Academic Vice President John S. Tanner has announced the appointment of Timothy W. McLain as the new department chair of mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University effective June 1.
He replaces Larry L. Howell, who served as the department chair for six years and has returned to full-time teaching and research.
McLain has taught in the Mechanical Engineering Department at BYU since 1995. He completed his master’s degree at BYU and later worked for two years with Sarcos, Inc. in Salt Lake City on the design, modeling and control of fluid-power systems for robotics applications.
While completing his doctorate at Stanford University, McLain worked with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute on the control of underwater robotic vehicles.
Since joining the BYU faculty, McLain has been actively involved in the control of hydraulic actuation systems and microelectro-mechanical systems.
During the summers of 1999 and 2000, he was a visiting scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory where he initiated research in the cooperative control of unmanned air vehicles.
In 2006, McLain received the Technology Transfer Award from BYU.
