OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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The Prototype Development Lab is located at Oregon State University. From the very beginning, the focus of the PDL has been on interacting with industry and entrepreneurs to provide outstanding experiential learning for students, solve real world problems, and deliver results having practical bottom-line value to sponsors.
Dr. John Parmigiani is the primary leader of the PDL. He has a life-long passion for the creation of electro-mechanical devices, extensive practical experience and academic training, and is uniquely positioned at OSU to guide the PDL to success. He is joined with Dr. Rob Stone in guiding the PDL. Their technical expertise is supplemented, as needed, by the technical expertise of other OSU faculty.
OSU students and faculty engineer, design, and build mechanical and electromechanical devices for startups, established companies, and university researchers. The PDL uses cutting-edge robotics, additive manufacturing techniques, and digital- manufacturing equipment and software to efficiently design and build the prototypes needed to move from a market worthy idea to an actual physical embodiment to attract investors, obtain patents, create a product, and move to market. The focus of the lab is accessing OSU technical expertise to apply engineering principles to create prototype devices for sponsors.
The focus will be on trained graduate students applying engineering principles to create prototype devices for sponsors. It is not intended to be a “maker space” where clients simply access equipment, but rather a means by which the talent of an engineering research university is efficiently accessed and applied to prototype creation for clients.
John Parmigiani has a life-long love of mechanical engineering. Academic training began with metals-machining and vehicle mechanics courses prior to college and was followed with B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. Professional experience includes 10 years as a practicing engineer in industry with several Pennsylvania manufacturing firms. Personal experince includes vehicle repair & restoration and countless construction & repair projects on his Pennsylvania farm and Oregon home. His current work at Oregon State University focuses on providing useful solutions to real-world mechanical engineering problems for a wide variety of project sponsors.
Licensed Professional Engineer in Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington
PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2007
MS in Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 1997
BS in Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, 1987
Director of the Prototype Development Lab
Research Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Director of Industry Research for the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering
Capstone Coordinator for the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering
Dr. Stone’s research interests include design theories and methodologies, specifically product architectures, functional representations, automated conceptual design techniques and innovation strategies for new product design. Dr. Stone’s passion is product design and innovation. His work takes inspiration and analogies from biology, nature, and existing products to then design new and innovative products and systems. His main tool for doing so is by reverse engineering products, modeling them in a unique way by looking at their functionality, and storing that information in a design repository and finding efficient ways of generating new design concepts using that data base to innovate not only every day products but also renewable systems like the solar house.
PhD, Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1997
MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Missouri at Rolla, 1995
BS, Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri at Rolla, 1992
Co-Director of the Prototype Development Lab
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Katherine Edmonds is currently a mechanical engineering graduate student at Oregon State University. Katherine does research in design engineering, prototype research, and sustainable design. She is an experienced designer with a history of working in furniture design for 6 years prior to pursuing an engineering degree. She has a strong arts and science background with degrees in ecology and biology and completed a master furniture maker program at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine.
MS, Ecology and Sustainable Development, University of Georgia, 2008
BS, Biology, Rhodes College, 2003
6 years of experience as a shop technician, furniture maker, and construction work
15 years experience teaching and mentoring students in hands-on setting
Lab Manager of the Prototype Development Lab
Graduate Student of Mechanical Engineering
Our lab has access to:
A full machine and wood shop including the following:
Digital Fabrication Machinery
Please feel free to inquire further about our capabilities, we can also access additional machinery around the Oregon State campus.