Behrokh Khoshnevis is a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Civil & Environmental Engineering, and is the Director of the Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT) and Director of Manufacturing Engineering Graduate Program at USC. He is active in CAD/CAM, robotics and mechatronics related research projects that include the development of novel Solid Free Form, or Rapid Prototyping, processes (Contour Crafting and SIS), automated construction of civil structures, development of mechatronics systems for biomedical applications (e.g., restorative dentistry, rehabilitation engineering, haptics devices for medical applications), and autonomous mobile and modular robots for assembly applications on earth and in space.He routinely conducts lectures and seminars on invention and technology development. He is a Fellow member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, a Fellow member of the Society for Computer Simulation, and a Senior member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineering. His inventions have received extensive worldwide publicity in acclaimed media such as New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Sunday Times, Business Week, Der Spiegel, New Scientist, Discover and Wired Magazines, and national and international television and radio networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Discovery channels of US, Canada, Germany and BBC World News. The automated construction invention, Contour Crafting, was selected in 2006 as one of top 25 best inventions from more than 4000 candidate inventions by the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the History Channel’s Modern Marvels program.
Shariar Makarechi received his BSME from Aryamehr University of Technology in 1976 and his MS in Operations Research from George Washington University in 1981. He joined the consulting engineering industry and held positions such as design engineer, project manager, team leader, project captain, director, Vice President in major firms. Dr. Makarechi opened his private engineering practice in 1992 in San Francisco Bay Area. In 2003 he joined the world of academia where he received his PhD in Architecture and Construction Management at Georgia Tech in 2006 while he also taught undergraduate courses at that school. Currently Dr. Makarechi is a member of the board of directors for Sharif University of Technology Association and a fulltime faculty at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia. He is a certified energy manager and inspector as well as a licensed professional engineer in several states throughout USA.
Najmedin Meshkati is a Professor at the Sonny Astani Department of Civil/Environmental Engineering and a Professor at the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at the University of Southern California (USC). His research is concerned primarily with the risk reduction and reliability enhancement of complex and large-scale socio-technical systems. These include such systems as the five modes of transportation and their facilities, nuclear power plants, petrochemical plants and refineries.He is a graduate of the Alborz High School (1972), simultaneously received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and a B.A. in Political Science in 1976, from Sharif (Arya-Meher) University of Technology and Shahid Beheshti University (National University of Iran), respectively; a M.S. in Engineering Management in 1978; and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering in 1983 from USC.He is a Certified Professional Ergonomist.
Zahed Sheikholeslami is the director of the Project-Based Learning Institute, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He develops strategic plan for the Institute, secures funding for students and faculty projects and develops a program in entrepreneurship education. Previous experiences include Vice President of Business Development at Mikros Technologies, founder of Coolingzone.LLC, and President of Flomerics Inc. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Iowa, and B.S. from Sharif University of Technology in Iran.He was the co-founder and president of SUTA ( Sharif University of Technology Association),an alumni association. He is the co-founder and president of Omeed foundation, a US non-profit organization for building schools and help with disaster recovery in deprived parts of the world. He founded a group in Boston to play Nay ( a Persian instruments ) at semi-professional level.
