Kevin Creehan is the newly appointed director of the Center for High Performance Manufacturing (CHPM) at Virginia Tech. Creehan, associated with CHPM virtually since its inception in 2001, is "an active contributor to both the research and the administrative aspects of the center and he brings to the job a fresh view on how to engage both existing and prospective members," said Don Taylor, head of the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE).
Creehan is a research assistant professor in the CHPM. His research areas of interest include: lean manufacturing; rapid prototyping and rapid tooling; reverse engineering applications in manufacturing; simulation of manufacturing environments; project management in manufacturing; neural network applications in manufacturing; and manufacturing cell design and analysis. He received his bachelor's degree from Allegheny College in 1997, and his master's and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999 and 2001, respectively.
The spring meeting for the CHPM will be announced soon and Creehan will be leading that event. CHPM works to help manufacturing firms research, develop, and implement new processes, methods, and technologies in order to stay competitive in today's dynamic manufacturing environment. Work is performed in wide variety of areas, ranging from supply chain design and flexible automation to rapid prototyping and low-cost composite manufacturing.
Virginia Tech leads the center, with participation from James Madison University, The College of William and Mary, and Virginia State University. It was launched with $4.35 million in funding from the State of Virginia's Commonwealth Technology Research Fund.
The former director of the CHPM, Robert Taylor, a research professor of ISE, is retiring at the end of the spring semester. He plans to return home to Tennessee to be with his family. "I have benefited greatly from the association and friendships I have made over the past few years. We have learned much during these early years of the center and it is now widely recognized as the premier manufacturing center in the Commonwealth," said Taylor.