Michael Thurston
Research Faculty
Michael Thurston
Research Faculty
Education
BS, MS, Rochester Institute of Technology; Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo
Bio
Dr. Michael Thurston is the Technical Director and Research Faculty at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology and has been at RIT since 2001. He is also Director of the NY State Center of Excellence in Advanced and Sustainable Manufacturing located at RIT that works with companies across NY State. He has a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Buffalo and prior to RIT worked for 13 years in product development at General Motors and Delphi.
Dr. Thurston's areas of research interest include sustainable production, advanced manufacturing, product remanufacturing, smart products and systems, life-cycle engineering, building and manufacturing energy systems, and asset health management. His project work includes collaborations in product and process design with many companies, and in technology development and deployment with organizations supporting U.S. Department of Defense ground, sea, and air systems.
Dr. Thurston is involved with several national advanced manufacturing institutes. He is the Remanufacturing technology lead for the Department of Energy sponsored REMADE Institute, and also serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the Department of Defense sponsored Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute. He also participates in activities of the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII).
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In the News
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July 26, 2022
![side-by-side images of researchers Rui Liu and Yunbo Zhang.]()
Research team develops workforce training that integrates virtual reality, gamification
More than 1,000 openings in the Finger Lakes region for skilled machinists are projected in the coming years. Local academic researchers and industry partners are developing new training options to fill the expected gaps—integrating gaming and virtual reality to appeal to a younger generation of manufacturing professionals.
