Industry Distinguished Seminar Series with Megan McGovern

Dr. Megan McGovern of GM

Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) for automotive manufacturing is essential for first-time quality.  This is especially true in today’s low volume, customized, fast-learning environment. The most suitable place for many NDE techniques is within the manufacturing process itself, when the components are being built.  Implementing inline manufacturing inspection solutions enables reduction in scrap by allowing for real-time feedback and provides an opportunity to correct issues.  Accessibility is also often a less inhibiting constraint since inspection is being performed on a component level rather than a fully-assembled vehicle. In this talk, I will provide a high-level viewpoint of research in automotive manufacturing NDE. I will begin with discussing my own career and how my NDE background prepared me for research in this domain.  The remainder of the talk will cover some research projects that I have been involved in at GM R&D.  

Biography:

Dr. Megan McGovern is a Staff Researcher at General Motors Research and Development. She joined GM in 2016 and leads research projects to develop manufacturing inspection systems. Dr. McGovern received her Bachelor’s degree in General Engineering (with a concentration in Acoustics) and Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Systems Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

She has 9 patents and 28 peer-reviewed journal articles, is active in various professional societies, and is a licensed Professional Engineer. In 2022, she received the ASNT Research Innovation and the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Awards. In 2023, she received the Boss Kettering Award, GM’s highest award for recognizing technical inventions and innovations. This year, she received the Young Alumni Excellence Award from her department at University of Illinois.

Address:United States