EPICS Faculty Advisors
 Dr. Katherine Fu |
 Dr. Thomas Kurfess |
 Dr. Christopher Saldana |
EPICS COHORT 1
Jaime Berez
Email: j.berez@nullgatech.edu
Omar Elsayed
Omar came to the EPICS team from a work assignment at Ford Motor Company, where he was a materials research engineer working on next generation alloy systems for automotive applications. Omar’s background is in understanding process structure performance linkages in steel alloy systems, including stress-driven corrosion response. Omar’s research encompasses understanding performance limitations associated with various IIOT data transmission protocols as well as qualification of additively manufactured metallic systems.
Email: oelsayed791@nullgatech.edu
Elliott Jost
Elliott joined the EPICS team after completing his undergraduate degree at Baylor University in Mechanical Engineering, where he researched the use of ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation for quantitative measurement of thermal gradients in highly-attenuative materials. Elliott’s current research focuses on qualification of additive manufactured materials and structures, specifically architected lattices, using x-ray computed tomography and advanced image processing techniques. In this work, Elliott is linking common AM part defects such as porosity, incomplete fusion, high surface roughness to the performance of AM lattice materials. Elliott’s research is performed in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories’ Nondestructive Environments and Diagnostics organization, where he has worked as an intern for three years.
Email: ejost@nullgatech.edu
Lance Lu
Lance joined the 2018 EPICS cohort after completing his undergraduate degree at Georgia Tech in Mechanical Engineering. He works with Autodesk and the Georgia Tech Invention Studio to implement IoT solutions to track utilization and part quality.
Email: llu66@nullgatech.edu
Edward Nguyen
Eddie joined EPICS after receiving his degree from the University of Virginia and supporting electronic health record software development at Epic Systems Corporation. His research includes implementing sensor networks at Autodesk’s Technology Center at Pier 9 in San Francisco and using computer vision to analyze machine and space usage.
Email: enguyen44@nullgatech.edu
Ivan Ren
Ivan joined the EPICS team after graduating from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. His research includes implementing IoT networks for advanced machine monitoring at Delta TechOps and Autodesk and developing a machine vision framework for automated defect detection with the U.S. Air Force.
Email: iren3@nullgatech.edu
Kyle Saleeby
Kyle Saleeby joined the EPICS team after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. His research is focused on deploying low cost sensor retrofit kits for facilitating vibration monitoring and predictive analytics to determine bearing health. Kyle is working directly with Georgia Pacific at Tech Square Labs.
Email: kylesaleeby@nullgatech.edu
Austen Thien
Austen Thien joined the EPICS team after graduating from Rutgers University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. His background is in the area of additive manufacturing design and processing. His research is focused on deploying low cost sensor retrofit kits for digital twin models of hybrid metal additive manufacturing processing. Austen is working with Mazak USA and Wolf Robotics systems at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Email: athien6@nullgatech.edu
EPICS COHORT 2
Nathan DeVol
Nathan DeVol joined the EPICS team after graduating from Clemson University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Previously, Nathan worked as an optical engineer in the lighting industry and has additional experience in manufacturing research. His research is focused on deploying sensor technologies for manufacturing process conditions.
Email: ndevol3@nullgatech.edu
Lisa Dewitte
Lisa joined the EPICS team in Fall 2019 after graduating from the University of Florida and a work assignment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. Her background is in machining-based processing and hybrid manufacturing. Her present research is focused on sensor development to support hybrid manufacturing processes.
Email: ldewitte3@nullgatech.edu
David Gamero
David joined the EPICS team in Fall 2019 after graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology. David has background in device development and digital architectures for Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) applications and has significant past experience in makerspace management in the Georgia Tech Invention Studio. His current research is in developing scalable architectures for manufacturing IIOT deployments.
Email: davidgamero@nullgatech.edu
Patrick Jung
Patrick joined the EPICS team in Spring 2019 after graduating from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His background is in the area of robotic additive manufacturing using directed energy deposition. His research is focused on deploying sensor technologies for additive manufacturing process conditions.
Email: pjung@nullgatech.edu
Zoe Klesmith
Zoe joined the EPICS team in Fall 2019, coming from the Boeing Company in Seattle, WA where she worked on the 787 factory flightline as a manufacturing engineer, as well as a propulsion weight and mass properties engineer. Her current research is focused on developing analytics-based approaches toward anomaly detection in manufacturing processes.
Email: zklesmith3@nullgatech.edu
Caroline Massey
Caroline joined the EPICS team in Fall 2019, coming from Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD, where she worked as a mechanical engineer focused on additive manufacturing supply issues and data analysis tools to optimize naval fleet readiness. Her present research is focused on analytics for solving big data problems in non-destructive inspection for additive manufacturing.
Email: cmassey36@nullgatech.edu
Ana Schauer
Ana joined the EPICS team in Fall 2019 after graduating from the University of Cincinnati. Ana has past work experiences with Air Force Research Laboratory, Gulfstream Aerospace, and Honeywell. Her present research is understanding issues that exist at the interface of design and manufacturing, with a focus on additive manufacturing systems.
Email: aschauer7@nullgatech.edu
Lexie Schueller
Alexandra (Lexie) joined the EPICS team after graduating from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a certificate in Manufacturing and Design. Lexie has past experiences working at 3M, General Electric, and IBM on measurement system design, design for manufacturing, and manufacturing process optimization. Her present research is focused on indirect process qualification for hybrid manufacturing using ensemble machine learning.
Email: aschueller3@nullgatech.edu
EPICS COHORT 3
Ritesh Bhatt
Ritesh joined the EPICS team in Fall 2020 after graduating from Georgia Tech with his BS in Mechanical Engineering. While an undergrad, Ritesh served in organizations such as the Invention Studio, where he was an executive board member and CNC specialist. He has interned abroad at MakerGhat in Mumbai, India, where he developed a prototype of a low-cost plastic bottle crusher to facilitate waste management. Some of his hobbies include photography, creating art, and working on fun projects such as a DIY star tracker.
Email: riteshjbhatt@nullgatech.edu
Jake Bultman
Jake joined the EPICS team in Fall 2020 after graduating from The University of Alabama. Previously, Jake worked as a design engineer and researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). His experiences at ORNL were focused on developing additive manufacturing process parameters and desirable alloy compositions as well as designing user facility equipment.
Email: jbultman@nullgatech.edu
Michael Carrillo
Michael joined the EPICS team in the Fall of 2020 after graduating from Texas A&M University. Michael has past experiences in cycle time analysis of additive manufactured parts. His current research is focused on developing ways to optimize unsupervised AI into fault detection of the additive manufacturing process.
Email: michael10c@nullgatech.edu
Tara Chan
Tara joined the EPICS Team in Fall 2020 after receiving her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a CS minor focused in Intelligence. She also serves as the Mechanical Lead for the GT Solar Racing Team. In the past, Tara has worked at ASML, Lutron-Ketra, Boeing, and Koppl as a design engineer as well as a test engineer.
Email: tchan44@nullgatech.edu
Jesse Goodwin
Jesse Goodwin joined the EPICS team after completing his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech in 2020. He previously worked on trajectory planning and controls in additive manufacturing at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. His current research is focused on controls in hybrid manufacturing.
Email: jgoodwin35@nullgatech.edu
Dylan Hebert
Dylan joined the EPICS Team in Fall 2020 after receiving his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His past projects include wire arc additive manufacturing technology at UL, and cloud data base automation with Cisco Systems. Dylan’s current research focuses on controls and advanced computer science.
Email: dhebert32@nullgatech.edu
Lauren Heinrich
Lauren Heinrich joined the EPICS team in the Fall of 2020 after graduating from Lipscomb University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Lauren has past experience in manufacturing research during her internship at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. More recently, Lauren had the opportunity to work at Mazak Corporation’s North American Headquarters, a world-class CNC machine manufacturer, where she gained knowledge about the design, manufacture, and use of advanced machine tools. Her research is focused on decreasing build time of wire additively manufactured metal components.
Email: lheinrich6@nullgatech.edu
Jenny Wang
Jenny joined the EPICS team in Fall 2020 after receiving her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, Jenny has worked at Pond & Company designing and analyzing aviation fueling systems. Her research background is in modeling, monitoring, and control of additive manufacturing systems.
Email: jenii337@nullgatech.edu
EPICS COHORT 4
Lila Bernhardt
Lila joined the EPICS team after graduating from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and with a focus on Manufacturing and Design. Throughout her undergrad years, she has tutored Engineering Mechanics courses, interned abroad in Barcelona, Spain researching green technological advancements, and worked with NASA on her senior design project to modify a terrestrial clothes washer for microgravity applications.
Email: lbernhardt7@nullgatech.edu
Alan Burl
Alan joined the EPICS team in Fall 2021 after graduating from Kansas State University in 2018 with his BS in Mechanical Engineering. Alan’s background is focused on additive manufacturing of electronic circuits for use in ultra low power mobile radiation detection systems.
Email: aburl3@nullgatech.edu
Enea Dushaj
Enea joined the EPICS team in Fall 2021 after graduating from the Cooper Union with his BE in Mechanical Engineering with a CS minor. His background is in mechanical design, manufacturing, and testing, as well as harsh environment sensor research in automotive and aerospace engineering. He has an interest in entrepreneurship as well as maker spaces, with research interests at the intersection of controls engineering and artificial intelligence.
Email: edushaj3@nullgatech.edu
Zaky Hussein
Zaky joined the EPICS team in Fall 2021 after graduating from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. His background is in the characterization of post-processing and fiber reinforcement on the material properties of parts from additive manufacturing systems, mainly fused filament fabrication. At a previous internship at ORNL, Zaky conducted research to simulate a binder jet additive manufacturing process of rare earth metals in a controlled atmosphere to determine which variables contributed to impurities.
Email: zhussein3@nullgatech.edu
Rachel Hwang
Rachel joined the EPICS team in Fall 2021, coming from TTM Technologies, a PCB Manufacturing company, as a Process Engineer, while additionally working on automation projects. Her interests are in Mechanical Design and DFM, and she will be working for ASML as a Mechanical Design Engineer designing precision machinery and tooling.
Email: rhwang9@nullgatech.edu
Brian Johnstone
Brian joined the EPICS team in Fall 2021, coming from General Atomics – Aeronautical Systems, Inc., after obtaining his undergraduate degree from Oregon State University. At GA-ASI, he worked as a project engineer sustaining the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft for the United States Air Force, focusing on propulsion systems and related components.
Email: bjohnstone6@nullgatech.edu
Caroline Greiner
Caroline joined the EPICS team in Fall 2022, after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BS in Biomedical and Health Sciences Engineering. She studies the use of augmented reality in engineering education. Outside of her research, she enjoys being a teaching assistant in various engineering courses and working on curriculum development projects. She has a passion for engineering education, science communication, health and biomedical engineering, and integrating art and science.
Email: cgreiner3@nullgatech.edu
Jessie Liu
Jessie joined the EPICS team in Fall 2021 after graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS in mechanical engineering and minor in industrial design. Her previous experience includes CAD design, drawings, and 3D printing at Landis+Gyr. In her free time, she frequently volunteers for K-12 robotics programs to help encourage STEM in the next generation.
Email: jliu671@nullgatech.edu
Invention Studio Team
Drew Bailey
Drew Bailey is an undergraduate mechanical engineering student. She works for the Flowers Invention Studio at Georgia Tech working with asset management software, IoT application in makerspaces, and various machine management.
Email: dbailey49@nullgatech.edu
Dr. Amit Jariwala
Dr. Jariwala is the Director of Design at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Dr. Jariwala is responsible for enhancing corporate support for the School’s design courses (including Capstone Design and ME2110), managing design curriculum facilities, coordinating the Capstone Design Expo, teaching design courses, and generally supporting the faculty in their pursuit of design initiatives. He is the faculty liaison for the Invention Studio at Georgia Tech.
Email: amit.jariwala@nullgatech.edu