U-M MEAM CPO / Shekinah Errington

As William Clay Ford Professor of Manufacturing A. Galip Ulsoy reflects on his new role as Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM), he says he hopes to make a great Department even better. “There’s no question in my mind that this is an excellent Department and as healthy as it’s ever been in its 130-year history,” says Ulsoy. “Thanks to the outstanding leadership of outgoing chair, Professor Panos Y. Papalambros, MEAM is strong and poised to meet the demands of the twenty-first century. The challenge is to keep it moving in that direction,” he says. Ulsoy credits Papalambros and the previous administration with the tremendous growth and change that has occurred in MEAM during the past six years. Some of these areas include an updated undergraduate curriculum, including redesigned instructional labs and design courses; a more aggressive approach to graduate student recruitment, which has attracted some of the country’s top students to MEAM; the addition of a substantial number of new faculty, nearly one third of the Department; research funding that has tripled; and expanded industry and community outreach efforts that have led to several new partnerships and major interdisciplinary centers. A Vision of Excellence Ulsoy would like to build on these strengths and move the Department to the next level of development and excellence. He has already identified some areas of focus: On the Undergraduate Program: “I’d like to continue making improvements in the undergraduate curriculum. We need to look at developing an honors program, additional dual degrees, and joint options with other departments and programs. We’ve also done a lot to improve our lab facilities and design courses. Now we must go even further to improve the content of these courses. The MESLB has been invaluable in providing input and feedback on our undergraduate program and I will continue to seek their involvement.” On the Graduate Programs and Research: “We do very well in traditional measures, such as the quality of our faculty, how much they publish, and their large funding base. Now we need to look for new innovations in key areas in MEAM that will be important five to 10 years from now. “But more than that, we must move from being one of the top players in research to being a leader in creating new research areas. We need to set the research agenda that the rest of the country and world will follow. To do this, we must take risks. We must travel into new areas that other researchers aren’t going. We are in a good position to do this because we are strong and already do high quality, novel work. “We must do the same thing in our educational program. We must develop new courses, curricula, and textbooks that will be used by other schools. We must define the new curriculum for the 21st century. We have had a history of providing this leadership in education and we have the talent and skill to do so again.” On Faculty: “In a period of unprecedented growth for MEAM, we’ve been fortunate to attract 17 new people to the Department in the past five years. We will continue to add two-to-four faculty members each year for the next five years.”

On Staff: “The staff is the best it has been in the 18 years I’ve been here but there is still room for improvement. I’m asking staff members to look at what they can do to better support students and faculty and improve the Department as a whole.” On External Relations: Our community outreach has really expanded in the past five years, with the External Advisory Board (EAB), Mechanica, and the Department’s other publications and programs. I want to do even more—not only with industry, but also with our alumni and other schools to make sure they are aware of the excellent programs at MEAM and the U-M.” On Interdisciplinary Initiatives: “We must continue to work closely with other departments in the CoE and throughout the U-M in both our educational and research efforts. We already have some excellent partnerships in place, including the Master’s in Automotive Engineering (MEng Auto) and Program in Manufacturing (PIM).” On Communication and Teamwork within the Department: “It’s important to have open discussion on issues and sharing of information. For the first time, we will hold joint faculty and staff meetings, and special faculty meetings on important issues before votes are held at regular meetings. The quality of our decisions will improve as we get more people involved. Ulsoy’s Broad Base of Experience Ulsoy is well prepared to meet the challenges that he sees ahead for MEAM. As a member of the Department’s faculty since 1980, he has served in many administrative capacities while also vigorously pursuing his research and teaching activities. Ulsoy has served as MEAM’s associate chair and graduate program chair. He was the founding director of the CoE’s Program in Manufacturing (PIM) and currently serves as the deputy director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Machining Systems (ERC/RMS), one of the largest manufacturing research centers in the U.S. He was also instrumental in the development of the Integrated Manufacturing Systems Laboratory (IMSL) in the Herbert H. Dow Building. Ulsoy’s area of research is dynamic modeling, analysis, and control of mechanical systems, with a special focus on manufacturing and automotive systems. He has made basic research contributions to the mechanics of axially moving elastic systems and to control system design. When Ulsoy first came to MEAM, the Department did not have any graduate courses in dynamic systems and controls. Today, this area at MEAM is one of the strongest in the U.S. He is the co-author of the textbook, Microcomputer Applications in Manufacturing (Wiley, 1989). He is an editor of the IEEE/ASME Transaction of Mechatronics and is the new technical editor of the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control. Ulsoy has received many honors for his work. He received the 1997 Service Excellence Award from the CoE; the 1995 South West Mechanics Lectureship; the 1994 O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award from the American Automatic Control Council; and the 1986 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

U-M MEAM CPO / Rodney Hill

Education:

1973	BS, Engineering, Swarthmore College
1975	MS, Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University
1979	PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of California–Berkeley

At MEAM:

On faculty since 1980 Founding Past Director, Program in Manufacturing (PIM) Deputy Director, NSF Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Machining Systems (ERC/RMS) Past Director, NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC)

Personal:

Married to wife Sue, a teacher at Washtenaw Community College. One daughter, Jessie, who just graduated (12/98) from Evergreen College in Olympia, WA.