Dr.Kenji Uchino
Professor
Pennsylvania State University
USA
Biography
Kenji Uchino, a pioneer in piezoelectric actuators, is Founding Director of International Center for Actuators and Transducers, and Professor of EE and MatSE, Distinguished Honors Faculty of Schreyer Honors College at The Penn State University. He was the Founder of Micromechatronics Inc., State College, PA from 2004 till 2010. He was also Associate Director at The US Office of Naval Research – Global Tokyo Office from 2010 till 2014. After his Ph. D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, he became Research Associate (1976) at this university. Then, he joined Sophia University, Japan as Associate Professor in 1985. He was recruited from The Penn State in 1991. Uchino is a Fellow of American Ceramic Society and IEEE, and also is a recipient of 29 awards, including Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE UFFC Society (2018), International Ceramic Award from Global Academy of Ceramics (2016), IEEE-UFFC Ferroelectrics Recognition Award (2013), Inventor Award from Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems, Virginia Tech (2011), SPIE Smart Product Implementation Award (2007), R&D 100 Award (2007), ASME Adaptive Structures Prize (2005), Best Movie Memorial Award at Japan Scientific Movie Festival (1989), and the Best Paper Award from Japanese Society of Oil/Air Pressure Control (1987).
Research Interest
Piezoelectric device developments, including materials, device designing and fabrication process; Applications to actuators/sensors; Micro-ultrasonic motors; Piezo-transformers; Energy harvesting; and Robotics.