Topic: Engineering and Design
Mohammad Valipour
Mark Yoss
Mark Yoss, B.A., is the Lockheed Martin endowed director for the Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Yoss assists students with acquiring skills needed for rewarding careers in advanced manufacturing industries including both technical and soft skills. From 2015 to 2020, he served as the Lockheed Martin Focus School Advisor to MSU Denver, where he was instrumental in creating the curriculum for the advanced manufacturing sciences bachelor’s degree.
Yoss also helped to establish the Lockheed Martin co-op program, which has converted 75% of MSU Denver student participants into full-time employees at Lockheed Martin upon their graduation. In 2020, Yoss received the Cooperative Education and Internship Association Charles F. Kettering Award, which recognizes an employer from industry, business or government who provides outstanding resources and service to the cooperative education and internship field.
Prior to his current role at MSU Denver, Yoss was a production principal at Lockheed Martin and retired in 2021. He was responsible for the design, development, manufacturing, inspection and testing of space flight hardware/software for launch vehicles, communications satellites and interplanetary spacecraft products used by the United States Airforce, NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office. He also served as a manufacturing senior manager and strategically lead a 90-person operation to design, develop and produce critical electronics products.
Yoss is an advocate for STEM education, and in conjunction with Lockheed Martin he has helped organize events for K-12 schools throughout Colorado, including hosting an annual space day for elementary school children as well as a manufacturing day that provided a facility tour of Lockheed Martin to high school and college students.
Yoss received his bachelor’s degree in industry technology in 1983 from the Illinois State University.
John Wanberg
John Wanberg, M.A., is a professor in the Industrial Design Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He has been teaching university-level coursework in industrial design for over 18 years. Wanberg has a knack for training prospective industrial designers and believes constant professional skill development is critical to prepare students for their design careers.
Among the many ventures he has been involved in as a professional designer, Wanberg has designed many products for the medical field and transportation. He has a strong interest in ergonomic and human factors research and has assisted in the development of several products that other aesthetics-based designers have avoided. Wanberg has collaborated in the design of robotic prosthetics (for stroke victims and amputees) as well as dynamic, alternative vehicle architectures that have been serviceable and comfortable over a wide range of user sizes. Additionally, while working as a contract research assistant, he developed a prototype footbed for a training device that is adjustability to fit the length and width of multiple users’ feet. His expertise includes technology-based conceptualization, “mechano-aesthetic” design, prototype fabrication as well as composites manufacturing and applications.
Wanberg received a master’s in industrial design from Arizona State University in 2005 and a bachelor’s in industrial design with a minor in Japanese from Brigham Young University in 2000.
Stan Trout
With forty years’ experience in the permanent magnet and rare earth industries, Stan has a wealth of problem-solving abilities, gained from a wide variety of technical and commercial roles, that he is eager to share. He has been very fortunate to confer, study, meet and collaborate with many international luminaries along the way. He is particularly proud to have trained many of today’s active industry professionals. Stan has a B.S. in Physics from Lafayette College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Metallurgy and Materials Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a registered Professional Engineer in both Colorado and Pennsylvania.
Smita Singh
Smita Singh, M.A., is a assistant professor in the School of Hospitality at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She teaches courses in Event Planning, Special Events Production, Talent Leadership, Event planning for the Professionals as well as Human Resource Management. She also serves as a board member for the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, which collaborates with other professionals and industry experts for conducting events and exhibitions.
Prior to coming to MSU Denver, Singh worked at Iowa State University in the College of Human Sciences where she developed an experiential learning environment for classrooms by using real world case studies that included hotels, restaurants, events and other hospitality landscapes. In addition, she also served as an adjunct faculty member for the Institute of Professional Studies in India teaching Risk and Tourism Management.
She worked as an event manager for the Jaypee Group where she planned and organized major tradeshows and conferences within and outside India, coordinated pricing and ticketing strategies as well as managed the finical and business aspects to effectively run events with vendors and clients. Smita also organized and participated in national conferences in Western and Eastern India as well as events in Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok and Sharjah. She helped organize the Formula 1 international race in India and developed the communication and marketing strategy for the event.
Smita is passionate about working with events around community involvement. She worked with Sankalp, a student organization and a non‐profit organization to create awareness and help economically struggling people achieve sustainable development, organized charitable events like Daawat, a fundraising dinner to showcase and raise money for various chosen NGO‐supplied project proposals and helped create a fundraising campaign for oxygen concentrators to combat COVID‐19 in India.`
Smita is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program for hospitality management at Iowa State University. She received her master’s in business administration in 2009 and bachelor’s in engineering from Jaypee College of Business in India 2007.
Jinseup (Ted) Shin
Jinseup “Ted” Shin, MFA, is a professor the Department of Industrial Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include technology, product design, and future trends. Shin teaches Introduction to Industrial Design, Technical Drawing, and Digital Visual Techniques in ID and oversees student internships.
Before teaching at MSU Denver, he taught as an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, for five years. Shin also worked for Samsung Electronics in South Korea for seven years, where he designed various products including Samsung’s first clamshell-type cellphone. He was one of 12 from over 700 Samsung designers to be placed in a special design program at the company, which allowed him to travel to many countries and study how different cultures impact design solutions.
Shin is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America and co-authored an IDSA publication titled “Design Like a Chef,” in which he compares the complex roles of chefs and designers. Additionally, he is actively working with companies as a professional design consultant.
Shin received his master’s in Industrial and Product Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001 and a bachelor’s in Industrial and Product Design from the Yeungnam University in South Korea in 1993.
Scott Mourer
Scott Mourer, M.F.A., is an affiliate professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His specialties include proficiency with many 3D computer design programs, woodworking, furniture design and textile design.
Mourer has experience as a designer and builder of household products, yacht interiors and accessories, soft sided luggage, backpacks, pet accessories, architectural, industrial, interior and furniture design. He worked as a furniture design teaching assistant at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and more recently, has been working as an assistant preparator at the Denver Art Museum in addition to teaching at MSU Denver.
Several of Mourer’s designs have been purchased by SCAD and remain in the institution’s permanent collection. His designs are also featured in SCAD catalogs and trade magazines.
Mourer received his Master of Fine Arts in furniture design from Savannah College of Art and Design and a bachelor’s in industrial design from MSU Denver.
David Klein
David Klein, M.F.A., is a professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
His professional experience includes designing children’s riding toys and adult fitness equipment at Roadmaster Corporation, decorative designs at David Marshall Inc., and consumer electronics for Samsung Corporation in Seoul, Korea. Klein also completed a Fulbright-Hayes Seminar in the Czech and Slovak Republics, was a visiting scholar at the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology and has presented at IDSA and NCIIA national conferences. He is also a member of Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and is in involved in the One World One Water Center at MSU Denver.
Klein received his master of fine arts in industrial design from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor of arts in product design from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Amy Kern
Amy Kern, MID, is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include industrial design, human-centered design, design thinking and design research. Kern currently teaches Introduction to Industrial Design.
Prior to joining MSU Denver in 2014, her work included being a senior product designer, furniture and lighting designer and director of product design. In 2012, Kern launched her design consultancy, AK Magma Design, where she still works as the founder and director of design. Her extensive experience, specializing in furniture and spatial and lighting design, includes work with factories around the world and major corporate retailers and custom designs for restaurants, lounges, hotels and casinos.
Kern’s research areas include globalization, ethnography, humanitarian design and universal design. Her current projects are being completed at her consultancy, focusing on balancing humanitarian and universal design projects with projects using expertise in the business of product design and manufacturing. She is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America.
Kern received her Master of Industrial Design degree from Pratt Institute in New York in 2002 and her bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1994. She also holds a special certification in Design Thinking.