Dr. Richard H. Crawford is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and is the Earl N. & Margaret Brasfield Endowed Faculty Fellow. He is also Director of the Design Projects Program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received his BSME from Louisiana State University in 1982, and his MSME in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1989, both from Purdue University. He joined the faculty of UT Austin in January 1990 and teaches mechanical engineering design and geometric modeling for design. He received the 1995 Fred Merryfield Design Award from the American Society for Engineering Education in recognition of his contributions in design education. He also received the 2010 Ralph Coates Roe Award as an exemplary Mechanical Engineering educator. He also received a University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award in 2011 in recognition of his contributions to engineering education.

Since joining the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Crawford has developed a research program to investigate a broad range of topics in computer-aided mechanical design, design theory and methodology, and education. In particular Dr. Crawford’s work is focused in three areas: (1) research in computer representations to support conceptual design, design for manufacture and assembly, and design retrieval; (2) geometric modeling for engineering design, engineering analysis, and manufacturing; (3) research in additive manufacturing, include geometric processing, control, design tools, and manufacturing applications; and (4) engineering education research, particularly at the pre-college level. Dr. Crawford has shown his interest in industrial problems by working as a faculty intern for Ford Motor Company, IBM, and Sandia National Laboratory.

Dr. Crawford is a co-founder of the Design Technology and Engineering for All Children (DTEACh) program, which provides teachers with curricula and pedagogical approaches for teaching applied mathematics and science within the context of solving design problems. Begun in 1992 as an in-service teacher training program, DTEACh has helped teachers across Texas to integrate hands-on units on engineering materials, statics and structures, mechanisms, energy, and automation and control into their classrooms. Additionally, Dr. Crawford is one of three engineering faculty that have partnered with the highly acclaimed UTeach program to develop an engineering track, called UTeachEngineering, for training teachers of high school engineering courses. This program developed the Engineer Your World high school engineering curriculum, which has been adopted by over 200 school districts in the US. A dual-level option has been introduced that provides students who successfully complete the program with three hours of college credit and four participating University of Texas System institutions.

Most Recent Publications

1. Steuben, J., Turner, C., and Crawford, R., "Robust Engineering Design Optimization with NURBs-Based Metamodels," Engineering Optimization, (2012)
2. Vaughan, M. R., and Crawford, R. H., "Effectiveness of Virtual Models in Design for Additive Manufacturing: A Laser Sintering Case Study," Rapid Prototyping Journal, (2011)
3. Weaver, J., Wood, K., Crawford, R., and Jensen, D., "Transformation Design Theory: A Meta-Analogical Framework," Journal Of Computing And Information Science In Engineering, Vol. 10, (2010), 3, pp. 031012
4. Montgomery, J. T., Vaughan, M. R., and Crawford, R. H., "Design of an Actively Actuated Prosthetic Socket," Rapid Prototyping, Vol. 16, (2010), 3, pp. pp. 194-201
5. Turner, C. J., and Crawford, R. H., "N-Dimensional Non Uniform Rational B-splines for Metamodeling," Journal Of Computing And Information Science In Engineering, Vol. 9, (2009), 3, pp. pp. 0310021-0310034
6. Rogers, B., Bosker, G., Faustini, M., Walden, G., Neptune, R. R., and Crawford, R. H., "Case Report: Variably Compliant Transtibial Prosthetic Socket Fabricated Using Solid Freeform Fabrication," Journal Of Prosthetics And Orthotics, Vol. 20, (2008), 1, pp. 1-7
7. Faustini, M. C., Neptune, R. R., Crawford, R. H., and Stanhope, S. J., "Manufacture of Passive Dynamic Ankle-Foot Orthoses using Solid Freeform Fabrication," IEEE Transactions On Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 55, (2008), 2, pp. 784-790
8. Turner, C. J., Crawford, R. H., and Campbell, M. I., "Multidimensional Sequential Sampling for Metamodel Development," Engineering With Computers, Vol. 23, (2007), 3, pp. 155-174
9. Turner, C. J., Crawford, R. H., and Campbell, M. I., "Global Optimization of NURBS-Based Metamodels," Engineering Optimization, Vol. 39, (2007), 3, pp. 245-269
10. Rogers, B., Bosker, G. W., Crawford, R. H, Faustini, M. C., Neptune, R. R., Walden, G., and Gitter, A. J., "Advanced Trans-Tibial Socket Fabrication Using Selective Laser Sintering," Prosthetics And Orthotics International, Vol. 31, (2007), 1, pp. 88-100