NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2008 – Kosuke Ishii, Ph.D., a resident of Los Altos, Calif., and professor at Stanford University, was honored by ASME. He was recognized for significant contributions to engineering design education through innovation in the structure and presentation of the Stanford Design for Manufacturability course series, used as a model for courses in many other institutions; and for the instruction of doctoral students who transfer the philosophy to others. He received the Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award.
The award, established in 1998, recognizes a person who exemplifies the best in furthering engineering design education through vision, interactions with students and industry, scholarship and impact on the next generation of engineers, and a person whose action serves as a role model for other educators to emulate. It was presented to Ishii during the Design Engineering Technical Conferences held in New York City, Aug. 3 through 6.
Dr. Ishii joined the faculty at Stanford University in 1994. He currently holds the rank of full professor and serves as the director of the Manufacturing Modeling Laboratory and co-director of the Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum (operated by the Graduate School of Business). His research focus is on product development methods commonly known as “Design for X.”
He directs the Design for Manufacturability graduate course series, which is subscribed to by more than a dozen companies through the Stanford Instructional Television Network. The courses include both state-of-the-art lectures and real-world project experiences. He has also had a tremendous influence on engineering design education and on the practice of engineering design through his mentoring of graduate students.
Ishii served as a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (summer, 2001-05) and has been a production engineering advisor to Toyota Motor Corporation since 2002.
Previously Ishii was on the faculty at Ohio State University, Columbus (1988-94) and served Toshiba Corporation as a design engineer (1983-86).
Ishii has authored/co-authored more than 160 refereed articles. He holds two Japanese patents.
An ASME Fellow since 2007, Ishii served on the Central Ohio Section Executive Committee and as faculty advisor for the Ohio State University Student Chapter (1990-94), as chair of the Computer and Information in Engineering Division (1998) and as an associate editor of the Journal of Mechanical Design (1995-98). He received the Council of Member Affairs Citation for Faculty Advisor Program (1992), the ASME-Pitney Bowes Excellence in Mechanical Design Award for Best Paper (1993) and the ASME Design for Manufacturability Best Paper Award (2003).
Ishii is a member of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME). He is a member of the Science Council of Japan, Japanese Prime Ministers’ Office since 2006.
Ishii received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Sophia University, Tokyo, in 1979. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University and a master’s degree in control engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1982 and 1983, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in mechanical design at Stanford University in 1987.
Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences. ASME develops codes and standards that enhance public safety, and provides lifelong learning and technical exchange opportunities benefiting the global engineering and technology community.
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