People
Dr. Zheng-Dong Ma - Founder, President, Chief Engineer
Dr. Zheng-Dong Ma has more than 20 years of experience in the modeling, analysis, simulation, and design of mechanical and structural systems. He received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University, Japan in 1989. From April 1989 to November 1990, he was a research fellow at the Vehicle Laboratory, Central Laboratories, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, where he worked on developing new NVH analysis and design methods for improving vehicle structure designs.
After joining the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, he has conducted numerous projects for the Army, Air Force, and automotive industry. He has written and co-written over one hundred research papers and has received five best paper awards, including the Sawaragi Merit Award from Japan Association of Automatic Control Engineers (1988), the JSME Best Paper Award from Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (1991), the Arch T. Colwell Merit Award from SAE (1991), and the Best Paper Award from Japan Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (1995), and Best Paper Award from ASME Advanced Automotive Technologies (2003). He has also received the Outstanding Research Scientist Award for the Year 2004-2005 from the College of Engineering at U of M. He has taught several short courses and has given presentations at numerous national and international conferences.
Dr. Ma's current research responsibilities at MKP Inc. include the development of fundamental methodologies for Function-Oriented Material Design for innovative structural concepts and advanced engineered materials. He is also directing a number of military and industry projects, including Optimal Design of Lightweight and High-Performance Structures for Future Fuel-Efficient Army and Commercial Ground Vehicles, Structurally Efficient Composite Concepts for Future Military Air Vehicles, etc.
Dr. Noboru Kikuchi - Founder and Technical Advisor
Dr. Noboru Kikuchi leads the Computational Mechanics Laboratory, which was established as a world-leading research organization at the University of Michigan in the following areas:
- Adaptive finite element method including automatic mesh generation and remeshing schemes for nonlinear problems in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics
- Development of micromechanical models for unilateral contact friction for analysis and simulation of metal and sheet-metal forming processes
- Shape optimization of elastic structures, for topology and generalized layout optimization, using the homogenization design method that is widely regarded as a breakthrough in mechanical design
- Topology optimization for material microstructures including piezoceramics, MEMS, and compliant mechanisms
- Homogenization method in mechanics of composites including various bio-mechanical materials such as bones and tissues
- Simulation of liquid molding processes such as RTM and SRIM for forming composite materials
- Development of image-based computer-aided engineering methodology
- Development of the first order analysis for mechanical design
Dr. Kikuchi has been working with major US federal government funding agencies such as NSF, ONR, AFOSR, US Army TACOM, NASA, and NIH, while managing industrial research programs with world-wide automotive industry. He has developed several CAE codes that have been commercially marketed by other CAE software companies. Among these, OPTISHAPE from QUINT Corporation, Tokyo, Japan, and OPTISTRUCT from Altair Computing are the best known products that have resulted from his activity outside the University of Michigan.
Dr. Christophe Pierre - Founder and Technical Advisor
Dr. Pierre is a leader in the fields of vibrations and nonlinear dynamics, where he is perhaps most recognized for pioneering research work on mode localization in disordered periodic structures. He has made seminal contributions in several research areas including nonlinear modal analysis, dry friction damping, and mid-frequency dynamics of complex structures.
He elucidated the physical mechanism leading to high blade response in mistuned bladed disks, and his vibratory response prediction code REDUCE has been successfully marketed and is employed by all major jet engine manufacturers, the Air Force, and NASA. He has applied extensively his theoretical findings to the study of mistuned and dry-friction damped bladed disks in the turbomachinery industry, and of vibration transmission in vehicle structures in the automotive industry.
Dr. Pierre has published more than 80 journal articles, a large number of conference papers, and has given numerous invited lectures internationally. He is the recipient of the 1998 U of M College of Engineering Research Excellence Award. He serves as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics and for the AIAA Journal, and belongs to the Advisory Board of Nonlinear Dynamics and to the Editorial Board of ASME Applied Mechanics Reviews. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Dr. Gregory Hulbert - Vice President and Technical Advisor
Dr. Hulbert is an internationally recognized authority in the field of computational mechanics, with particular emphasis on dynamical systems and finite element methods, with more than 150 articles in journals and conferences. His articles have been cited more than 1000 times by researchers internationally.
He has been on the University of Michigan faculty since 1989. He is the current President of the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics and serves as Associate Editor and on Editorial Advisory Committees of 5 international journals.
Prof. Hulbert was awarded a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1999 and a Fellow of the International Association for Computational Mechanics in 2004. In 2007, the Department of Mechanical Engineering awarded Dr. Hulbert the Outstanding Achievement Award. He has conducted research and contract work with numerous industry and federal agencies and serves as one of the Thrust Leaders for the Automotive Research Center, a US Army Center of Excellence.
Dr. Karl Grosh - Technical Advisor
Dr. Grosh is working in the area of acoustics, transduction and structural vibration. After working as a Research Scientist at the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC from 1987-1990, he attended Stanford University from receiving his PhD in Mechanical Engineering. While at NRL, he worked on structural acoustics research applied to underwater vehicles and transducers for vibration actuation and sensing.
Presently, he holds the position of Professor of Mechanical Engineering with a dual appointment in Biomedical Engineering Department. Also, he is the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He won the NSF Career Award (1999) and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (1999) for his work in electroacoustic transduction. He is a member of the Acoustical Society of America, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. Dr. Grosh is well-known for his work in cochlear mechanics, the biomechanics of growth, and the design and fabrication of electroacoustic transducers. He is an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics.
Zvi Flanders - Business Development Consultant
Zvi has been an independent Management Consultant since 2001. Taking the wealth of knowledge obtained from his broad background including 12 years as IT manager at various Health Care and Engineering companies, preceded by 10 years as an metallurgical engineering consultant, Zvi now provides small and medium sized firms with services ranging from Intellectual Property, R&D, Product Development and Management Consulting. He also has expertise in Computer Science including Data Analysis, Reporting and Database Management.
In addition to his 22 years of management experience, Zvi has Bachelors Degree in Metallurgical Engineering from University of Illinois (went on to study at MIT), Masters Degree in Business Administration (University of Illinois), and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from DePaul University.