NAFEMS Americas WISE Subcommittee Webinar

A Lifetime Journey with Product Development Analysis and Simulation

Thursday, 21 November 2024 | Online

A​ccess the Recording

Alice took us on a journey through the past thirty years on how data has driven product development and where this journey will take us, as product developers, in the Industry 4.0 and 5.0 era, where data, automation, AI and Generative AI are shaping will continue shaping the reliance on simulation for product development. We explored the socio-technological eco-systems for decision making for advancing the use of analysis and simulation and the physiology of trust in virtual vs physical test, as products moves more and more into the automation and autonomy space.

A​genda

​Welcome and Introduction
Bel Hooley - NAFEMS

A Lifetime Journey with Product Development Analysis and Simulation
Alice Popescu-Gatlan

Q​&A and Discussion

U​se the "Book Now!" button on the right to register your free place.

After 30 years of distinguished service, Alice Popescu-Gatlan, Combine and Front-End Equipment PV&V Engineering Manager, has elected to retire. Her last day in the office was June 6th, 2024.

IMPACT. That word comes closest to describing her legacy. Of course, she impacted Deere’s products, processes, and technologies, and I have listed select highlights below. However, she impacted the people she worked with in a manner that no other engineering leader ever had. She taught people to think differently about technical problems, and she showed others how to understand human relationships better. Her true legacy is within so many people she IMPACTED.

Alice began her Deere career in the C&F Division as an Engineering Specialist in Computer Aided Engineering. Alice’s first supervisor position in 2000 was focused on building and leading an advanced simulation team for crop care where she pioneered the ADV (Accelerated Design Verification) method for structural verification that became mainstream for Deere products. She also worked in Waterloo PEC for tractors as the global engineering manager for simulation. Again, in this role, she developed EVP’s (Engineering Verification Procedures) that capture design, verification, and validation knowledge. EVPs would also be leveraged by the enterprise as a best practice. In 2008 her expertise was leveraged as the manager of Advanced Engineering manager for Construction and Forestry where she began building a global network in the technology space. She had a particular fondness for the Forestry team that was making some significant innovation at the time. The network she built in advanced engineering led her to become the Director of the North America Technology Centers. She led the Moline campus and developed a center on campus in Champaign at the University of Illinois. In 2013 she transitioned to Crop Harvesting where she was influential in building modular architecture and bringing system engineering capability into crop harvesting and the enterprise. She has also been very influential in supporting and building capability at our ETEC centers over her career. One of the legacies she leaves behind is the advancement of virtual testing and development at John Deere.

Alice’s impact extends beyond Deere. She served as Executive Board member of the National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium, the US Council on Competitiveness and Academia, and worked as a member of the High-Performance Computing (HPC) Advisory Council. Recently, she was a panelist at CONVEC conference. Alice enjoys sharing her knowledge with her peers and colleagues inside and outside of Deere.

Alice has BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Transilvania in Romania. She also holds an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management and completed the Women’s director development program at Kellogg. She is fluent in Romanian, German, French, Hungarian and has language capabilities in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. If you were traveling with Alice to any corner of the world, you always felt like a local.