Jose M. Castro has been a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at OSU since 1998. Before coming to OSU, he worked from 1996 to 1998 as Process Technology Skill Center Leader in Allied Signals Electronic Systems, La Crosse Wisconsin. Before Allied Signal he worked from 1984 to 1996 in various positions of increased responsibility at the GenCorp corporate Technology Center ending as Chief Technologist in Composite Materials. From 1980 to 1983, he was first an assistant professor and then an associate professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of the South, Bahia Blanca, Argentina. He is currently also an affiliate Professor at the National Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, Monterrey Mexico. He is currently a faculty advisor to the OSU student chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).

Rich Spivey is the executive director of the Ohio Manufacturing Institute.  As an executive of loan from Honda of America Mfg., Inc. since July 2012, Spivey helps to facilitate relationships with Ohio manufacturers seeking technical resources. Prior to the executive on loan assignment at OMI, Spivey’s was the Senior Manager of North America Purchasing at Honda of America Mfg., Inc.  Honda’s current supplier network includes 600 domestic parts suppliers across North America with purchases totaling more than $19 billion annually.

Patrick French has 24 years of experience at Honda Engineering North America (EGA), initially in plastic injection mold design and process engineering, including the maturation, troubleshooting, and ramp-up for many new models.  Mr. French has collaborated with Honda’s manufacturing new model members and product R&D members to develop new models.  Recently, Mr. French was the division manager for EGA’s stamping and plastics division.  He has extensive tooling experience from activities at Honda and previous companies in high precision bearing manufacture and aerospace.

Dr. Anthony Yang has been the core developer of Moldex3D and Board Member of the Moldex3D company. Dr. Yang is currently at the position of Chief Technology Officer to devote his time in coordinating between the users and development team. With his dedicated contribution, the first 3D solvers for molding process commercial software, were then developed and populated by the industry worldwide.

Elliott Straus is the manager of technical service for the Functional Coatings Team of Performance Chemicals at OMNOVA Solutions Inc. He has worked at OMNOVA since 1980 in a variety of positions including research, development, manufacturing and technical service in the polymer and reinforced plastics industry. Elliott has authored and co-authored several publications and patents (some pending). He has a BS degree in chemistry from the University of Akron. This presentation is a result of an ongoing cooperative effort between The Ohio State University and OMNOVA Solutions Inc.

Natalia Hilbert is a Graduate from Mass Lower with a BS in Plastics Engineering since 1994.  She has over 17 years of experience in Automotive manufacturing environment, specifically in the Injection Molding area.  She has held positions as a Tooling Engineer at different companies such as Gecom Corporation and TSTech North America. She has had extensive experience using flow analysis software (Moldex3D  eDesign) at these positions.  She has had the opportunity to present case studies at the Moldex3D R10 & R11 release User’s Conference in the past.Natalia Hilbert has also collaborated in the suggestions of some of the Moldex3D software’s improvements.

TA InstrumentsSteve Hall has been with TA Instruments for 16 years as the technical representative for the Ohio Valley Region.  He has been responsible for selling and supporting instrumentation that pertains to thermal analysis techniques, rheology, thermal physical properties, and Microcalorimeter.   These techniques cover a wide range of applications from food, aerospace, polymer processing, pharma and biotech.   Areas within these market sectors that make use of these instruments include quality control, analytical, and R&D functions.

Susan E. Montgomery has been the President of North American operations at PRIAMUS System Technologies, LLC since 2002. She has 17 years of experience in injection molding, 13 of them in plastics process instrumentation and control. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Cleveland State University, and is a Six Sigma Green Belt. Susan is the current Chair of the SPE Injection Molding Division Board of Directors. She is also a published songwriter (BMI).

Dr. Prabhakar Vallury is Director of Business Development at e-Xstream LLC for the Americas market.  Prior to this, he worked as general manager for AutoForm USA focused on the die-stamping and metal-forming technology.  His background is with advanced software solutions in mechanical CAE and simulation, mainly in automotive design, engineering and manufacturing area.  He holds a Master’s degree from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D from Stanford University.