Farrokh Mistree

Farrokh Mistree

Director, Academia

Farrokh Mistree holds the L.A. Comp Chair and is the Director of the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.  Prior to this position, he was the Associate Chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Teach—Savannah.  He was also the Founding Director of the Systems Realization Laboratory at Georgia Tech.

Farrokh received his B. Tech (Hons) degree in Naval Architecture in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1974.  He has co-authored two textbooks, and more than 325 technical papers dealing with the design of mechanical and structural systems: ships and aircraft.

This includes more than 225 refereed publications and more than 30 papers that deal exclusively with education.  His design experience spans the areas of mechanical, aeronautical, structural, and industrial engineering.  He has taught courses in engineering design, naval architecture, solid mechanics, operations research and computer science.  He has mentored 26 doctoral, 49 masters’ and 19 bachelors’ students in their thesis work.  Twelve of his doctoral students are in academia.  Farrokh is a Fellow of ASME and an Associate Fellow of AIAA.

Farrokh’s current research focus is on learning how to manage design freedom in multiscale design (from molecular to reduced order models) to facilitate the integrated design of materials, product and design process chains.  His current education focus is on creating and implementing, in partnership with industry, a curriculum for educating Strategic Engineers—those who have developed the competencies to create value through the realization of complex engineered systems for changing markets in a collaborative, globally distributed environment.  It is in this context that he enjoys experimenting with ways in which design can be learned and taught.

Farrokh’s passion is to have fun in providing an opportunity for highly motivated and talented people to learn how to define and achieve their dreams.