Design Engineering Expert Witnesses

What is a design engineering expert witness?

Design engineering expert witness candidates are often licensed professional engineers, with extensive experience and expertise in mechanical engineering, structural engineering, automotive engineering, civil engineering, computer science, biomechanics, or electrical engineering – depending on the specific product or technology involved in the case. In a high-profile case, or litigation involving a significant financial stake, a law firm may request a design engineer with prior expert witness testimony experience. A design engineering expert witness may be involved in an industry organization, such as IEEE or the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).

What types of cases require a design engineering expert witness?

A design engineer is tasked with developing products that adhere to their intended function and performance. Commonly, a design engineer works closely with manufacturing engineering and makes changes and corrections throughout the life of the product. A design engineering expert witness could provide expertise in intellectual property matters, such as a patent litigation, a trade secret dispute, or a proceeding in the International Trade Commission (ITC). A design engineer could also be called in for an accident reconstruction, product liability, personal injury, or failure analysis project.

Design engineering expert witness case examples

Example assignment have included:

• human factors,
• failure analysis of a commercial HVAC system located in Georgia,
• structural design,
• systems engineering dispute in Indiana,
• geotechnical engineering,
• Arizona roofing design assessments,
• personal injury case in New York involving golf club design,
• semiconductor patent infringement,
• automotive parts design, and
• medical device biomechanics.

What litigation support work might a design engineering expert witness be expected to perform?

Expert witness service by a design engineer could include mediation support, research and authoring expert reports, forensic engineering, providing expert opinions, and expert testimony in the courtroom. In addition, attorney clients may seek engineering design professionals for pre-litigation consulting services (for example – an electrical engineer, structural engineer, mechanical engineer, civil engineer, or other relevant professional engineer).

Cahn Litigation Services has the experience required to turn a search for a design engineering expert witness around quickly, providing the right balance of expertise and testimony experience.

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Design Engineering Expert Witness - Representative Bios

Please Note: All Cahn Litigation expert witness searches are customized to attorneys' precise specifications and preferences. Attorneys are encouraged to discuss search parameters with a Cahn search specialist.

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The below expert witness bios represent a small fraction of those Design Engineering experts known by Cahn Litigation Services. These bios are provided to give lawyers a sense of the Design Engineering landscape.

• Expert Witness #261066

  This expert is an automotive engineer with many years of professional experience, including working directly for automotive manufacturers. This expert has direct design and testing experience in vehicle structures, crashworthiness, and closure systems engineering. This expert applies expertise to expert witness investigations pertaining to vehicle crashworthiness, crash reconstruction, vehicle systems performance, and exterior/interior upper body mechanisms.

  Upon completion of a degree in Mechanical Engineering, this expert held positions in Body Design, Closures Design, and Crash Safety. As a Crash Safety engineer, this expert was responsible for ensuring achievement of dynamic safety targets, both on a component basis and as complete vehicle performance. This included work in both the virtual design phase by simulation analysis, as well as overseeing and analyzing physical crash testing. This expert performed design/test work on sedans, pickup trucks, crossovers, and cargo vehicles throughout the entire development lifecycle and into mass production.

  Continuing an automotive career, this expert then worked in Research & Development, where this expert was responsible for closures design engineering as a design team chief. This expert led a team of design engineers in developing all aspects of minivan slide doors. This expert also served as design chief for minor-model updates on pickup truck door and tailgate closures. This expert has expertise in all elements of upper body design, including structures, dynamic and static crash safety, sealing, NVH, power-door systems, latches, and exterior/interior components, among others.

  This expert earned an Engineering degree from one of the nation's most respected programs. This expert has accumulated a multitude of patents for key innovations in upper body design. This expert's education and deep industry experience designing and testing vehicles qualify this expert to investigate a broad range of vehicle topics.

  
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• Expert Witness #256699

  This expert has a Masters in Design and a PhD in engineering with course work that spanned product design, safety, industrial systems design, robotics, kinematics and mechanical engineering. This expert's expert witness experience includes intellectual property (patents, trade secrets and trade dress), product design, product liability and mechanical failure analysis, manufacturing system failure, safety analysis, and automotive and motorcycle system failures. This expert is a recognized artist, award winning producer, interior designer, author of a robotics text, journal and conference papers that include automation systems, alternative fuels and automotive engine design, a racing car engine researcher and designer, and the holder of six US patents that include alternative automotive fuels and furniture design. This expert is an Associate Professor in departments of industrial engineering and management systems and in a school of visual arts and design.

  
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• Expert Witness #218101

  This expert is a Registered Professional Engineer with many years of experience in the biotechnology field. This expert holds PhD and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering, is an ASME Fellow, and an IEEE Senior Member. This expert is also a member of ASM International (the Materials Information Society) and SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). Currently, this expert is the Principal and Founder of an engineering consulting firm that focuses on providing support for early stage medical device and technology companies. Specializing in mechanical engineering design and behavior of biomedical devices, shape memory metals, bio-absorbable polymers and MEMs, this expert consults actively in these areas, as well as in failure analysis and reliability. This expert has extensive experience in the use of finite element analysis and simulation of structures, heat transfer, fluid flow and Mechanical Design for Reliability. This expert led the design and development of diagnostic and therapeutic devices, and has skills honed in researching and analyzing IP and competing technologies.

  This expert has direct experience with implantable, cardiovascular stents, with early work related to finite element analysis and fatigue life prediction as part of the client company's FDA IDE submission. Early projects were generally balloon expandable coronary stents and the analysis went through the steps of roll-down from the as-manufactured geometry, balloon expansion, balloon deflation, and coronary cyclic pressure fluctuations. This expert also worked with self-expanding stents. Other projects involved devices such as stent-grafts for AAA application and stents for other applications such as renal, etc. Failure analysis projects involving stents came along periodically with issues such as fatigue failures during life testing, corrosion, or other metallurgical issues. Litigation projects involving stents followed. The cases were generally patent matters involving various aspects of stent technology and design. This expert has served as a testifying expert witness in medical device patent litigation and has provided deposition and trial testimony for a total of 18 IP cases, 7 IP Depositions (>20 depositions total), 1 IP Trial (4 Trials all together), and 7 IPR Declarations. This expert has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the Mechanical Engineering Department at a prestigious universities, including courses on Materials, Manufacturing, and Mechanical Design.

  
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• Expert Witness #264293

  This expert received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering. This expert is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the founding Director of a Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory. This expert’s current research interests include robotics and intelligent autonomous systems, human–robot interactions, robotic vision and visual servoing/odometry, machine learning, mechatronics design, systems dynamics and control, mechanism design and system integration, and novel sensing and actuation. 

  This expert brings to the table many years of combined industrial and academic experience in various robotic systems design, testing, prototyping, developing; machine/mechanism design, synthesis, analysis, manufacturing and integration; and industrial experience. This expert has authored over 160 peer-reviewed articles in the field of robotic systems design. Examples of application areas and projects include autonomous mobile robots with symbiosis of locomotion and manipulation and modular and reconfigurable mobile robotics for search & rescue and hazardous environment sensing and monitoring; design of intelligent biomimetic robotic tails for robust dynamic stabilization and agile maneuvering of legged robots on rough terrain; autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launch and recovery from naval vessels; haptics devices and upper-extremity exoskeletons for tele-operation and medical diagnostics and therapeutic purposes such as rehabilitation therapy; and novel smart sensors and actuators for biomedical applications.

  This expert has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and refereed papers in conference proceedings and is the named inventor on twelve U.S. patents and patent applications. This expert has prior expert witness experience, having written expert reports, and testified in depositions, IPR and ITC proceedings.

  
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• Expert Witness #238561

  This expert is a Professional Engineer with Mechanical Engineering, Structural Engineering, and Civil Engineering degrees and certificates. This expert has a good deal of ladder logic experience within the context of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) and Computer Numerical Controls (CNC). This expert was engaged in the design, manufacture, installation and startup of robotic pick and place machinery, performing all engineering calculations necessary in the design of these robotic machines and programming the PLCs during the initial installation period. This expert has also dealt with the design and construction of industrial material handling systems, such as conveyors, piping systems, crane, monorails, robotics, PLCs, hydraulics, pneumatics and electrical controls. This expert had sole responsibility for designing, installing, programming and startup of CNC for manufacturing machine equipment, including selection of components, ladder logic programming, modification of machinery, and machine design. This expert holds two U.S. Patents and is working on two others. This expert has been engaged as an expert witness in a number of cases.

  
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• Expert Witness #266405

  This expert has been providing independent consulting, research and expert witness services, after having worked in industry engaged in software and instrument development. This expert’s primary focus is in gaming and phone input device architecture, standards and device drivers. As far back as the1980’s this expert was developing driver software for the leading manufacturers of joysticks at the time. That work also required a lot of engineering directed to drift that might result from variations in the outputs of the joystick sensors. Over the years this expert has worked on many input devices with joysticks or joystick-like inputs. This expert is quite familiar with the design issues surrounding joysticks both in terms of their internal design and when they are used in systems. This expert led the electronic and firmware design for a joystick used to control a cardiac endoscopy system (the same technology as a joystick control used in gaming but with much more stringent performance requirements). This expert has provided trial testimony on multiple occasions in front of juries, at bench trials, at the ITC, and in front of an arbitration panel.

  
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• Expert Witness #266579

  This expert brings to the table many years of manufacturing, design and automation industry experience involving over 100 devices that contain linkages, springs (pneumatic and otherwise), and pivot joints. This expert has designed many mechanisms that center on electro-mechanical lifting, and is the named inventor on two patents involving that technology. In addition to work as an independent consultant, this expert serves as Vice President of Research and Development/Engineering for a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of chemicals and test kits for monitoring water quality.
  
  This expert is a qualified expert witness with experience in Federal Circuit Court for intellectual property matters, ITC, PTAB, contract and personal injury cases. This expert is well versed in creating claim charts. This expert has testified twice in court on patent matters and been deposed eight times on patent-related matters. This expert holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management.

  
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• Expert Witness #87862

  This refrigeration hardware expert holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering, is licensed as a Professional Engineer in several states, is registered with a national engineering licensure organization, and serves in a senior role at a highly sought-after consultancy, with extensive experience in fluid systems and heat transfer. This expert has designed commercial and industrial refrigeration systems for over 20 years, including over 15 years as a registered Professional Engineer. This expert works regularly with compressor manufacturers in applying their products and has product design experience as part of a design team for expanders, which are compressors that operate in reverse.

  This expert's approach to engineering emphasizes understanding systems from fundamental principles, which has led to significant success in understanding and designing a wide array of system types. Almost all of the engineering software tools used by this expert's engineering firm were designed and programmed internally, with an emphasis on understanding the "why and how" of each portion of a design choice or recommendation. This provides the firm with the ability to document engineering rationale for designs and design recommendations and to provide insights on why certain design choices were made.

  
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• Expert Witness #125107

  This high-performance hardware design/trade secret expert holds a PhD in Computer Engineering and is an adjunct professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at a well-regarded university, where graduate-level seminars on embedded computer architectures are taught. This expert is also a technologist, entrepreneur, founder of a successful technology consultancy, and managing director at a private equity angel investing firm.

  This expert has served as an expert witness or consultant in approximately 100 matters involving patents, trade secrets, and high-performance hardware and software design, with over 80 depositions and over 5 trials, including matters in EDTX, WDTX, and the International Trade Commission. Many of these matters involved hardware design, FPGA, ASICs and similar technologies, and cloud computing.

  This expert teaches and advises PhD-level research in areas such as high-performance hardware design and computer architecture and has guest lectured at various U.S. universities in computer engineering and related subjects. This expert previously held industry roles at major technology and semiconductor research organizations involving high-performance microprocessor and hardware accelerator design and related technologies.

  This expert has authored numerous IEEE and ACM publications and textbooks in areas such as high-performance hardware and software design, embedded and real-time processing, signal processing, and sensor technology. This expert has also chaired conferences and served on steering committees for IEEE and ACM industry conferences for over 15 years.

  This expert has authored open-source hardware design infrastructures and system-level simulation tools used at various U.S. universities, including tools for designing hardware accelerators for multimedia, telecommunications, and graphics processing workloads. This expert has significant experience designing and reverse engineering large-scale hardware, software, and firmware systems involving more than 10 million lines of computer code.

  This expert's academic background includes graduate degrees in Computer Engineering from a well-regarded university and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from a well-regarded technical university, with doctoral work focused on chipsets and software solutions for wireless technologies. This expert has also served as a company founder, co-founder, advisory board member, and board member.

  This expert currently serves in a leadership role for an IEEE/ACM design automation conference track and sits on a technical committee for an IEEE real-time systems symposium. This expert has extensive experience in reverse engineering and source code review involving millions of lines of software and hardware source code, has architected open-source computer architecture simulation environments used for hardware/software system design at various U.S. universities, and is a named inventor on multiple U.S. patents involving client/server computing and embedded operating systems.

  This expert is a highly experienced litigation consultant.

  
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• Expert Witness #209524

  This product design IP expert has over 50 years of design practice and extensive experience in product development, industrial design, and engineering consulting. This expert has held senior leadership roles in an industrial design, product development, and engineering consulting firm, has taught design at well-regarded universities, and has served as a Consultant in Intellectual Property Design since 2012. This expert is a frequent presenter at industry conferences and is a named inventor on over 70 patents.

  This expert has experience as an expert witness and litigation consultant.

  
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• Expert Witness #214741

  This mechanical engineering and product design expert holds a PhD and has expertise in engineering mechanisms, product design, and devices commonly used in the fitness and exercise community. This expert has taught engineering mechanisms and design topics at the graduate-school level and as a faculty member at prestigious engineering institutions.

  
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• Expert Witness #225920

  This trade dress, product design, and human factors engineering expert is a CHFP and leads a human factors and design research firm focused on complex products and services. This expert has over 45 years of experience consulting for leading global clients and holds a BS in Industrial Design from a well-regarded design college and a Master's degree in Ergonomics from a well-regarded university.

  This expert specializes in product design and development methodology, industrial design, design research, usability engineering, usability testing, and consumer decision-making. This expert has category experience across many major product categories, including infant support products, consumer products, medical products, commercial products, and other products.

  This expert has served as a consulting and testifying expert in over 75 major cases involving intellectual property issues, including utility patents, design patents, trade dress, copyright, and trademark issues related to product design and development. This expert has represented major corporate clients at trial and before the ITC, prepared responses to USPTO Office Actions, and has extensive experience in demanding venues and circuits.

  This expert has also held leadership roles in design protection and design science policy organizations.

  
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• Expert Witness #248186

  This optomechanical engineering expert holds a Ph.D. and works at the intersection of engineering, R&D, and software for optomechanical systems.

  This expert is an adjunct professor at a well-regarded university, teaching courses in optomechanical system design. This expert is trained as a mechanical engineer, and most professional work has been related to optomechanical engineering, including the intersection between optics, such as camera systems, and the mechanical systems needed to make them work effectively.

  This expert has provided expert witness reports and testimony in matters involving patent infringement and false advertising, particularly related to camera and imaging systems.

  This expert teaches courses about camera system design, optomechanical design, design for manufacturing, and related technical challenges. This expert also teaches short courses at technical conferences on these topics.

  In a practicing engineering role, this expert is responsible for building complex optomechanical systems, including cameras and image sensors, and understands the importance and nuances of baffling and blocking stray light. Current engineering work includes camera systems intended for use in space with sensitive stray-light requirements.

  This expert is an experienced expert witness and litigation consultant.

  
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• Expert Witness #277138

  This vehicle design expert is a mechanical engineering graduate of a prestigious university whose professional career has focused on motorcycles and human factors engineering. In senior vehicle engineering leadership roles, this expert has led engineering teams in developing new vehicles from concept through production and safety certification, and has patents involving two-wheeled vehicle designs.

  This expert has experience with motorcycle design, powersports equipment, vehicle safety, and human factors issues, including safety considerations involving frame structure, passenger injury mechanisms, and protection against hair and clothing entrapment. This expert's work has also included vehicle design considerations for international markets involving garment-related safety guards.

  This expert is an experienced expert witness and litigation consultant.

  
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• Expert Witness #278014

  This orthopaedic biomedical engineering and medical device expert holds a PhD in Engineering Mechanics with a specialty in Orthopedic Biomechanics and has over 40 years of experience leading an independent engineering consultancy specializing in orthopaedic medical device analysis and medical device design, review, and testing. This expert assists clients with injury mechanics and causation, biomechanical analysis, product design and evaluation, structural analysis, dynamic analysis, and medical and mechanical device design and testing.

  This expert has experimentally tested, designed, redesigned, and testified about medical devices, including fixation plates, screws, rods, lumbar and cervical spine fixation devices, total knee replacements, and total hip replacements. This expert also holds academic roles in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering and directs a biomechanics laboratory at a university.

  This expert has extensive prior litigation experience involving medical device design and failure.

  
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• Expert Witness #278787

  This robot safety/human factors/controller design expert is an academic professor emeritus in industrial and systems engineering with over 40 years of experience specializing in human factors engineering, human-computer interaction, work design and performance systems, and robot safety. This expert is one of the early pioneer researchers in industrial robotics safety and has performed extensive research in the human factors engineering of medical instruments. This expert teaches the principles of control-display compatibility in human factors engineering courses.

  In research and teaching, this expert uses human factors design evaluation tools to assess user control interfaces across 10 mutually exclusive dimensions. A subjective rating system can be used to measure interface design features against these dimensions, providing an evaluation of design appropriateness.

  This expert also has experience in the design of warning labels and warning instructions for several classes of hazardous conditions. Warning-label and instruction design must be carefully considered against a complex array of other parts of the system operating conditions and user expertise. If needed, this must be done first against the standards for warning labels and instructions and then modified for a particular set of operational sequences.

  
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• Expert Witness #279391

  This naval engineering and powerplant expert has over 35 years of experience working in government, industry, and academia, and holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering, a Naval Engineer's Degree, and a Ph.D. in Naval Engineering. This expert has expertise in program management, power systems and control systems engineering, marine engineering, ship design and construction, technology development, operations, and education and training, most of which has been associated with warships. This expert is experienced in the design, development, and fielding of complex systems for both military and commercial applications, and has successfully created and led technology development organizations in industry and government. This expert serves on the faculty of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at a university, is a Licensed Professional Engineer, has been elected a Fellow of a prominent engineering association, and has published numerous technical papers.

  This expert has been involved in several ship design and construction projects in various phases of the development cycle, from concept-level designs through detail design and construction in shipyards, and has worked on several technology development projects, most of which have been related to ship power and propulsion systems.

  This expert is a practicing naval engineering consultant and university professor, and has served as an expert witness in a number of matters, including a dispute concerning responsibility for a catastrophic propulsion system failure on a surface warship. This expert's involvement has included extensive document review, preparation of multiple expert reports, review and response to opposing expert reports, and testimony at an arbitration hearing.

  
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• Expert Witness #291239

  This mechanical engineering and machine design expert holds a PhD and has over 20 years of combined experience in mechanical engineering across academia and industry. This expert's industry experience includes over 15 years in product development, machine design, energy-efficient appliances and sustainability, thermal systems design, and engineering management. This expert has long led industry-academia funded research and has over 10 U.S. pending and issued patents that resulted in products sold in North America, with most innovations involving sustainable design for domestic and commercial appliances. This expert has advanced knowledge of computer-aided engineering, CFD, and computational mechanics, and is an expert user and trainer in computer-aided design using solid modeling.

  This expert's litigation experience includes matters involving commercial appliances, modular power-plant equipment, marine air-conditioning blower ducting, ice-making platforms, appliances, OEM products, and related consumer-product issues, including matters before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). This expert has prepared expert reports, been deposed, and provided testimony, including testimony before the ITC.

  
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• Expert Witness #296101

  This electromechanical/product design expert holds a PhD and is an ASME Fellow with academic experience in engineering, design, computing, and mechanical engineering.

  This expert completed graduate degrees in engineering and applied science at a prestigious technology institute, where this expert was a PhD scholar affiliated with a major research laboratory. This expert has held academic and leadership roles at well-regarded universities and military academic institutions, including roles focused on design innovation, engineering, and product development.

  This expert has over 35 years of experience in consumer product service systems, has published over 550 refereed papers and books in design, and has received over 120 national and international awards in design.

  This expert has been involved in over 200 matters in the areas of patent litigation and class action litigation and is available to provide court testimony as needed.

  
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• Expert Witness #297033

  This civil engineering expert is a Professional Engineer (P.E.) who holds a B.Sc. in civil engineering from a well-regarded technical institute and has over 40 years of experience in state, federal, and private-sector civil engineering projects, including bridges, roadways, and construction monitoring.

  This expert has forensic expertise involving metal building design and construction, flagpole design and installation, tall slender structure design and construction, gantry design, reinforcing bar cage design and fabrication for concrete foundations, and concrete wall design and construction.

  This expert is also an experienced expert witness and litigation consultant.

  
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• Expert Witness #304392

  This civil engineering/traffic expert is a licensed Professional Engineer in Civil Engineering who served as a senior engineering leader for a state department of transportation. In that role, this expert was responsible for the agency's design program and staffing, including developing design policy and guidance and delivering an annual multi-million-dollar design and construction program.

  This expert served as the agency's representative on contractor claims and disputes, right-of-way condemnation cases, and tort claim litigation, including work as an expert witness. That work included assisting with interrogatories, depositions, and trial preparation.

  This expert has over 35 years of experience in roadway and highway design, including over 10 years with a federal highway agency and additional service with a state department of transportation. This expert served for over 5 years as a senior engineering leader and has significant experience developing and signing roadway and highway construction plans, including traffic control design and application, permanent traffic signing, and highway right-of-way appurtenances such as trails, paths, guardrail, and fencing. This expert's expert-witness testimony experience occurred over more than a decade while serving in a senior transportation engineering role.

  
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