Graduate Program in Mechanical Engineering
Prof. Jim Burns

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Dr. James S. Burns is Director of the Facility for Applied Manufacturing Enterprise and Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at San Diego State University. He also serves as Director of the SDSU Design and Manufacturing Consortium. Dr. Burns teaches SDSU’s upper division manufacturing electives as well as machine design courses, and has authored papers in the areas of 3D parametric design, rapid prototyping, and composites manufacturing. He is recipient of the International Technology Institute’s 1999 Outstanding Educator Medal, and the Pro/Awards 2000 Education category award recipient, an award that recognizes excellence in CAD/CAM education

Dr. Burns holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware where he performed industrially-sponsored research while at the Center for Composite Materials.  Dr. Burns has consulted for the DuPont company on composite and textile process development projects.  His previous professional employment was as a Senior Engineer with General Dynamics/ Fort Worth Division where he worked on both the non-metal and composite materials research and product development for the F-16 and F-22 programs.

FAME
The Facility for Applied Manufacturing Enterprise is a 5000+ sq. ft. facility dedicated to the education of engineering students in the latest product realization methods.  A critical element missing from nearly all universities is a practice-oriented program in which technology, business, and scholarship can be integrated. FAME was established as an interdisciplinary center-of-excellence dedicated to the science and technology supporting manufacturing. Its mission is to provide students with a complete and immersive product development experience in which to augment their job skills with next-century tools and strategies. FAME's further mission is to provide a forum for students to apply coursework and their relevant work experience to the creation of real wealth. FAME also seeks to gather and coordinate faculty interests by defining realistic avenues for the transition of internal research programs into external cooperative development programs. FAME's final objective is interdisciplinary and intra- institutional cooperation that, when legitimized by the establishment of a center-of-excellence, becomes the basis for a self-sustaining reputation for achievement.

Manufacturing is the interdisciplinary intersection where engineering mechanics, material science and measurement and control theory meet. Manufacturing with engineered materials such as composites has been identified by several prominent authoritative bodies as a key competitive technology for the next century. Engineered materials have provided mechanists fertile ground for intellectual achievement for several decades and, yet, translation of these achievements into economic and social value has lagged behind. Part of the problem stems from isolation between traditional disciplines and part from the perception by many that science is the province of the university and technology that of the manufacturer.

Design and Manufacturing Program and Master of Engineering Degree
New technology, inter-disciplinary work structures, world-wide enterprise, and global economic forces provide great challenges to today's engineering professional. Improved response to these challenges by the engineering professional is essential for their firm's continued successful competition in a national and global marketplace. Thus, practicing engineers should seek to use modern technical skills alongside the economic realities of business operations. Rapidly changing organizational structures also require engineering professionals who can take on broad responsibilities while lending well grounded technical expertise to work teams they manage.

To help engineering professionals meet these demands, the SDSU College of Engineering, with the participation of the College of Business and major Southern California industry, offers a unique Master of Engineering Program. The program strives to equip participants to continue along a technical career path while adding the dimensions of business, management, and teamwork to their skill sets. The Program differs from a traditional Master of Science degree in engineering by concentrating on current industrial practice rather than on research and differs from a traditional Master of Business Administration degree by focusing on the business and technical environment of engineering industries.
 

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/course/me546/burns.html Burns
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/medept/cim.html FAME
http://kahuna.sdsu.edu/~burns/IPD/main.html Design and Mfg. Program