Page 41 - ASME IMECE 2015 Program

Track Plenary

producing microcellular polymer foams, the creation of axiomatic design
theory, and the development of online electric vehicles, all in the context
of multidisciplinary engineering. These contributions address many of the
National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering,
including engineering better medicine, restoring and improving the urban
infrastructure, and engineering the tools of scientific discovery, though
most of them were carried out well before the NAE grand challenges were
defined. Through the example of Professor Suh’s work, his philosophies of
research, his style of educating students, and his approach to fostering
significant changes in organizations and technologies, this talk will provide a
viewpoint on how we can and should embrace multidisciplinarity, both in
engineering practice and engineering education.
Biography: Charles Tucker studied mechanical engineering at MIT, where
he received a BS in 1975, MS in 1977, and PhD in 1978. Since 1978 he has
been a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign,
where he is now the Alexander Rankin Professor in the Department of
Mechanical Science and Engineering. He also serves the campus as Vice
Provost for Undergraduate Education and Innovation. Dr. Tucker’s
research focuses on manufacturing processes for polymers and compos-
ite materials. He is well known for the development of molding filling
simulations for compression molding and resin transfer molding. His
theories for predicting fiber orientation in short-fiber composites as used
worldwide in commercial injection molding software packages. He has
also studied microstructure development in polymer blends, mixing in
chaotic laminar flows, and structure-property relationships in semi-crystal-
line polymers. Recently, he has developed models for fiber length attrition
during the molding of composite materials. He has advised 50 masters,
PhD, and postdoctoral students. Honors and awards for Dr. Tucker include
the Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence (University of Illinois College of
Engineering), the Luckman Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence
(University of Illinois campus-wide award), a Presidential Young Investiga-
tor Award (National Science Foundation), and the TRW Postdoctoral Award
in Manufacturing Engineering. Dr. Tucker is a Fellow of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, and he serves on the editorial board of
International Polymer Processing. Dr. Tucker edited the book “Fundamen-
tals of Computer Modeling for Polymer Processing” and, with his colleague
Jonathan Dantzig, wrote “Modeling in Materials Processing.”

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