Dr. Bruce L. Tai, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has received the 2017 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). Awards were presented at the SME-organized International Manufacturing Research Conference last week.
The award is given to engineers age 35 or younger for their exceptional contributions and accomplishments in the manufacturing industry. Each year, the award is named in honor of specific individuals who have made lifelong contributions to manufacturing and SME.
“SME is one of the major societies for the manufacturing industry and academia. It is a great honor to receive (the award) from SME as it recognizes my contributions to the manufacturing community in both research and teaching,” Tai said. “We received two awards this year (Tai and Dr. Alaa Elwany, assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering), indicating a major growth and development of the advanced manufacturing research at Texas A&M.”
Tai received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 2011, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the National Taiwan University. Before joining Texas A&M in 2015, Tai was a research faculty member in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests broadly include additive manufacturing, machining processes and surgical tool design and analysis, and he has long-term collaborations with the automotive industry and medical doctors.
Tai has produced more than 30 peer-reviewed journal papers and more than 30 conference publications. Among his research achievements are two best paper awards at the ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference in 2012 and 2013, respectively.