A professor at Waterloo Engineering has been recognized as one of the top young engineers in manufacturing in Canada and the United States.
Mihaela Vlasea was honoured by SME, an association for the advancement of manufacturing professionals, academia and communities, with one of 15 awards for high achievers in the field.
Mihaela Vlasea, winner of an SME award for young engineers, is associate research director at the Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing (MSAM) Lab.
“Our 2020 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineers are a diverse group of highly successful young manufacturing practitioners whose careers have already made considerable inroads in manufacturing technologies, operations and processes,” said Sanda L. Bouckley, executive director and CEO of the association, in a media release.
“They’ll continue to flourish, and we’re eager to see the influence their ongoing contributions will have on manufacturing.”
Vlasea, who earned both undergraduate and doctoral degrees at Waterloo, is a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, and associate research director at the Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing (MSAM) Lab.
Her research is focused on innovative design, process optimization and the adoption of new materials for two kinds of additive manufacturing, or industrial 3D printing.
She is the only Canadian winner in a group that includes engineers from labs, companies such as Apple and General Motors, and universities including the University of California, Berkeley and Virginia Tech.