SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medical Design & Manufacturing (MD&M) West, North America’s largest and most comprehensive medtech event, together with  Pacific Design & Manufacturing, North America's largest advanced design and manufacturing event, today announced the 2020 speakers who will present at the annual shows’ upcoming edition taking place February 11 – 13 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA. Expertly selected to meet the needs of professionals in advanced design and manufacturing, medtech industries, and more, speakers will share their knowledge and insights through various engaging educational formats including Lightning Workshops, Tech Talk Panels, roundtable discussions, exclusive keynote presentations, and networking events. To register for press credentials, please visit: anaheim.im.informa.com/2020/registrations/Media. 

“Since their debut, MD&M West and Pacific Design & Manufacturing have been leading expositions for companies and professionals across the globe to meet and familiarize themselves with the latest technologies and innovations,” said Suzanne Deffree, brand director of Pacific Design & Manufacturing, Informa Markets. “Beyond curating the largest medtech and advanced manufacturing show floors in North America, we’re proud to have evolved into an educational hub for attendees to explore timely topics and walk away with a set of new skills, all made possible by our extensive range of conference speakers.”

The 2020 events are set to feature more education than ever before. Composed into a 12-track conference program within the 3D Printing Innovation Summit, Smart Manufacturing Innovation Summit, and MD&M West Conference, attendees will have the opportunity to learn from professionals across manufacturing’s dynamic sectors and verticals. 

Featured 3D Printing Innovation Summit Speakers Include: 

Melissa Orme, Vice President Additive Manufacturing at Boeing
Melissa Orme, PhD belongs to that small group of engineers who have participated ‘hands-on’ in the field of Additive Manufacturing before the term or even the industry of “Additive Manufacturing” existed. Her career has been divided between academia and small business. On the academic front, she worked as a Professor at UCI for 12 years, where she rose to the rank of Full Professor. She was an early pioneer in the field of 3D printing of metallic parts resulting in 15 US patents. Her cutting-edge research on net-form manufacturing of metallic components received international recognition and numerous awards, among which include the N.S.F. Young Investigator Award and the AAUW Judith Resnick Fellowship Award. Her patented inventions relevant to 3D printing are concerned with novel AM methods with molten metal micro-droplets, novel methods of customizing the size distribution of metallic powders, and high-speed direct circuit board printing. 

Laura Hodson, Deputy Branch Chief - Emerging Technologies at National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Smart Mfr Summit
Laura Hodson is the Coordinator of NIOSH’s Nanotechnology Research Center, and Deputy Branch Chief of the Emerging Technologies Branch. She is a Certified Industrial Hygienist and a Fellow of the American Industrial Hygiene Association. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Wright State University, and an MSPH in Industrial Hygiene from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Satyandra Kumar Gupta, Smith International Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science/Director, Center for Advanced Manufacturing at University of Southern California
Dr. Satyandra K. Gupta is the Smith International Professor in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department and the Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the University of Southern California, he was a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland. He was the founding director of the Maryland Robotics Center and the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory at the University of Maryland. He also served as a Program Director for the National Robotics Initiative at the National Science Foundation from September 2012 to September 2014. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, he was a Research Scientist in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Featured Smart Manufacturing Innovation Summit Speakers Include:

Gaurav Bansal, Principal Engineer at Airbus A^3 Labs
Gaurav Bansal is a Principal Engineer at the Airbus A^3 Labs where he is currently leading initiatives in Artificial Intelligence to enable self-piloted aircraft operation and flying autonomous vehicles. Previously, Gaurav worked as a Principal Researcher at the Toyota InfoTechnology Center in Mountain View, CA, where he led several research efforts on the design of communication systems for Automated Driving. Gaurav is an expert in Vehicular Communications, pioneering contributions in Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) congestion control and in innovative use-cases to leverage connectivity in vehicles. His research interests also include millimeter wave & full-duplex wireless communications. Gaurav represented Toyota in the Automakers’ Vehicle Safety Communication Consortium and in the SAE, ETSI standardization bodies. Gaurav's paper on DSRC Congestion Control received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE WiVEC Symposium.

Jerry Condra, Senior Technical Account Manager at Microsoft
Jerry Condra currently serves as Technical Delivery Manager at Microsoft. Jerry is a seasoned veteran with more than 20 years of experience supporting customers with their technical and software services, as well as leading teams. He also served as a technical consultant for Hewlett-Packard. Jerry is also passionate about working as a trusted business & technical advisor, a business development expert as well as helping develop other professionals in their careers and aspirations. 

Keith Barr, President & CEO at Leading2Lean LLC
After leading a number of organizations through turnarounds in 20 years with the US Air Force, L2L CEO Keith Barr has had a long career as a leader in the manufacturing technology sector. He believes that manufacturing can only survive by evolving and adapting to new technologies and digital lean methodologies. However, he is also a contrarian that believes that manufacturers too often ignore the human equation. Keith knows that the most powerful computer on the planet is the human mind. 

Featured MD&M West Conference Speakers Include: 

Alex Dukic, Vice-President of R&D, Digital Ventures at Boston Scientific
Based in Silicon Valley, Alex Dukic brings a wealth of digital experience over a 25-year career at technology startups, high-growth mid-sized companies, corporate investment, and incubation market leaders. Inspired by all things digital, this passion is what drives his profound involvement throughout the entire product and service lifecycle. He believes in building long-term viability where every step of the development process gets the consideration it needs. At Boston Scientific, Alex’s team is focused on building innovative digital products and services targeting patient and physician engagement, connected care and clinical. 

Dr. Sarah Clark, Engineering Advisor at Eli Lilly
Dr. Sarah Clark is an Engineering Advisor and leader of the Materials Engineering team in Lilly's Delivery Device and Connected Solutions (DDCS) organization. Her team focuses on polymer materials selection for new and existing Lilly medical device platforms in collaboration with mechanical, electrical, chemical, computer, and human factors engineering disciplines of DDCS and external partners through all stages of product development (innovation through commercialization). Prior to Lilly, Sarah led R&D projects and teams at Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics for life science, solar/alternative energy, automotive, oil & gas, and industrial markets. She started her R&D career at Z Corporation (now 3D Systems) formulating materials for additive manufacturing. Sarah has her BSE degree from Princeton University, MSCEP and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in Chemical Engineering with a focus on polymer and materials science.

Gianluca De Novi, PhD, CEO at Xsurgical and Instructor/Researcher at Harvard Med School
Gianluca De Novi, Ph.D., a native of Bernalda, Basilicata (Italy), brings a strong background in engineering and science to this role. A faculty member at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard Extension School, he earned his master’s degree in electronics engineering and his Ph.D. in robotics and control systems from the University of Bologna in Italy. While there, he also worked at the Laboratory of Automation and Robotics. After spending one year as a visiting researcher at the bio-robotics laboratory of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, he completed his postdoctoral fellowship in medical simulation at the Department of Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.