About
COMPANY
design4X is a company focused on manufacturing and engineering education. If you're a manufacturing company or K-16 educational institution looking for assistance in training and workforce development, design4X can help.
OUR NAME
"design for X" in engineering is the idea that you need to "design for" all phases of the product life-cycle (assembly, manufacturing, environment, end-of-life, economics, etc.). The name design4X comes from the philosophy that we help manufactures and engineers focus on all aspects of a design that make a product (or service) successful, not just the technical design.
MARK MARTIN, President
mark.martin@design4x.com
Mark Martin’s career has been focused on manufacturing and engineering design and education. He is currently the Regional Director (Bay Area) for Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Development for the California Community Colleges, hosted at Laney College in Oakland, CA. His work builds upon the Bay Area’s community college manufacturing programs to help develop advanced and innovative approaches to train students in meeting the needs of local industry. This work includes implementing nationally recognized credentials such as NIMS (machining) and apprenticeships; developing and strengthening links between high schools, colleges, and industry; and assisting organizations throughout the area interested in manufacturing. He works closely with community colleges, universities, industry trade groups, school districts, WIB’s and community-based organizations to promote and support manufacturing. More information can be found at: http://BayAreaManufacturingCareers.com
Before starting as Regional Director, Dr. Martin worked as the K-12 manufacturing and engineering outreach director for the state of California. His role was to encourage more kids to enter technology careers. As part of this, he founded and continues to run the iDesign programs, which are 2-week long, hands-on engineering and manufacturing immersion programs for high-school students in San Francisco and Oakland.
Prior to working in K-14 education and workforce development, Mark worked in product development and manufacturing at a number of companies, including founding Design4X, which focused on manufacturing and design education for engineers and the general public. His efforts in developing online courses include the award-winning Stanford University site “How Everyday Things Are Made”. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Stanford and UC-Berkeley on Product Design and Development, as well as continuing studies courses on "How Everyday Things are Made", "How Things Work", "Sustainable Design", and others.
In industry he has worked on a number of different projects, from medical devices for pain reduction, ICU monitoring, and blood analysis, to mass customization of consumer products to sensor systems for satellites. He has worked for, or consulted with, a number of companies – including Texas Instruments, Marlow Industries, HP, ABB, Toshiba, In-Focus, Agilent, Raytheon, Google, and others.
Dr. Martin received his bachelors in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma, MSME & MBA from MIT, and PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.