NAMRI | SME Past Scientific Committee Chairs

Chair

Xun Xu, PhD, FSME, FASME
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
The University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand

Xun W. Xu, PhD, FSME, FASME, is a professor of Manufacturing at the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, The University of Auckland. He has been working in the field of intelligent manufacturing solutions for some 30 years. Dr. Xu is an internationally recognized expert in smart manufacturing systems, STEP-NC, cloud-based manufacturing and smart manufacturing. He serves as an Associate Editor and member of the Editorial Board of a number of international journals and has published over 350 research papers.

Dr. Xu is the Director of Laboratory for Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing Systems (LISMS), the only Laboratory for Industry 4.0 in New Zealand. His current research focus is on Industry 4.0 technologies, e.g. smart factories, digital twins, cloud manufacturing, model-based manufacturing, and AI for manufacturing. Dr. Xu is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Engineering New Zealand (EngNZ). In 2020, he is named one of the “20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing” by SME. He was also recognized by Web of Science as a Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researcher in 2020.

Chair-Elect

Stefania Bruschi, PhD
Professor, Manufacturing Technologies
University of Padova
Padova, Italy

Stefania Bruschi, PhD, is a professor of Manufacturing Technologies at the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Padova, Italy, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the University. Her major research areas include sheet and bulk metal forming and machining of metal alloys, focusing on material behavior, process, and product performances. The research activities are carried out in the framework of EU and Italian-funded projects, and research contracts with Italian and European manufacturing companies. She is a fellow of CIRP (The International Academy for Production Engineering), and currently Vice-Chair of the CIRP Scientific Technical Committee “Forming”. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution (NAMRI), where now serves as Chair-elect of the Scientific Committee. She is a co-author of more than 300 Scopus-indexed publications.

Advisor and Past Chair

Robert X. Gao, PhD, FSME, FASME
Professor and Department Chair, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio

Robert X. Gao, PhD, FSME, FASME, is the Cady Staley Professor and Department Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Since receiving his PhD from TU Berlin, Germany, in 1991, he has been working in the fields of multiphysics sensing, multiresolution signal processing, AI/machine learning and wireless communication for monitoring and control of manufacturing processes and product quality. He has published two books, over 450 technical papers (including 220 journal articles), and holds 13 patents.

Dr. Gao is a Fellow of SME, ASME, IEEE, and CIRP, and a Distinguished Fellow of IIVA (The International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration). He received several professional awards, including the SME Gold Medal, SME Eli Whitney Productivity Award, ASME Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal, ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award, IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Technical Award, IEEE Best Application in Instrumentation and Measurement Award, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award. He served as the Chair of the CIRP Collaborative Working Group on AI in Manufacturing (CWG-AI) and a Senior Editor of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. He is among SME’s “20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing” and was recognized by Web of Science as a Clarivate^TM “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2023 and 2024, respectively. SME Member Since 2005