R.E. "Dick" Devor
College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Manufacturing
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Richard E. DeVor is the College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Manufacturing in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign where he has served on the faculty since 1971. He received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Professor DeVor maintains a dynamic research and graduate education program in the areas of modeling of machining systems and quality engineering. He has published over 170 journal articles. Sponsors of his research program have included the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, The Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and numerous companies, including The Ingersoll Milling Machine Company, Motorola, John Deere, Mori Seiki, General Electric Corporate Research and Development, Caterpillar, Inc., General Motors Research Laboratory, Ford Motor Company Scientific Research Laboratory, and Kennametal. From 1994 to 2000, Professor DeVor was the Director of the NSF/DARPA Machine Tool Agile Manufacturing Research Institute (MTAMRI) that involved nine universities and more than twenty companies, including both machine-tool builders and users. The annual Federal funding level for this research institute was $1.0 M, with an equal amount of matching cash and in-kind contributions from the industry partners of the Institute.
During the 1980's, Dr. DeVor was actively engaged in the development and delivery of education and training programs in the area of statistical methods for quality and productivity design and improvement. During this time, some of his clients included the Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, Caterpillar, Inc. and Xerox. He has taught numerous short courses and seminars that covered the philosophies of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the concepts and methods of statistical process control, and design of experiments, including the methods of Taguchi. Professor DeVor is the lead author of the textbook, Statistical Quality Design and Control: Contemporary Concepts and Methods, published by Macmillan in 1992 with a second edition of the book released by Prentice-Hall in 2007.
Over the past several years Dr. DeVor and his colleagues and students have been actively engaged in the development of a research thrust in the area of micro/meso-scale machining and machine tool design. This work includes the development of a paradigm for the creation of miniaturized machine tools and material handling devices, ultimately to be integrated into "microfactories-of-the-future."
Dr. DeVor is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society for Quality Control, the North American Manufacturing Research Institution, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He has received numerous teaching awards from the University of Illinois, including the College of Engineering Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence in 1985; the Campus-wide Teaching Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1987; the College of Engineering Halliburton Engineering Education Leadership Award in 1989; and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Alumni Teaching Excellence Awards in 1981, 1989, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2002, and 2005. He also received the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Award in 1993. In 1983 and 1997 he received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award for outstanding technical paper contributions. Recently, he and his longtime colleague Professor Shiv Kapoor received the 2003 ASME William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award for "contributing significantly to an innovative manufacturing technology, the implementation of which has resulted in substantial economic and/or societal benefits." Dr. DeVor is a past president of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Professor DeVor is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Shiv G. Kapoor
Grace Wicall Gauthier Chair
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Shiv G. Kapoor holds the Grayce Wicall Gauthier Chair in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UIUC. He received his bachelor's degree from the Institute of Technology at BHU, India, his master's from I.I.T. Kanpur in India and his doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977. He is Director of the College of Engineering Manufacturing Education Program and of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Machine Tool Systems Research. He is best known for his contributions to the development of mechanistic process models for machining processes that are commonly used by many automobile and machine tool companies in process and product design. These models have helped to establish the scientific foundation for machining process planning. Major companies such as General Motors and Ford have also developed internal process modeling and simulation software based on his work.
His recent collaborative research efforts with his long-time colleague Dr. Richard E. DeVor are aimed at micro/meso-scale manufacturing with a focus on fundamental understanding of the mechanics of micro-machining processes and miniaturization of machine tools. Their pioneering efforts in this area have led to the development of several novel 3-axis and 5-axis micro machine tool designs as well as automation systems for the desktop factory. His work in this area has stimulated several independent research efforts in the U.S. on micromachining technology.
Professor Kapoor is widely recognized as a leader in manufacturing education both at the University of Illinois where he was instrumental in initiating the College of Engineering Manufacturing Education Program in the late 1980s as well as on the national and international stage. He continues to devote significant time and effort to furthering the cause of manufacturing education in the U.S. In recognition of his sustained efforts over the years, he was conferred with the SME Education Award in 2005.
His research findings have been reported in more than 150 journal articles and book chapters. Professor Kapoor was honored with the College of Engineering Everritt Award for Teaching Excellence and the Two-Year Effective Teacher Award from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Alumni Board. He received the Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for outstanding research papers in 1992 and 1997, and in 1999 received the ASME Dedicated Service Award. He also received the ASME 2003 William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award for pioneering the development of the theory and application of mechanistic modeling of machining processes. Professor Kapoor is a Fellow of both the ASME and the Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME), and has served as Technical Editor of the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Vice-President of Manufacturing on the ASME Council on Engineering (COE), and President of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution (NAMRI)/SME. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the SME Journal of Manufacturing Processes.
