Daniel J. Inman received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Mechanical Engineering in 1980 and is Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, as well as the C. L. “Kelly” Johnson Collegiate Professor. Since 1980, he has published eight books (on vibration, energy harvesting, control, statics, and dynamics), eight software manuals, 20 book chapters, over 330 journal papers and 600 proceedings papers, given 62 keynote or plenary lectures, graduated 62 Ph.D. students and supervised more than 75 MS degrees.  He works in the area of applying smart structures to solve aerospace engineering problems including energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, vibration suppression and morphing.  He is a Fellow of ASME, AIAA, IIAV and AAM.

Greta Colford is a PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering Department, co-advised by Dr. Inman and Dr. Kon-Well Wang. She graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Aerospace Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2018, and before starting graduate school, she worked as a Post-Baccalaureate Engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her research interests include structural dynamics and acoustic/elastic wave propagation.

Yan Borden is a PhD candidate in the Aerospace Engineering department. He received his B.S. in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2021 and his M.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor in 2023. In the summer of 2025 he completed an internship at Amazon’s autonomous robotaxi company, Zoox, on the System Design and Mission Assurance team.

Fernando Dapino is a PhD candidate in the Aerospace Engineering Department. His research interests include composite materials, piezoelectric actuators and sensors, and morphing structures. Fernando holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Shivani Sunil is a Ph.D. student in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, advised by Dr. Daniel Inman. She received her B.Tech. (Honors) in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Machine Design from Manipal Institute of Technology, India (2024), and her M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan (2026). Her research interests include space structures, small-satellite systems engineering, metastructures, vibration characteristics and flow control in aerospace applications.