Dr. J. Cecil promoted to American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellows
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
“It feels great to be recognized by one’s peers,” said Cecil. “I want to thank Dr. J.N. Reddy, who nominated me and is an alumni of OSU’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department, and my family for their understanding and support. I also want to acknowledge Ric Mayer, my Ph.D. advisor, students and collaborators inside and outside of OSU who have all played an important role in my overall growth and success.”
Cecil is a leading innovator and educator in the area of information centric engineering and has laid the foundations of a new interdisciplinary area termed “Information Centric Engineering (ICE),” which emphasizes the three core facets of modeling, simulation and exchange of information. ICE recognizes the vital role of information in today’s information intensive engineering activities, which also involves exchanging information across various platforms among geographically distributed partners. His research includes the design of virtual reality-based design approaches for a variety of process domains, from micro assembly to space systems, and the design of collaborative frameworks for distributed engineering activities.
Cecil is also a pioneer in the adoption of e-learning approaches and is a leader in the design of Virtual Learning Environments, involving Virtual Reality based learning mediums, to teach engineering concepts. His recent research involves working with autism and education experts in exploring the impact of virtual environments to teach STEM topics to children with autism. He is part of an inter-university initiative involving the use of the Next Generation Internet, which is under development by NSF and other agencies.
Cecil has been active in ASME, having served as the chair of the Material Handling division and organizing numerous symposiums at the annual ASME Congress. He will be recognized at the Annual ASME Congress in November in Houston, TX.
Cecil acknowledged that Mayer’s ground-breaking ideas and perspectives on information modeling and systems engineering during his graduate studies influenced the creation of Information Centric Engineering as an interdisciplinary field.
“I have also enjoyed working with faculty in various departments at OSU, including electrical, mechanical and aerospace, civil and chemical engineering, education as well as the School of Entrepreneurship,” said Cecil.
ASME was founded in 1880 and has more than 140,000 members in 151 countries and only 3,356 of them are fellow members. This non-profit membership organization enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, career enrichment and skills development across all engineering disciplines toward a goal of helping the global engineering community develop solutions to benefit lives and livelihoods.