Dr. Norato is currently an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, which he joined in 2014. He holds M.Sc. (2003) and Ph.D. (2005) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (1997). Prior to joining UConn, he worked for and led the Product Optimization group at Caterpillar, where he and his team researched numerical methods and developed computational tools for structural and multidisciplinary optimization. Dr. Norato led the development of Caterpillar’s in-house topology optimization code, as well as the development of a method and tool for optimization of welding sequences to reduce weld-induced distortion, for which he and his collaborators received Caterpillar’s Move the Mountain Award in 2014. His current research interests lie in incorporating failure, geometric, manufacturing and cost requirements in computational topology and shape optimization techniques for the design exploration of novel and highly efficient structures and architected materials. Dr. Norato is a 2020 Air Force Research Lab Summer Fellow, the recipient of the 2019 ASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award, a 2018 NSF CAREER awardee and a recipient of the 2017 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award.