Rate My Professor Steven Canfield

Dr. Stephen Canfield is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a T.S. McCord Faculty Fellow in Innovation and Techno-Entrepreneurship at Tennessee Technological University. He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in the field of parallel architecture robotics. Dr. Canfield has served as principal investigator on grants totaling over $5 million from the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Navy, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. His developed robots are utilized by companies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Newport News, and NASSCO. He has co-founded Robotic Technologies of Tennessee to commercialize mobile robots for manufacturing and inspection, including licensing two mobile welding robots to Weld Tool Corporation. Additionally, he has participated in NSF I-Corps programs and leads the NSF I-Corps Site at Tennessee Tech, the first such program in Tennessee.

Dr. Canfield's research specializes in robot kinematics and dynamics, topological optimization of compliant manipulators, in-space mechanisms, and robot modeling, control, and development, particularly climbing mobile robots for autonomous welding and non-destructive evaluation inspection in hazardous environments. He has published over 70 refereed technical papers and holds multiple patents in robotics, dynamics, and design. Key publications include "Kinematic Control of a Mobile Robot Performing Manufacturing Tasks on Non-Planar Surfaces" (Journal of Automation, Mobile Robotics and Intelligent Systems, 2016), "Theoretical and Empirical Validation of a Mobile Robotic Welding Platform" (Welding Journal, 2012), "Similarity Rules for Scaling Solar Sail Systems" (Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 2010), and patents such as US Patent No. 8413747 for a suspension for an endless track climbing machine (2012). Dr. Canfield coordinates the Mechatronics concentration, led the development of the university-wide Innovation and Entrepreneurship certificate (first graduates 2017), and created the Early Intervention and Mechanical Engineering (EIME) program, which has served over 1,000 students and families by 2013 and been replicated at other universities. His achievements include awards such as the ASME District F Student Section Advisor Award, National Academy of Engineering FOEE Fellow, TTU Presidential Faculty Fellow, and recognition as one of the Top 10 Scientists in Tennessee by Business Tennessee Magazine. He advises the ASME student chapter and Autonomous Robotics Club.