2019 Jurors

For the first time ever, Design News has expanded its Golden Mousetrap judging panel to include a wider number of impartial, multidisciplinary experts, each of whom will carefully review all of the submissions and narrow them down to a select group of exceptional products in each of the 19 design engineering categories. The jury panel includes professionals from a wide range of disciplines, including IoT, Automotive, 3D Printing, and Materials, among others.

Members of the Golden Mousetrap Awards jury were selected by the editors of Design News. It is our goal that Golden Mousetrap jurors — present and future — will continue the Design News standard of judging excellence and fair competition.

James Adams

Executive Director/CEO, Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF)

James P. Adams is Executive Director/CEO for the Metal Powder Industries Federation and APMI International, and serves as Secretary/Treasurer for the Center for Powder Metallurgy Technology. He is also publisher of the International Journal of Powder Metallurgy. Jim joined MPIF in 2004 and held a variety of management positions before being named executive director/CEO in 2017. His most recent accomplishments include: directing MPIF's publications, professional development, and technical programming departments; administering the association activities of Powder Metallurgy Parts Association, Metal Powder Producers Association, Powder Metallurgy Equipment Association, Metal Injection Molding Association, Isostatic Pressing Association and the Center for Powder Metallurgy Technology; and directed the affairs of APMI. Jim also was instrumental in the founding of the Association for Metal Additive Manufacturing.  He is the MPIF representative for the Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation Institute. Jim is a graduate of Hennepin Technical College and has worked in the PM industry since 1985.  He is a member of ASM International, TMS, SAE, and ASAE. 

Robert Bodor

Vice President/GM, Protolabs, Americas

Robert Bodor is currently Vice President and General Manager, Americas, at Protolabs, a leading online and technology-enabled quick-turn manufacturer of custom parts for prototyping and low-volume production. He has previously held roles as Chief Technology Officer and Director of Business Development. Robert has also held leadership roles at Honeywell and McKinsey & Company, and has been on the executive team of two early stage software companies in the Twin Cities. He holds B.S., M.S. and PhD degrees in Engineering and Computer Science.

Tom Craven

VP of Product Strategy, RRAMAC Connected Systems

Tom Craven is the Vice President of Product Strategy at RRAMAC Connected Systems, a "Software as a Service" (SaaS) company that provides remote monitoring, analytics, and mobile apps for industrial equipment. Prior to RRAMAC, Tom was the Operator Interface Product Manager at GE Intelligent Platforms. His 20 years at GE-IP included both technical and commercial roles with a broad range of factory floor hardware and software products. Tom has the unique perspective of having worked with large end users with oodles of information at their disposal, and with smaller facilities and OEMs who have little if any visibility into their equipment. With RRAMAC, Tom is helping OEMs and smaller end users leverage the Industrial Internet of Things in order to have critical information at their fingertips that can help them increase productivity and reduce costs.

 

David Iyoha

Director of Software Solutions, Fortech LLC

David Iyoha is the director of software solutions at Fortech LLC. He spends a majority of his time figuring out how to help people in manufacturing plants with their operations, work processes, and continuous improvement. As a computer engineer he has always had a passion for using software and technology to solve business problems and help companies become more productive and profitable. 

Charles Lord

President, Blue Ridge Advanced Design and Automation

Charles J. Lord, PE, is an embedded systems consultant and trainer with more than 35 years experience in system design and development in medical, military, and industrial applications. For the last 12 years, he has specialized in the integration of communication protocols into clients' products, including USB, Ethernet, and low-power wireless including ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, LoRa, and Thread. He has taught classes in these protocols for Freescale, Renesas, various universities, and conferences including ESC and ARM TechCon. He has been a design partner with Freescale, Microchip, and Renesas. He also teaches webinars for various clients on IoT and embedded systems topics. He earned his BS in electrical engineering from NC State University in Raleigh, NC and provides training and consulting services through his company, Blue Ridge Advanced Design, in Asheville, NC. He is a licensed professional engineer in NC and a senior member of the IEEE. In his volunteer work at the IEEE, he has served at many levels from local to regional to board committees. He is currently the chair of the IEEE NC Council and was general chair of IEEE SoutheastCon 1995 and 2017. 

Trak Lord

Director of Communications, Markforged

Trak Lord is the director of communications for Markforged, the leading provider of 3D printers designed to transform traditional manufacturing. Trak is a passionate storyteller who focuses on innovation and customer evangelism, and for the last decade has worked to raise awareness of the impact of technology such as augmented reality, cloud communications, and additive manufacturing. Trak previously worked in communication roles at Twilio, Waze, and Metaio.

Charles Murray

Senior Technical Editor, Design News, Informa Markets

Design News senior technical editor Chuck Murray has been writing about technology for 34 years. Since joining Design News in 1987, he has written extensively about automotive-, medical-, industrial- and energy-related topics, and has followed the re-emergence of electric cars since the late 1980s. He is a winner of the Jesse H. Neal Award for his 1993 story on implantable defibrillators, “The Making of a Medical Miracle." He is also the author of the book, The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer, published in 1997 by John Wiley & Sons. Chuck’s technology coverage has also appeared in the Chicago Tribune business pages and in its Sunday magazine, as well as in Popular Science magazine. He holds a BS in engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.  

Gunnar Newquist

Founder/CEO Brain2Bot

Dr. Gunnar Newquist is a scientist turned entrepreneur obsessed with the functionality of the brain and how living creatures learn. He obtained a PhD in Cell & Molecular Neuroscience from the University of Nevada, Reno, and conducted a post-doctorate in learning and memory at ESPCI Paris-Tech. Gunnar is also a trained concert pianist and a former professional extreme skier.

Sara Sargent

Business Development & Applications Engineer, VSI Labs

Sara Sargent is Business Development & Applications Engineer for Vision Systems Intelligence (VSI Labs), the leading researcher of active safety and automated vehicle technologies. Sara wears many hats at VSI, managing marketing, sales, the vehicle sponsorship program, as well as the internship program, social media, and logistics. Sara is the bridge between the client and the VSI Labs team of autonomous vehicle solutions developers. She previously worked as a project manager for an app development company, where she also managed process development and marketing strategy. Prior to obtaining her degree in Electrical Engineering, Sara worked in retail management for Fortune 500 companies, including managing a nationwide registry.

Reynaldo Zabala

Virtual/Augmented Reality Experience Strategist & Founder, RazorEdge

Reynaldo Zabala is a passionate tech strategist and enterprise software developer who started his career with Accenture’s Microsoft Solutions Organization in 2000, focusing on large-scale e-commerce platform and ERP projects. He launched RazorEdge in 2007 to provide enterprise and mid-market B2B companies with process and technology re-engineering solutions aimed at exploiting market opportunities and driving cost efficiency. For more than 17 years, he has crafted business solutions as a technology executive, chief software architect, and consultant for companies ranging in size from startups to global multinationals with over $32B in top line growth.