Biography:
Dr. Judy Vance joined the National Science Foundation in November 2006 as Program Director for Engineering Design in the Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation Division of the Engineering Directorate. She is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Faculty Fellow of the Virtual Reality Applications Center at Iowa State University. Her research involves exploring ways that virtual reality can be used to improve engineering design, from the conceptual design stage through manufacturing. Her current research focuses on virtual environments for assembly methods planning, training and product maintenance planning. She is also exploring ways to use virtual reality to improve compliant mechanism design. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and past Associate Technical Editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. She has been active recently in efforts to support senior women engineering faculty as they explore advancing to academic leadership.
