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Shorya Awtar

Shorya Awtar

Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Precision Systems Design Laboratory

Address

1630 GGB
2350 Hayward, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Email: awtar@umich.edu
Phone: (734) 615-0285

Degrees

Sc.D., Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2000
B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur, 1998

Research Interests

Mechanical design, precision engineering, human-centric design, mechatronic systems, and robotics. Specific research and development topics include constraint-based design, parallel kinematics, flexure mechanisms, dynamics of flexible systems, electromagnetic actuators, medical devices for minimally invasive surgery, precision motion stages for semiconductor metrology, motion sickness mitigation in autonomous vehicles, rehab robotics, modular prostheses, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).

Research Areas

Design, Mechatronics & Robotics

Honors & Awards

  • Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, SAE, 2012
  • Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, 2011
  • Achievement Award, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2011
  • CAREER Award, National Science Foundation, 2009
  • One of the the six most promising invention disclosures filed in year 2008, U-M Technology Transfer Office, 2009
  • R&D100 Award, for the XY High Precision Extended Range Nanopositioner, 2008

Faculty Type

Tenured and Tenure-Track

Related News

New NAE members developed low-cost surgical device and transformational approach to design
02/16/2023
A pair of University of Michigan professors, one a developer of surgical technology, the other a leader in design optimization, and a longtime member of the U-M Mechanical Engineering's External Advisory Board were elected as members of the National Academy of Engineering—one of the highest distinctions in the profession.

Shorya Awtar 2020 recipient of ASB Goel Award for Translational Research
06/22/2020
The American Society of Biomechanics recognizes Shorya Awtar for his outstanding work in translational biomechanics research, entrepreneurship, and societal benefit. 

U-M ME Professors recognized by ASME
05/18/2020
Andre Boehman and Shorya Awtar have both received awards from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Cui, Okwudire, and Awtar receive ASME Best Conference Paper on Mechatronics Award
09/12/2017
Leqing Cui, Chinedum Okwudire, and Shorya Awtar has been selected as the winner of the 2017 ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division (DSCD) Best Conference Paper on Mechatronics Award

Awtar elected ASME Fellow
08/01/2017
The ASME Committee of Past Presidents confers the Fellow grade of membership on worthy candidates to recognize their outstanding engineering achievements.

FlexDex featured on MIT Tech Review, U-M, Huffington Post, NBC, front page of NSF
02/28/2017
U-M ME startup FlexDex Surgical’s first product—a simple, ergonomic and intuitive "needle driver" for stitching inside the body—has been used for the first time in a series of operations.

ME Faculty Receive CoE Awards
01/16/2017
Five ME faculty members received College of Engineering Awards in 2017. These recipients include Shorya Awtar, Margaret Wooldridge, Wei Lu, Michael Thouless, and Miki Banu

Mechanical Engineering start-up FlexDex Surgical gets Media Coverage
07/21/2016
FlexDex Surgical, an innovative medical device company founded by Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Shorya Awtar and Medical School Professor James Geiger, has received coverage from several media outlets

PSDL Start-up FlexDex Surgical reaches key milestones
06/09/2015
FlexDex™ is a platform technology that provides enhanced dexterity, intuitive control, and natural force feedback in minimally invasive surgery.

PSDL Students Take Home Two Best Paper Awards from ASME Conferences
10/14/2013
Members of Prof. Shorya Awtar’s research group, the Precision Systems Design Lab (PSDL), won two Best Paper Awards at the ASME 2013 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC)

Awtar Selected to Receive the R&D 100 Award
10/14/2013
ME Associate Professor Shorya Awtar has won the R&D 100 Award, which recognizes the new micro-actuators developed in his research group as one of the 100 most innovative and significant technologies of the year

U of M Based Start-Up, HIPERNAP LLC, Receives Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant
08/27/2013
HIPERNAP LLC, a University of Michigan based start-up, has received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop and commercialize large range flexure-based nanopositioning technology.

ME Faculty Receive CoE Awards
01/16/2013
Three ME faculty have been recognized with the 2012 College of Engineering Awards

Awtar receives 2012 SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award
03/23/2012
The purpose of the Teetor Award is to recognize and honor younger educators who are successfully preparing engineers to meet the challenges that face society today

U-M grad students awarded 2nd place in design competition
11/08/2011
To the layperson, words such as “parallel-kinematic” and “XYZ flexure mechanism” and “nanopositioning” mean very little, but to University of Michigan students Shiladitya Sen and John Ustick, such words spell 2nd place in a major design competition.

Awtar receives ASME DSCD Best Paper Award on Mechatronics
10/31/2011
The paper, "Physical and Control System Design Challenges in Large Range Nanopositioning," was presented at the 5th IFAC Symposium on Mechatronic Systems in Cambridge, MA

Awtar awarded 2011 ASME Freudenstein / General Motors Young Investigator Award
10/05/2011
This award was established to encourage young investigators in accomplishing high quality research and is aimed at a paper with significant original contribution to the theory of mechanisms and the potential to enhance the public good

Awtar selected as the recipient of the 2011 ASME Leonardo da Vinci Award
08/31/2011
This award is to recognize eminent achievement in the design or invention of a product which is universally recognized as an important advance in machine design

Gaurav Parmar and Siddharth Sood receive NIST-ARRA Graduate Fellowship
08/02/2011
Parmar and Sood, Ph.D. Pre-Candidates from Shorya Awtar's Precision Systems Design Lab, received the NIST-ARRA Measurement Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship in February this year

Awtar Selected for Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship and NAE Frontiers of Engineering Symposium
08/02/2011
Shorya will spend 10 weeks during the summer at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH, for the fellowship and will present at Google Headquarters (Mountain View, CA) in September for the symposium

Precision Systems Design Lab Wins First Place in ASME Mechanism Design Competition
04/08/2011
Improved minimally invasive surgery technology developed by Precision Systems Design Lab wins 34th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference

Spotlight! Results: Awtar's Team Takes First Place Second Year
12/10/2010
Pascoe and Paleaz win Spotlight! competition at the Tauber Institute for Global Operations, giving advisor, Assistant ME Professor Shorya Awtar second victory.

Awtar Selected for 2011 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award
10/20/2010
The award recognizes manufacturing engineers, age 35 or younger, who have made exceptional contributions and accomplishments in the manufacturing industry.

ME 450 Project Helps Ann Arbor Museum Win Award
10/04/2010
The Inverted Pendulum, designed and developed by ME faculty and students, was exhibited at the Maker Faire.

Mechatronics Education in Mechanical Engineering
02/01/2010

Awtar's FlexDex™ One of Most Promising Inventions
01/29/2010

Recent Design Projects Featured in Videos
01/22/2010

Spotlight! 2009 Awards First Place to Awtar's Team
12/05/2009

Three ME Faculty Receive CAREER Awards
10/16/2009

Awtar & Hart Receive R&D100 Award
09/05/2008