F. Frank Chen, Ph.D.

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Bio

Dr. F. Frank Chen is the Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Advanced Manufacturing at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he served as the Interim Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering (2006-2007) and founded the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems (an Engineering/University level Center) and served as the center director (2007-2015, 2024-Present). Before joining UTSA in 2006, he had been with Virginia Tech as the John L. Lawrence Endowed Professor of Manufacturing Systems Engineering with its Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering since 1999. Dr. Chen was the founding Director and led the area of Flexible Automation and Lean Manufacturing Technologies of the Center for High Performance Manufacturing at Virginia Tech (2001-2006). Having support and participation from more than twenty faculty members at multiple universities, he established this interdisciplinary research center at Virginia Tech in 2001, with approximately $9 million, multiple years of funding from the Virginia’s Commonwealth Technology Research Fund, industry equipment and institutional matching funds. Before returning to academia in 1991, he was with Caterpillar Technical Center and held positions as a Manufacturing Systems Engineer in the Machining & Automation Division, a Senior Manufacturing Systems Engineer in the Metrology and Process Control Division, and a Project Manager leading a corporate research and technical services group with specialization in design and control of manufacturing cells.

His current research interests include manufacturing cyber security, cloud manufacturing, integration of lean and Industry 4.0/5.0, lean tools and concepts for product development, healthcare, government /public sectors and R&D operations, intelligent manufacturing using AI/Machine Learning, and enterprise integration and transformation. As the author or co-author of over 300 technical papers and reports (125 appeared in refereed, archived journals), Dr. Chen was an associate editor of SME Journal of Manufacturing Systems (2008-2015) and has served in the editorial board of the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology where he also served as an editor or co-editor of two special issues on neural network and Petri nets applications in manufacturing and design. Dr. Chen has also served as editor and special issue editor for Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal and editor of four special issues for the International Journal of Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing. His book entitled Trends in Supply Chain Design and Management: Technologies and Methodologies (Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing, 454 pages, ISBN: 1846286069) has appeared in March 2007. He serves as the editor of Book Collections on Enterprise Engineering and Sustainability area for the Momentum Press. Dr. Chen also served as conference co-chair (2011), chair (2014), and honorary chair (since 2016) of the International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM), held annually in rotation in North America, Europe and Asia over more than 35 years.

Dr. Chen demonstrated prolific research careers in both industry and academia. He received the Distinguished Services Award from VP-Technical Services of Caterpillar Inc. in 1991. As one of the nine NSF nominated engineering professors in the nation who received the 1996 Presidential Faculty Fellows (PFF, combined with first PECASE) Award from President Clinton at the White House, Dr. Chen has served as a principal investigator of over $20 million externally funded research projects and equipment grants sponsored by agencies such as National Science Foundation, Caterpillar Inc., Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and more recently Sandia National Laboratories, Office of Naval Research, Department of Defense and Department of Energy. Dr. Chen has supervised 45 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and 88 MS students so far. He has served in many research proposal review panels for organizations such as NSF, Ireland Science Foundation, Louisiana Department of Education, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and Taiwan Ministry of Education. He was also a keynote speaker at several international conferences and as a distinguished lecturer at many institutions including honorary chair professorships at National Tsinghua University (Taiwan), National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, National Formosa University and Tunghai University. As an effective educator/researcher, he received the College of Engineering Awards for Excellence in Research at UTSA and at Virginia Tech, Contributions to Teaching Excellence Award from UTSA College of Engineering, and Best Teaching Award from the IISE Operational Excellence Division, and most recently UTSA President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Advancing Globalization.