Staff

Project Staff

Project Director
Joseph Chen, Iowa State University, Department of Industrial Education &Technology

Co-Principal Investigators
Ray Stevens, Industrial Technology, Iowa Western Community College
Ron Sorensen, Mechnical/Manufacturing Engineering, Southeast Technical Institute
Judy Vances, Iowa State University, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Graduate research assistants
Jacob, Iowa State University, Department of Industrial Education & Technology
Lisa Lin, Iowa State University, Department of Industrial Education & Technology
Eunice Cho, Iowa State University, Department of Art and Design

Undergraduate research assistant
Wendy Baxter, Iowa State University, Education Department
Ben Wittry, Iowa State University, Design Department
Jason Chiu, Iowa State University, Department of Computer Science
Jared Navratil, Iowa State University,Department of Industrial Education & Technology

Past Project Staff

Project Director

Dr. Joseph C. Chen, Ph.D.
Joseph C. Chen is a professor of Industrial Technology and Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University. He holds a professional engineer license in Manufacturing Engineering in the State of Iowa. He has more than six years of industrial experience in industries in the U.S. and Taiwan. He is an active manufacturing engineer who has taught, researched, and written about manufacturing/design for more than 15 years. He has published more than 55 journal articles and book chapters, and presented numerous papers at national and international conferences. His teaching and research interests are in manufacturing systems design, simulation, CAD/CAM, intelligent manufacturing processes control as the usage of neural networks, fuzzy logic, and neuro-fuzzy theory. He received the Early Achievement in Teaching Award and the Early Achievement in Research Award from ISU in 1998 and 2000, respectively.

Co- Principal Investigators

Ray Stevens
Ray is an instructor in the Mechanical Drafting and Design Department at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He has also taught at IWCC''s Clarinda Center in the Mechanical Production and Design Department. He is a skilled machinist by trade. He hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from University of Nebraska at Omaha. Prior to teaching he worked in industry as a Machinist, Supervisor and Department Head in a Ductile Iron Pipe Foundry. He has a passion for Machine Tools and Manufacturing/Mechanical Technology. Leisure activities include golfing, bowling and snow skiing.

Ron Sorensen
Ron has a BS degree from Moorhead State University, Moorhead Minnesota in Industrial Education. He also completed 24 additional credits in computer science and programming, and is currently enrolled in a graduate program at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota with a master in Career and Technical Education. Ron has taught Industrial Arts and computer programming for 10 years in Minnesota and North Dakota before coming to Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls, South Dakota 12 years ago. Ron is presently teaching Computer Assisted Design classes for the Architectural, Civil and Manufacturing Cad Engineering Technology programs. He has also worked on grants with Society of Manufacturing Engineering Education Foundation in past years. In 1999 he became a member of Who's Who's in Education.

Dr. Judy M. Vance
She is an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Iowa State University and a faculty fellow of the Virtual Reality Applications Center. Research interests include virtual reality applications in mechanical design, numerical methods that facilitate interactive design, and spatial mechanism design.

Graduate Assistants

Jacob Chen
Jacob Chen, a PhD student in the Industrial Technology at Iowa State University, is one of the three graduate research assistants of the NSF-ATE project Competitive Manufacturing by Design. He got his B.S. degree from Physics at National Taiwan Normal University and the M.S. degree from Science Education at National Changhua University of Education. His current research interest is on the relationship of the students' spatial visualization skills and their design performance. He also supports teaching in the class of "Introduction to Technical Graphics, Interpretation and CAD" in the Industrial Technology at Iowa State University. He spends most of his leisure time on church services, reading and playing musical instruments.

Lisa Lin
Lisa joined CMD program in summer 2002 and is responsible for task arrangement among the staff. She is graduate student currently pursuing her doctoral degree in the Industrial Technology at Iowa State University. Her research focus is on learning and teaching in constructivist instruction.

Eunice Cho
She joined a CMD program in summer 2002 and is working as a designer for mutimedia design,website design, brochures and so on. She is a graduate student in Art and Design department at Iowa State University. Her research interest is the relationship between information hierarchy and visual hierarchy in information design and mutimedia design point of view.

Undergraduate Assistants

Wendy Baxter
Wendy joined CMD program in 2001, she is a senior in elementary education at Iowa State University. Her responsibilities for the project are: editing the modules, maintaining the budget, and recording the meeting. Her hobbies are: reading, watching movies, sports, and socialized with friends

Ben Wittry
Ben is currently a senior in Art History at Iowa State University. For over a year Ben has been working on the project. He assists in Module creation, analyzing data, and other faccets of the project.

Jason Chiu
Jason joined the CMD program in Fall 2002. He is a computer science junior at Iowa State University. His main responsibility for the project is to maintain the CMD website. His hobbies are: disc golf, computer programming, and video games.

Jared Navratil
Jared is a Junior in IT at Iowa State University and plans to graduate in May of 2005. He joined the CMD team in Spring of 2003 and he is the Inventor Expert for the project and also assists in module revisioin, editing, and assists in many other responsibilities. Jared is from Story city, Iowa and enjoys cycling, SCUBA diving and travel. He is a self-proclaimed "General Tinkerer Extrodinaire."