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About Stephen Canfield:

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, T.S. McCord Faculty Fellow in Innovation and Techno-Entrepreneurship, Tennessee Technological University

Dr. Stephen Canfield is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tennessee Technological University.  He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech in the field of parallel architecture robotics.  His research interests include robot kinematics and dynamics, topological optimization of compliant manipulators and in-space mechanisms.  His current research is in robot modeling, control and development with a focus on climbing mobile robots for autonomous welding and NDE inspection in hazardous, unstructured environments.  Dr. Canfield’s robots are being used by companies including TVA, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Newport News and NASSCO.  He has served as a NASA summer research faculty at the Marshall Space Flight Center, working on the modeling and control of electrodynamic tethers and tethered space structures.  Dr. Canfield has been principal investigator on grants from NSF, NASA, the Navy and TVA with over $5M in external funding and has 50 refereed technical papers and several patents in the areas of robotics, dynamics and design.  Dr. Canfield is the co-founder of Robotic Technologies of Tennessee, commercializing mobile, and has commercialized two mobile welding robots and is in the process of transitioning licensing to the Weld Tool Corporation.  He participated in NSF’s I-Corps program (GT 2013 cohort) and the I-Corps-L program (DC 2014 cohort) as a student which led to a startup with industry partnership and investment to develop miniature climbing robots for inspecting hazardous waste containers.  Dr. Canfield also has a strong interest in active student learning and undergraduate student research.  He served as a collaborator in developing the Mechatronics and Intelligent Machine Laboratory at Tennessee Technological University, and in developing EIME, a program that merges early intervention and mechanical engineering to engage engineering students in designing toys and devices for children with special needs.  The EIME program surpassed 1000 students and families served in 2013.  He has served as advisor of student groups conducting micro gravity experiments as part of the NASA reduced gravity experiments program and currently advises the student chapter of ASME and the Autonomous Robotics Club at Tennessee Tech.  Dr. Canfield’s recent teaching and research awards include the ASME District F student section Advisor Award, the Partners and Leadership Award (TN Dept. of Health), Harold Love Community Service Award (THEC), TBR Academic Excellence award, and the TN Department of Education Project of Excellence Award.  He has also been named a National Academy of Engineering FOEE Fellow, TTU Presidential Faculty Fellow, and a Top 10 Scientist in Tennessee by Business Tennessee Magazine.