My first North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) was at Lehigh University in 1987 as a graduate student. Since then, I have attended a total of 30 NAMRC meetings, sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). I have grown in this community, presented and published papers and had my Tenure and Promotion evaluated by the Scientific committee of this illustrious Board of Directors. I have won awards nominated by the same illustrious community. I have won research grants peer reviewed by this group. It’s a golden rule in the development of manufacturing faculty members - publish and present in NAMRC/SME and ASME MED and you shall be recognized as a manufacturing researcher! In 1973, a few researchers in manufacturing (Drs. S.M. Wu, Branimir von Turkovich, Milton Shaw, Jiri Tlusty, Taylan Altan, Serope Kalpakjian, Ranga Komanduri to name a few founders) decided to start this open forum for research discussions in manufacturing at a university setting. This has been sustained by many notable researchers since (Drs. Richard DeVor, Shiv Kapoor, Kori Ehmann, Scott Smith, Yusuf Altintas, John Sutherland, John Agapiou, Paul Wright, IS Jawahir, Jun Ni, Placid Ferreira, Tom Kurfess, Jian Cao, Jack Hu, Jan Shi, Rajiv Shivpuri, David Dornfeld, KP Rajurkar, Steven Liang, Shreyes Melkote, to name a few). Many of these names are not with us anymore, but their legacy and impact is immeasurable! The first NAMRC was held at McMaster university in 1973. Since then, strong manufacturing programs to include Wisconsin- Madison, California- Berkeley Illinois, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Michigan, UNCC have hosted it multiple times. This year it is held at University of Tennessee. The next meeting is at Clemson University in 2025. NAMRC is a summer meeting. In Winter, the same researchers came together under the umbrella of the Manufacutring Engineering Division (MED) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at ASME’s Winter Annual meeting (now called IMECE). As the manufacturing footprint has increased significantly in North America, the ASME manufacturing meeting has collocated with NAMRC since 2012 as the ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC). What began as a small meeting to discuss research results has now grown to 700 researchers this year. This is year 52! Huge shoutout to Tony Schmitz, Sudarsanam Babu and their great team for a fabulous meeting! On a personal note, NAMRC and MSEC are more than just research meetings for me. I took my family to most meetings and we made it our annual road trip vacation, as many of my colleagues did too. Many of us senior folk remember each other’s families. Strong bonds have been established, and friendships nurtured. Here’s to NAMRC and MSEC 75, 100, … with Thomas Kurfess, Laine Mears, Ramy Harik, Satish Bukkapatnam, I.S. Jawahir, Shreyes Melkote, Satyandra K. (SK) Gupta, Prahalada Rao, Suleiman Obeidat, Ph.D., P.E., Xin Zhao, #NAMRC, #MSEC
Wonderful Remember going to NAMRC at Clemson with you shiva Was a great meeting
Shiva, it was good to see you at NAMRC this week. All the best to you and your family.
Glad to read about the history of msec/namrc!
Happy for you!
CECAS Dean's Associate Professor at Clemson University
3wIt was a pleasure to meet you! Look forward to seeing you at Clemson next year.