Professor Dirk Schaefer holds the Chair in Industrial Design at the University of Liverpool in the UK.  He is the Director of the Systems Realization Laboratory at the University of Liverpool, and an international thought leader in Cloud-Based Design and Technology for Digital Manufacturing in the context of Industry 4.0. Previously, Professor Schaefer held academic positions at the University of Bath (UK), the Georgia Institute of Technology (US), and the University of Durham (UK).  He earned a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Stuttgart (Germany), a MS in Mathematics from the University of Duisburg (Germany), and an Advanced College Certificate in Mechanical Engineering.

His accomplishments comprise more than 180 technical publications, including ten books. He has delivered more than 120 talks at events all over the world. Professor Schaefer is a registered Professional Engineer in Europe (Eur Ing), a Chartered Engineer (CEng), Chartered Technological Product Designer (CTPD), Chartered Scientist (CSci), and a Chartered IT-Professional (CITP) in the UK. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (FIMA), and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA). In addition, he is a professional member of the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED), the Design Society (DS), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
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