October 19, 2022
By Ian Sargent

Earlier this year two alumni and one member of faculty from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering were recognized at the 50th annual North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) for their accomplishments in the manufacturing industry.

Alumni Thomas Feldhausen and Kyle Saleeby both received the Sandra L. Bouckley Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. The award recognizes exceptional contributions in manufacturing made by engineers 35 or younger.

Additionally, Thomas R. Kurfess, the HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control and professor in the Woodruff School, received the NAMRI | SME Outstanding Lifetime Service Award, which honors SME members for their long-term dedication and contributions.  

SME, headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, is a professional association dedicated to educating and promoting the manufacturing industry.

Sandra L. Bouckley Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer

Thomas Feldhausen, PhD
Research Staff Member & Technical Lead for Hybrid Manufacturing
Manufacturing Automation & Controls Group
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Knoxville, Tennessee

Feldhausen received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 2020 and is currently a research staff member and technical lead for hybrid manufacturing with the Manufacturing Automation and Controls Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Before working at ORNL, Thomas worked at Honeywell Federal Manufacturing in Kansas City where he focused on multi-axis additive techniques for direct ink-write technologies.

Sandra L. Bouckley Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer

Kyle Saleeby, PhD
R&D Staff Member
Manufacturing Automation & Controls Group
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Knoxville, Tennessee

Saleeby received his master’s degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 2019 and 2021, respectively. He’s presently an R&D staff member in the Manufacturing Automation & Controls Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Saleeby’s research involves connecting machines and manufacturing processes with secure Industry 4.0 and IoT technologies. His current focus centers on applications of data analytics for in-situ process monitoring and closed-loop-control hybrid manufacturing processes.

NAMRI | SME Outstanding Lifetime Service Award

Thomas R. Kurfess, PhD, FSME, NAE, PE
HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

Kurfess first joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 1994 and has taken on a variety of special assignments in addition to his teaching and research. From 2019-2021, Kurfess served as the chief manufacturing officer at ORNL, where he was responsible for strategic planning for ORNL in advanced manufacturing. He was also the founding director for ORNL's Manufacturing Science Division. He served as the assistant director for advanced manufacturing at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the executive office of the President of the United States of America from 2012-2013, where he was responsible for coordinating federal advanced manufacturing research and development. He is the current executive director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, having been appointed in June of 2022.

Previously, Kurfess was awarded the SME Albert M. Sargent Progress Award for the development of large-scale computing capabilities leveraging low-cost, high-performance computing systems to analyze large-scale manufacturing metrology data sets.

Kurfess is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). He was president of SME in 2018 and currently serves on the ASME Board of Governors