Meet the Advisors

Chair

Carl Dekker
President
Met-L-Flo, Inc.

Carl Dekker is President of Met-L-Flo Inc., an ISO 9001/AS9100D Certified and ITAR Registered contract manufacturer. Mr. Dekker has presented his work at conferences globally and has been published in various industry journals. Currently the Past President of the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (past VP and Sec), Fellow and Past Chair of the ASTM F42 Committee on Standards for Additive Manufacturing and a Past Chairperson of the SME’s Rapid Technologies and Additive Manufacturing (RTAM) Community (formerly the RPA). He is also a proud recipient of the SLA “Dinosaur” award.

Secretary

Peter Ried, Jr., LSME, CAM-F
Chief Engineer
Ried and Associates, LLC

Peter P. Ried, Jr. serves as Chief Engineer for Ried and Associates, LLC of Portage, Michigan providing since 2001, SQZ® Engineering and Consulting services for custom casting solutions in aluminum and magnesium alloys throughout the value chain. With a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in German Foreign Language Area Studies from Michigan Technological University, he is also a journeyman mold maker with over 40 years of domestic and international experience at leading automotive OEM casting and tooling manufacturers. As a Toolmaker, Project Engineer, Engineering Manager, Director Advanced Engineering, and Chief Engineer, Peter’s responsibilities have included product development, sales and marketing, casting research, and operations. As an advocate for Additive Manufacturing, Peter continues to serve as Secretary for SME's Direct Digital Manufacturing Advisory Team. He is currently working to apply Additive Manufacturing to die casting tooling in order to improve casting capability, quality, and productivity.

Robbie Adams, PhD
Consultant
Materials Engineer, Honeywell (Ret)
RJA Consulting and Development

Dr. R.J. Adams has a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering. He has worked for 29 years in the aerospace industry specializing in welding and additive manufacturing. Work in additive manufacturing (AM) began in 1996 and included extensive development work in Direct Energy Deposition systems and as a user of powder bed systems. Dr. Adams also participates in multiple industrial welding and additive manufacturing technical committees and is most active in the AWS D17.1, AWS D20, ISO JWG Aerospace AM and ASTM F42 AM committees. Throughout his aerospace career Dr. Adams published multiple articles and presentations and was granted several patents some of which are related to AM.

Kevin Ayers
AM Consultant
3D Metal Konsulting

Kevin Ayers is a graduate of the University of Illinois, College of Engineering. He has worked as a design and manufacturing engineer for over 31 years with the FBI. Most of that time. He has been directly involved in what is now called additive manufacturing. The FBI was one of the first organizations to use 3D printing technology as end use parts building tens of thousands of parts going back to the early nineties. He also worked with 3D imaging for both reverse engineering and quality control. Because of the early use of AM for production, Mr. Ayers began spearheading automated post processing working with several companies.

During that time, Mr. Ayers has been involved as an advisor for the Society of Manufacturing engineers and the AMUG receiving the Dino Award in 2003. Mr. Ayers was the original curator of the first 3D printed art show. In 2014, Mr. Ayers retired from the FBI and worked for SME as the Industry Manager over Additive Manufacturing Industry and as a consulting editor for Advanced Manufacturing Media. With SME, he was part of America Makes in the early years. In 2017, Mr. Ayers joined Danfoss Power Solutions as an Additive Manufacturing Engineer and worked there involved in AM in metals, polymers, composites, sand, design, and training. Mr. Ayers was responsible for putting AM in some 68 factories in 23 countries. This was done for many applications especially in models/prototypes, plant operations/tooling, and serial production/PPAPs.

In 2023, Mr Ayers joined 3D Metal Konsulting where he is situated today consulting on a variety of AM issues including serial production, the evaluation of AM entities, training, the implementation of AM within an organization, and the use of AM within plant operations. He continues to be an Event Advisor for SME, an advisor for the DDM Tech Group, and the AMUG.

Mel Cossette, MEd
Executive Director & PI
Edmonds College

Mel Cossette, formerly the Executive Director and Principal Investigator for the ATE-funded projects Online Instructional Resources for Material Science Technology Education (MatEdU); Technician Education in Additive Manufacturing & Materials (TEAMM); and, the National Resource Center for Materials Technology Education. All were housed at Edmonds College in Lynnwood, WA. Currently, she is a Co-PI on the Micro Nanotechnology Education Center housed at Pasadena City College, CA, PI on a NOAA funded project: Restoration for All, and serves as an ABET ETAC Commissioner. Mel has 20+ years of experience in manufacturing, has developed technician education and training programs for industry and educational institutions, serves on numerous committees and national boards and has worked in various industries prior to holding administrative positions in the community and technical college system.

Vesna Cota
Founder and Principal Consultant
VMMI

Vesna Cota is the founder of VMMI and an additive manufacturing specialist. She spent almost 30 years working in automotive product development with Tyco Electronics Canada ULC, a TE Connectivity Co. Cota currently serves on the board of directors for NSERC-CFI Strategic Network for Holistic Innovation in Additive Manufacturing, the Canadian ISO/TC261 Additive Manufacturing Standards Committee, the SME Member Council and the TCT Expert Advisory Board. She is a longstanding advisor for SME's RAPID + TCT, RAPID Canada conferences, CMTS and FABTECH. Cota also served as an advisor for SME's Additive Manufacturing Community from 2007-16. She has been active in the additive manufacturing community since the early 1990s and is a relentless promoter of additive manufacturing in Canada. As a chapter officer for SME's Toronto Chapter 26, Cota received SME's President’s Award for outstanding service and the SME Award for Organizing and Implementing Rapid Prototyping Seminar Series 1998-99. She was also a founding member and chair of the Engineering Design & Rapid Manufacturing Program Advisory Committee at Centennial College in 1999. Cota developed and delivered additive manufacturing training courses for Magna Inc. Management Training Program from 2000-03 as well as workshops for the Industrial Research Development Institute Members’ Product Development program on Rapid Prototyping for Plastics and Rapid Prototyping for Metals. She also served on the 2003-04 Editorial Advisory Board of Design Product News. Cota became an SME master-level Additive Manufacturing Certificate holder in 2005. She received her degree in architecture from the University Of Zagreb, Croatia.  SME Member Since 1995

Derek Ellis
Application Engineer/Sales
Authentise

Derek Ellis is an Application Engineer/Sales working for Authentise. Previously, Derek worked mainly in the hardware side of additive manufacturing, since his hiring at Authentise in November 2020 Derek now works with MES software used in the additive manufacturing industry. Derek has been involved with the additive manufacturing industry since 1991 back when the industry was known as rapid prototyping. During this time he had the opportunity to work with a number of additive manufacturing processes along with secondary processes which include injection molding, vacuum forming, bridge tooling, and RTV molding. Also, Derek has been involved with 3D scanning using equipment from Konica Minolta, Creaform and most recently Artec and Scantech along with the reverse engineering software in the Geomagic suite of products. Derek has been a member of the AMUG board in the capacity of advisor, deputy vice president, vice president and secretary. Derek did the first RTV tooling and urethane casting workshop back in 1995 which still runs today. Derek is responsible for expanding AMUG’s highly successful Expo including the beginning of the “Red Tag'' new members meeting. In 2015 Derek was honored to receive the prestigious AMUG DINO award.

Jason C. Fox, PhD
Mechanical Engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Jason C. Fox, PhD, is a mechanical engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. He is also project leader for the Additive Manufacturing (AM) Part Qualification project. He has been studying metal AM processes since 2010. Jason earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2015. The focus for his thesis was the Transient Melt Pool Response in Additive Manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V. He also earned his M.S. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011 and his B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology from James Madison University in 2006. Jason joined NIST in 2015 and he has focused on measuring and understanding the surface topography of metal AM parts to better aid inspection and qualification. 

Godfrey Onwubolu, PhD, PE
President/CEO
Delta Additive Manufacturing

Godfrey Onwubolu started his healthcare 3D printing career at Delta Additive Manufacturing Inc., Canada, where he founded the company which focuses on providing digital solutions to the medical, dental, and orthotics & prosthetics sectors. His primary areas of interest and experiences are digital healthcare technologies and digital engineering technologies, with emphasis on application of artificial intelligence. A blend of academia and industry, he previously worked in the manufacturing industry in England; held a Professorship position in Manufacturing; and currently working in the area of Healthcare Additive Manufacturing. He received recognition as SprintRay 3D Printer "Knowledge Opinion Leader" (KOL) based on application of the printer to healthcare. He has published numerous publications in international journals and about halve-dozen textbooks. His doctorate degree in CAD and practical experiences in additive manufacturing have leveraged the work he does in Healthcare 3D-Printing. He is a Professional Engineer. He is convinced that the potential of additive manufacturing for the healthcare sector is the future.

Carolyn Seepersad, PhD
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

Carolyn Conner Seepersad, is a Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Professor Seepersad’s research interests include design for additive manufacturing, simulation-based design of materials and structures, and process innovation in additive manufacturing. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, a member of the organizing committee of the annual Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, an elected member of the advisory board for the Design Society, and a member of SME's Additive Manufacturing Technical Leadership Committee. Professor Seepersad has earned many awards for her research and teaching, including the ASME Design Automation Award and the University of Texas Regents’ Award for Outstanding Teaching (the highest teaching award for faculty in The University of Texas System).

Mihaela Q. Vlasea, PhD
Associate Professor
University of Waterloo

Dr. Vlasea is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department and the Co-Director of the Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing Laboratory. Her research focuses on innovative design, process optimization and adoption of new materials for powder bed fusion and powder bed binder jetting additive manufacturing processes. In recognition of her scholarly work, student mentorship, and industry outreach, she was recognized as the SME 20 Most Influential Academics in 2021 and as the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer in 2020. She was the chair of the SME Additive Manufacturing Advisory Committee in 2020 and an active member of the SME Advisory Community ever since.

Robin Zwick
Manufacturing Engineer
The Boeing Company

Robin is a Lead Manufacturing Engineer at The Boeing Company in Mesa, Arizona. Robin provides multi-disciplined engineering support on a wide variety of aerospace and space programs. His specialization areas are in composites manufacturing, product development, precision machining, Full Size Determinate Assembly (FSDA), Lean Design-Build systems and Design for Producibility. His Integrated Product Team (IPT) experience ranges from prototype development, production, and flight testing.