Gary K. Fedder is the faculty director of the Manufacturing Futures Institute and the Howard M. Wilkoff Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He previously served as founding president and interim CEO of the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute (2016, 2020), as well as serving in administrative roles at Carnegie Mellon as vice provost for research (2015-2016, 2018), associate dean for research in the College of Engineering (2013-2015), and director of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, which was the precursor to the Engineering Research Accelerator (2006-2014). Fedder received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) from MIT in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and his Ph.D. in EECS from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994.
Fedder worked at Hewlett-Packard as a research and design engineer from 1984 to 1989 on design of integrated circuit test equipment, development of diagnostic software for data storage, and high-speed printed circuit board manufacturing at HP Labs. His research interests include design and manufacturing of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems), micro/nanosensors, and stretchable electronics, and in digital twin systems for manufacturing. He has contributed to more than 300 research publications and holds 21 patents. He is an IEEE Fellow for contributions to integrated MEMS. He served as subject editor for IEEE J. MEMS from 2002-2013 and currently serves on the executive editorial board for the IoP J. Micromechanics and Microengineering, as a member of the editorial board for IET Micro & Nano Letters, and as co-editor of the Wiley-VCH Advanced Micro- and Nanosystems book series.
From 2011 to 2012, Fedder served as a technical co-lead in the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Partnership where he worked with industry, academia, and government to generate recommendations that motivated the launch of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, now called Manufacturing USA.