James T. Allison is an associate professor at UIUC, and is the director of the Engineering System Design Lab. Prof. Allison holds MS (2004) and Ph.D. (2008) degrees in Mechanical Engineering, and an MS (2005) in Industrial and Operations Engineering (U of Michigan). He also holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering (2003, University of Utah) and an AAS in Automotive Technology (1998, Weber State University). He is the recipient of several awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, ASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award, ASME papers of distinction, and several teaching awards. Previous experience includes work in the automotive (Ford and GM) and the engineering software (MathWorks) industries. Prof. Allison’s work focuses on the creation and analysis of novel design optimization methods for engineering systems, and on producing new design knowledge for unprecedented systems.