Flexible Automation by ASME, with a presentation on “Integrating Hybrid Manufacturing Processes via the Digital Thread” (2020), to name a few.

In addition to his current positions as chair and/or member of the most prestigious engineering/manufacturing boards in the U.S., Professor Kurfess has also been awarded several important recognitions such as the Albert M. Sargent Progress Award (2021) by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), in the United States; the IAAM Scientist Medal (2021) by the International Association of Advanced Materials; the Thatcher Brothers Prize by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (England) - Manufacturing Industries Division Board (2016), and several more.

Thomas Kurfess joined Tecnológico de Monterrey as Distinguished Visiting Professor in Advanced Manufacturing for the School of Engineering and Sciences.

• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• S.M., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
• S.M., Mechanical Engineering, MIT
• S.B., Mechanical Engineering, MIT
   

• Lu, L. Kurfess, T.R., Saldana, C.J., “Effects of Extrinsic Noise Factors on Machine Learning Based Chatter Detection in Machining,” International Journal of Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing, 2021, accepted.

• Miers, J.C, Tucker, T.M., Kurfess, T.R., Saldana, C.J., “Voxel-Based Modeling of Transient Material Removal in Machining,” International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 2021, accepted.

• Parto Dezfouli, M., Urbina Coronado, Saldana, C.J., Kurfess, T.R., “Cyber-Physical System Implementation for Manufacturing with Analytics in the Cloud Layer,” ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, 2021.

• Feldhausen, T., Saleeby, K., Love, L., Kurfess, T.R., “Spinning the Digital Thread with Hybrid Manufacturing,” ASME Smart and Manufacturing Letters, Vol. 29, pp. 15-18, doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2021.05.003, 2021.

• Castro‐Martin, A.P., Ahuett‐Garza, H., Guamán‐Lozada, D., Márquez‐Alderete, M.F., Urbina Coronado, P.D. 1, Orta Castañon, P.A., Kurfess, T.R., González de Castilla, E., “Connectivity as a Design Feature for Industry 4.0 Production Equipment: Application for the Development of an In‐Line Metrology System,” Applied Science, Vol. 11, doi.org/10.3390/app11031312, 2021

More publications