• Professor, Mechanical Engineering
  • Robert H. Fletcher Professor
  • NSF Program Director of Convergent Activities
Daniel A. McAdams

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin — 1999
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology — 1994
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin — 1992

Research Interests

  • Design theory and methodology with specific focus on functional modeling; innovation in concept synthesis including computational methods; bio-inspired design methods; design for disability, and technology evolution as applied to product and system design.

Awards & Honors

  • Department of MEEN - Industry Advisory Council Faculty Mentoring Award, J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • ASME Design Theory and Methodology Award - 2020
  • Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Individual Student Relations - 2018
  • Best Paper Award, ASME IDETC Design Theory and Methodology Conference for “Guanglu Zhang, Daniel A. McAdams, Milad Mohammadi Darani, Venkatesh Shankar, “Product Performance Evolution Prediction by Lotka-Volterra Equations,” 2017 ASME IDETC/CIE Annual Conference, Cleveland, Ohio, DETC2017-67369 - 2017
  • Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award; Texas A&M Department of Mechanical Engineering - 2017
  • Herbert H. Richardson Faculty Fellow Award - 2016-2017
  • Mechanical Engineering Industrial Advisory Council Outstanding Faculty Contribution Award - 2015
  • Herbert H. Richardson Faculty Fellow Award - 2014-2015
  • Dwight Look College of Engineering Dean's Fellow - 2014-2015
  • Design Studies Award, for the best paper published in the journal Design Studies - 2012

Selected Publications

  • Wanyu Xu, Maulik Kotecha, Daniel A. McAdams, “How Good is ChatGPT? An Exploratory Study on ChatGPT’s Performance in Engineering Design aTasks and Subjective Decision-Making,” Design 2024, Croatia, May 20-23.
  • Maulik Kotecha and Daniel A. McAdams, “A Heuristics Derivation Approach for the Digital Twin Designs,” Proceedings of the ASME 2023 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Volume 2: 43rd Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (CIE), Boston, Massachusetts, USA, August 20-23, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2023-115242
  • Maulik C. Kotecha, David Staack, and Daniel A. McAdams, “Functional Modeling-based Digital Twin Architecture Representation: A Case Study on COVID-19 Breathalyzer Kiosk,” the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, September 2022, 144(9): 091401. Paper No: MD-22-1062, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4055136
  • Devesh Bhasin, David Staack, and Daniel A. McAdams "Bioinspiration of Product Architecture: Trading-off System Effectiveness for System Robustness," the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, April 2022 (online), pp. 1-27, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4054246.
  • Maulik C. Kotecha, Ting-Ju Chen, Daniel A. McAdams and, Vinayak Krishnamurthy “Design Ideation Through Speculative Fiction: Foundational Principles & Exploratory Study,” the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. August, 2021, Vol. 143, No. 8, pp. 080801-1-080801-16, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4049656.