Joe Cresko presents to a full room of Lehigh faculty and students.
Lehigh University’s Institute for Cyber Physical Infrastructure & Energy (I-CPIE) recently hosted Joe Cresko from the U.S. Department of Energy for the Horizons Distinguished Seminar Series. Cresko is the Chief Engineer and Strategic Analysis Lead for the Advanced Manufacturing Office, where he leads AMO’s efforts to assess the life cycle and cross-sector impacts of advanced manufacturing technologies.
I-CPIE’s Horizons Distinguished Seminar Series brings noted experts from government, academia, and industry to Lehigh to share insights into trends in infrastructure and energy science, technology, and policy. Liang Cheng, Associate Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and an I-CPIE member, invited Cresko to participate in the series after being introduced to him earlier this year.
Cresko is an expert in the application of electrotechnologies for materials processing and manufacturing innovations, including the use of microwave, radio-frequency, induction, UV and electron beam technologies. His seminar, Opportunities for a More Productive and Circular Economy, discussed the increasing need to assess and proactively manage energy and resource sustainability from a broad systems and life cycle perspective.
Cheng, who is currently focusing on CPS/IoT (Cyber-Physical Systems/Internet of Things) and intelligent infrastructure, noted that Cresko’s seminar, “offered a new perspective to think about how my research on cyber-physical systems and cybersecurity may be related to the energy efficiency and renewable energy that address waste, material, and water issues.”
Prior to the seminar, Cresko spent time meeting individually with I-CPIE faculty, as well as Himanshu Jain, Director of Lehigh’s Institute for Functional Materials and Devices. Cheng noted that his conversation with Cresko provided him with clearer thoughts on some of his own research ideas and an opportunity to better understand the Department of Energy’s program in advanced sensors, controls, platforms, and modeling for manufacturing.
The recent visit to Lehigh was not Cresko’s first trip to Bethlehem. Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Cresko was the Director of the Emerging Technology Applications Center in Bethlehem, PA, where he helped manufacturers to improve their energy efficiency and environmental footprint through industrial energy efficiency assessments and applied research and development.
