Since 1986, the SME College of Fellows has honored those members who have made outstanding contributions to the social, technological and educational aspects of the manufacturing profession. These eight industry professionals have earned this highly prestigious honor through 20 years or more of dedication and service to manufacturing. Prasad Akella, PhD, FSMEFounder and ChairmanDrishti Technologies Inc.Mountain View, California Prasad Akella is the founder and chairman of Drishti Technologies Inc. An entrepreneur, Akella has created new market categories in three different technical areas: robotics, business social networks, and computer vision and AI. The single thread through his career has been the use of technology to empower people at work. Seeking productivity and quality, manufacturers have primarily invested in automation (and replaced people). Akella, instead, has focused on empowering the 345M factory workers. At General Motors, he led the creation of intelligent assist devices/“cobots” (=“collaborative robots”) that physically assist line workers. Today, at Drishti, Akella is using its pioneering video analytics technology to help line workers be more productive and avoid errors, product recalls and deaths. As co-founder of the pioneering business social network company, Spoke, he helped sales and HR professionals be more productive — a $T market today. A fellow of the ASME and SME, Akella’s work has been recognized with awards from the World Economic Forum, Forbes, CBinsights, Nvidia, NSF, GM, ASME, IEEE and Stanford. He holds a doctorate from Stanford (Edgar Meakin Fellow), an MBA from Michigan’s Ross Business School (High Distinction) and a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (HAL Award). SME Member Since 2021 Daniel J. Braley, FSME, CAM-TAssociate Technical Fellow – Additive Manufacturing & BGS Additive Manufacturing Technical FocalBoeing Global ServicesSt. Louis Dan Braley is a Boeing associate technical fellow and the Boeing Global Services additive manufacturing technical focal and initiatives leader. In this role, he serves sustainment of all Boeing military, commercial and derivative aircraft platforms through use of additive manufacturing technologies and advanced composites. Braley has more than 18 years of aerospace program and R&D experience in additive manufacturing, technical program management, materials and process engineering, composites, electromagnetic product development and manufacturing technology development. Prior to his current role, Braley was the Boeing USN/USMC air vehicle technical integrator, focusing on F/A-18 flight control surfaces, wings, complex spares and repairs. He has also held positions with Northrop Grumman, L-3 Communications and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Braley currently holds 52 U.S. and international patents with dozens more pending. He is a past recipient of SME's Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, the Boeing Meritorious & High Honors Invention Awards, the Northrop Grumman Innovation Award and the F-35 Lightning Rod Award. Braley received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Florida State University and a master's degree in engineering management from Drexel University. Braley is also a Certified Additive Manufacturing Technician (CAM-T) through Tooling U-SME. SME Member Since 2015 Matthew A. Davies, PhD, FSMEDirector of Global Applications, Engineering and TrainingMoore NanotechnologyCharlotte, North Carolina Matthew Davies recently changed positions, moving from a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to become the director of global applications, engineering and training at Moore Nanotechnology. Davies has spent his career leading basic and applied research in manufacturing. In the past 15 years, he has focused on research in the ultraprecision machining of complex optics, optical system design for manufacturability and optical testing and metrology. Davies was the site-director for the Center for Freeform Optics, an NSF I/UCRC Collaboration between UNC Charlotte and the University of Rochester, between 2015 and 2019. While site-director, he helped build the membership to 18 nonacademic members. Davies has received numerous honors and awards and has more than 100 technical publications, three patents and numerous citations. He is a fellow of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, was the Bonnie Cone Professor for Excellence in Teaching in 2007, was awarded the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence in 2016 and the North Carolina Board of Governors Teaching Award in 2017. Davies also developed an adaptive learning system for teaching engineering system dynamics and has been a fellow of CIRP since 2009. SME Member Since 2020 Jeffrey DeGrange, FSMEChief Commercial OfficerImpossible Objects Inc.Eden Prairie, Minnesota Jeff DeGrange is the current chief commercial officer of Impossible Objects Inc., a 3D-composites additive technology company. Previously, DeGrange was a vice president for Stratasys where he focused on delivering additive manufacturing products and services to produce parts. Prior to that, DeGrange was the department head of advanced manufacturing materials, technologies for The Boeing Co., leading the certification and qualifications of additive manufactured end-use flying parts for military and commercial aircraft programs. DeGrange has worked on several U.S. Department of Defense and Energy projects that have brought to market new additive manufacturing materials, products and validated new applications. He is the past chair of SME's Additive Manufacturing Technical Community Committee, current co-chair of SME’s Technical Committee, past co-founder and chairman of the Germany’s Direct Manufacturing Research Center, past advisor to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry Fab Lab, current advisor to the University of Iowa College of Engineering and University of Minnesota Medical Device Center, and current board member to Precision ADM, a metal-additive manufacturing provider in Canada. He holds multiple patents and has a master's degree in manufacturing engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Iowa. SME Member Since 2004 Sunderesh S. Heragu, PhD, FSMEAssociate Dean for Academic AffairsCollege of Engineering, Architecture and TechnologyOklahoma State UniversityStillwater, Oklahoma Sunderesh Heragu is the associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University where he is a regents professor and holds the Donald and Cathey Humphreys chair. Previously, Heragu has served at the University of Louisville; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; State University of New York, Plattsburgh; and held visiting appointments at State University of New York, Buffalo; Technical University of Eindhoven; University of Twente; and IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He is author of the 5th edition of Facilities Design and has authored or co-authored over 200 articles. Heragu has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on research projects totaling over $27M funded by the Department of Homeland Security, National Science Foundation, Defense Logistics Agency and private companies such as General Electric. He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and SME. Heragu has received IISE’s David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award, the Award for Technical Innovation in Industrial Engineering and the Fred C. Crane Distinguished Service Award. Heragu has also received the Reed-Apple Lifetime Achievement Award from the Material Handling Institute. SME Member Since 1993 Mingwang Fu, PhD, FSMEChair Professor of Advanced ManufacturingDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringThe Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHung Hom, Kowloon, Hong KongMingwang Fu is the chair professor of advanced manufacturing in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in materials science and engineering from the Northwestern Polytechnical University and his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the National University of Singapore. Fu worked in the Singapore Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology for 10 years before he joined the HK PolyU as a faculty member. His research interest is in advanced manufacturing with the focuses on multiscaled deformation-based manufacturing, modeling and simulation of manufacturing processes, size effect and its induced manufacturing behaviors and performances, advanced materials processing, additive manufacturing, and damage and fracture in manufacturing and fatigue in product service. Fu also serves as the associate director of the Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing in HK PolyU and sits on the editorial board as an associate editor or board member of 18 journals, which includes the associate editor of the International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture. He has published over 280 journal papers, six monographs and edited one volume in the Encyclopedia of Materials-Metals and Alloys published by Elsevier in 2021. SME Member Since 2019 William P. King, PhD, FSMEProfessor and Andersen Endowed ChairDepartment of Mechanical Science and EngineeringUniversity of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUrbana, IllinoisWilliam King is professor and Andersen endowed chair in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds appointments in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. King’s research focuses on micro and nanotechnologies, materials processing and characterization, manufacturing science and heat transfer. He has published 262 journal articles and holds 20 U.S. patents. King is co-founder and chief scientist at Fast Radius, a digital manufacturing and supply chain company. He was founder and chief technology officer at the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, one of the first institutes in the U.S. National Network for Manufacturing Innovation. King received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 2002. He completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School in 2013. King is a fellow of ASME, AAAS, APS, IEEE and SME. His awards include the PECASE Award from the White House and the ASME Gustus-Larson Award for accomplishment in mechanical engineering. SME Member Since 2014 Robert G. Landers, PhD, FSMEAdvanced Manufacturing Collegiate ProfessorDepartment of Aerospace and Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of Notre DameNotre Dame, IndianaRobert Landers is the advanced manufacturing collegiate professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He was previously a curators’ distinguished professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and served for three years as a program manager at the National Science Foundation working in the Dynamics, Controls, and System Diagnostics; Foundational Research in Robotics, Cyber Physical Systems, Future Manufacturing; and Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure programs. Landers received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1997. His research interests are in the areas of modeling, analysis, monitoring and control of manufacturing processes, and in the estimation and control of lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. Landers received SME's Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2004, the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering’s Best Paper Award in 2014, and the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control Best Paper Award in 2020. He is a fellow of ASME and SME and a senior member of IEEE. SME Member Since 1994
