University of Michigan professor Dr A Galip Ulsoy has delivered the third talk in Texas A&M University at Qatar’s (Tamuq) Distinguished Lecture Series at Education City.
Dr Ulsoy is the CD Mote Jr Distinguished University Professor of Mechanical Engineering and William Clay Ford Professor of Manufacturing at the University of Michigan.
In his talk, Dr Ulsoy talked about reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS), which are elements or settings in machines, for instance, that can be rearranged through automation or manually in response to changing circumstances.
These circumstances can vary from sudden free market consumer whims to a factory no longer producing a part. In such an unforeseen or foreseen event, in any case, the goal of RMS is to provide exactly the functionality and production capacity needed - exactly when it is needed.
Dr Ulsoy described examples of RMS-centric features like customisation flexibility and convertibility functionality in a tool designed by his research team that can work on cylinder blocks of any of the three major US auto manufacturers: Ford, GM and Chrysler.
He concluded the talk by showcasing the burgeoning application of RMS in the fields of computer systems and robotics and the key role and the demand of “calibration” engineers in the design and operation of RMS.
A member of the US National Academy of Engineering, Dr Ulsoy received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, his MS from Cornell University and his BS from Swarthmore College.
Dr Ulsoy’s research interests are in the dynamics and control of mechanical systems. He is widely recognised and has received numerous international awards, as well as notable recognition in his field in the US.
He received the 2012 Presidential Special Award from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the International Federation of Automatic Control.