J. Edward Colgate
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
McCormick
Director, MS-EDI program
Breed Senior Professor in Design
2145 Sheridan Rd. B225
Evanston, IL 60208
847-491-4264 office
colgate@northwestern.edu
website
J. Edward Colgate, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and co-Director of the Segal Design Institute, led the team of Northwestern faculty who founded the innovative, cross-disciplinary freshman design course, Design Thinking and Communication. He has worked extensively in the field of human-robot interaction. Along with Prof. Michael Peshkin, he is the inventor of cobots, a class of robotic devices intended for direct, physical collaboration with human operators. Colgate is the holder of numerous U.S. patents, and is co-founder of Cobotics, Inc., a manufacturer of human-assist devices for the industrial marketplace (now a part of The Stanley Works), as well as Kinea Design, LLC, a developer of advanced mechatronic and biomechatronic systems. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Methode Electronics, Inc., a global diversified manufacturer of electronic components. These days, his greatest joys are being the father of two interesting sons and directing the Master of Science in Engineering Design and Innovation (MS-EDI) program.
