Professor at UTSA

Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Advanced Manufacturing

Research Areas

Manufacturing Cell Design, Intelligent Scheduling and Shop Floor Control, Supply Chain Management and Integration

Dr. F. Frank Chen is the Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Advanced Manufacturing at University of Texas-San Antonio where he founded the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems (an Engineering/University level Center). 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. Dr. Chen was the founding Director 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, 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 lean tools and concepts for product development and R&D operations, design and operation of energy efficient buildings, intelligent manufacturing, and enterprise integration and transformation.  As the author or co-author of over 200 technical papers and reports (98 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, served as associate editor for Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal and for the International Journal of Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing.   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-general chair (2011) and general chair (2014) of the International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM). He demonstrated prolific research careers in both industry and academia.  Dr. Chen 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/PECASE) Award from President Clinton at the White House, Dr. Chen has served as a principal investigator of over $14 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 and Office of Naval Research.  Dr. Chen has supervised 33 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and 65 MS students so far.  As an effective educator/ researcher, he received the College of Engineering Awards for Excellence in Research at UTSA and at Virginia Tech, the Top Grant Producers Award from FIU President, Best Teaching Award from the Lean Division of the IISE, and is an elected Fellow of Society of Manufacturing Engineers (FSME-2011) and a Fellow of Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers.

Professor Beaman has been both an inventor and a mentor to inventors during the development of this technology. In particular, he has worked with graduate students, faculty, and industrial concerns on the fundamental technology that span materials, laser scanning techniques, thermal control, mold making techniques, direct metal fabrication, and biomedical applications. He was one of the founders of DTM Corporation (now merged with 3D Systems), which markets Selective Laser Sintering. During the period 1990-1992, Professor Beaman was in charge of Advanced Development for DTM. During his tenure at DTM, the company developed and marketed its first commercial systems.

Professor Beaman is an academic whose technical work has had a significant and growing impact on society. His work has played an important role in engendering a whole new industry in the US and abroad. Solid Freeform Fabrication and Selective Laser Sintering equipment is now widespread. Rapid prototyping with this equipment is commonplace, and represents a significant shortening of the design cycle. Rapid manufacturing is now emerging and offers the potential to radically compress the manufacturing cycle for complex parts. Benefits are greatly reduced cost, time, and the capability to achieve, in one operation, shapes that would otherwise require multiple operations or shapes impossible to manufacture with standard techniques. Applications cross a broad spectrum from medical to automotive. He participated on the Japanese Technology Evaluation Center Panel study on Rapid Prototyping in Japan and Europe, a Workshop on Rapid Prototyping in Japan and Europe in March 1996, which was a worldwide assessment of the research area. He also was chair of the World Technology Evaluation Center panel in 2003 on Additive/Subtractive Manufacturing.

Professor Beaman received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1984, the inaugural year. In 2011, he was named Distinguished Mechanical Engineer by the Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Alumni organization at The University of Texas at Austin. Other awards include the Faculty Excellence Award at the University; the DuPont Young Faculty Award; two Engineering Foundation Awards (1984, 1988); the Best Paper Award from the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control; Best Paper Award for the Journal of Rapid Prototyping (1996); and Best Paper Award for the 2001 Vacuum Metallurgy Conference. Dr. Beaman is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, Pi Tau Sigma, and the Texas Society of Professional Engineers. He graduated with a B.S.M.E. with high honors from The University of Texas in 1972, and received a fellowship while attending MIT. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the Dynamic Systems and Control Division. He was Technical Group Leader of the Systems and Design Technical Group 2008-2011, as well as currently Chair of the TCOB Committee on Technology Policy.