Professor at UT

Earl N. & Margaret Brasfield Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Engineering

Research Areas

Advanced Design and Manufacturing

Dr. Richard H. Crawford is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and is the Temple Foundation Endowed Faculty Fellow No. 3. He received his BSME from Louisiana State University in 1982, and his MSME in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1989, both from Purdue University. He joined the faculty of the university in January 1990 and teaches mechanical engineering design and geometric modeling for design. He received the 1995 Fred Merryfield Design Award from the American Society for Engineering Education in recognition of his contributions in design education. He also received the 2010 Ralph Coates Roe Award as an exemplary Mechanical Engineering educator. He also received a University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2011 in recognition of his contributions to engineering education. Dr. Crawford has been involved in the development of a "Design Technology" curriculum for elementary schools. This program, called DTEACh, exposes K-12 students to fundamental engineering concepts, such as materials science, mechanisms, power transmission, and automation and control, through a series of lessons and projects. The curriculum emphasizes design-based learning of applied mathematics and science and represents a departure from traditional approaches to teaching these subjects. Dr. Crawford provides engineering expertise in this curriculum and conducts a complementary professional development institute to provide teachers with the necessary subject content to teach the design curriculum. Since joining the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Crawford has developed a research program to investigate a broad range of topics. Dr. Crawford's research interests include a wide spectrum of topics in computer-aided mechanical design and design theory and methodology. In particular he is working in four areas: (1) research in computer representations to support conceptual design, design for manufacture and assembly, and design retrieval; (2) developing computational representations and tools to support exploration of very complex engineering design spaces; (3) research in solid freeform fabrication, including geometric processing, control, design tools, manufacturing applications; and (4) design of energy harvesting devices for remote locations. Dr. Crawford has acquired funding for this research not only from government agencies, but also from industrial sources as well, including Texas Instruments, Ford Motor Company, IBM, and DTM Corporation. Additionally, Dr. Crawford has shown his interest in industrial problems by working as a faculty intern for IBM and Ford Motor Company.