The NSF RET Site was run by 2018-2021 by a dedicated group including the numbers below as well as numerous mentors and industry board volunteers.

Faisal Aqlan (PI & Director) is an associate professor of Industrial Engineering and Master of Manufacturing Management (MMM) at Penn State Behrend. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2013. Aqlan has worked on industry projects with Innovation Associates Company and IBM Corporation. His work has resulted in both business value and intellectual property. He is a certified Lean Silver and Six Sigma Black Belt. He is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and currently serves as the president of IISE Logistics and Supply Chain Division, director of Young Professionals Group, and founding director of Modeling and Simulation Division. Aqlan is also a member of American Society for Quality (ASQ), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM) Society. He has received numerous awards including the IBM Vice President award for innovation excellence, Penn State Behrend’s School of Engineering Distinguished Award for Excellence in Research, and the Penn State Behrend’s Council of Fellows Faculty Research Award. Aqlan is the Principal Investigator and Director of the NSF RET Site in Manufacturing Simulation and Automation at Penn State Behrend. Dr. Aqlan was named Erie 40 Under 40: Class of 2019.

Charlotte de Vries (Co-PI and Penn State Site Director)  is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State Behrend. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 2009. She received her M.S. (2013) and Ph.D. (2014) in Mechanical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.Dr. de Vries’s research interests lie in design methodology, specifically medical design and design for human variability (DfHV). DfHV promotes the design of artifacts, tasks, and environments that are accessible, safe, and economical for users of all demographics. Her doctoral dissertation focused on quantifying the variability of scapula in order to model changes in shape due to the effects of osteoarthritis in order to provide surgeons and implant designers with suggestions to improve surgical outcomes. Her current research has focused on concept generation, accessibility in 3D printing, and effectively teaching first year engineering with hands on design projects. Dr. de Vries was recently named Erie 40 Under 40: Class of 2020 and received a 2017 Marshall Space Flight Faculty Fellowship at NASA.

Melanie Ford (School Outreach) is an assistant teaching professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering at Penn State Behrend. She has been a faculty member in the department since 2000 and also serves as the Director of Youth Education Outreach and the Engineering K-12 Outreach Centers. Her passion for outreach focuses on career exploration for kids of all ages particularly in the STEM to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) fields. Melanie won the 2010 Penn State Women in the Sciences and Engineering (WISE) Institute Faculty Recognition Award for her work in helping women and girls excel in engineering and the sciences. In an interview following the award Melanie was quoted as saying: “Our goal for K-12 outreach is to interest all students in the different careers of engineering. Research shows that many kids, including girls and minorities, do not pursue engineering as a career because they do not know what engineers do, or how they can help people. We want to keep students engaged in learning, as well as pique their interest in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.” Melanie has been an active supporter of Women in Engineering, Math Options, and other engineering outreach programs for many years. Melanie was the recipient of the Penn State Behrend Council of Fellows Excellence in Outreach Award in 2011, the School of Engineering Excellence in Outreach in 2009 and the 2013 Math Options Vision and Passion Award. She received the B.A. in Computer Science and Mathematics from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 1987 and her M. Ed. in Educational Leadership from Penn State University in 2015. She has over thirteen years of industry experience at Day-Timers Inc., Chronologic Corporation and Caldor Inc. prior to her hire at Penn State Behrend.

Chetan Nikhare (Mentor and Research Coordinator)  is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. He earned a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Nagpur University, India in 2003, M.Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India in 2006, and the Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Deakin University, Australia in 2010. Nikhare joined the Penn State Behrend faculty in August 2012. Prior to joining the faculty, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Mechanical Engineering Department at University of New Hampshire. To date, he has performed different aspects of numerical and analytical modeling for material undergoing mechanical processes. He learned constitutive modeling of mild steel and advanced high strength steels and microstructural modeling during his graduate and post-graduate studies. His research interest are, but not limited to, experiments and numerical simulation of sheet metal and bulk forming in various deformation mode, fatigue and fracture, hydroforming and analytical modeling of material mechanics and processes.

Qi Dunsworth (Evaluator) is the Director of Center for Teaching Initiatives at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. She holds a master’s degree in Communication Studies and a Ph.D. in Educational Technology. At Behrend she supports faculty in classroom teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She has created a series of faculty teaching workshops and is the recipient of several grants for course revision, educational research, and professional development.