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.
Related Disciplines
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.
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.
Start Design Engineering Expert SearchExpert 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.
Start Design Engineering Expert SearchExpert 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.
Start Design Engineering Expert SearchExpert 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.
Start Design Engineering Expert SearchExpert 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.
Start Design Engineering Expert SearchExpert 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.
Start Design Engineering Expert SearchExpert 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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