FAMU-FSU engineering professors Christian Hubicki and Tarik Dickens were recently honored at the 2019 National Academy of Engineering (NAE), “Frontiers of Engineering” (FOE) symposium held in South Carolina, in September 2019. Hubicki is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and Dickens is an associate professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering.
The NAE event is an exclusive event that honors outstanding early-career engineers and brings 100 of the nation's outstanding young engineers (ages 30-45) from industry, academia, and government to discuss pioneering technical and leading-edge research in various engineering fields and industry sectors. Participation is by invitation following a competitive nomination and selection process. The event was hosted by Boeing where the group discussed cutting-edge technology in four areas of concentration including advanced manufacturing, autonomous vehicle and ethics, blockchain technology and engineering the genome. These topics are part of NAE’s 14 Big Challenges, where future challenges are expected to unleash a resurgence of new technologies around the globe.
Dickens co-chaired one of the sessions entitled, “Advanced Manufacturing in the Age of Digital Transformation” with Boeing’s Li Chang and a member of the U.S. FOE committee chaired by Jennifer West (Duke University). The session highlighted research in digital manufacturing and featured Boeing's commitment to new design principles as a holistic value proposition for industry. The four speakers who provided insights for the digital transformation were Gabriel Burnett (Boeing), Christapher Lang (NASA Langley), Hubicki and Pam Kobryn (Air Force Research Laboratory). Other sessions featured Frontier's discussion on gene editing, autonomous vehicles and the fast rise-decline-rise of blockchain.
Dickens was honored as an organizer for the event.
Hubicki presented his work exploring “The Challenge of Bipedal Robotics” and was given a Gilbreth lectureship by a vote of the attendees. This prestigious national-level award, named after industrial engineering pioneer Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, is a way NAE recognizes outstanding early-career American engineers. The lectureship includes an invitation to speak at the next NAE meeting in Irvine California next spring. The meeting will include academy members as well as 100-200 local school students to spark their interest in engineering.