Emma Betters

About

Dr. Emma Betters received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida (UF) in 2017. During her undergraduate studies, she taught in the UF Design and Manufacturing Laboratory. Continuing her manufacturing education, she began her graduate studies in the Machine Tool Research Center (MTRC) at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2018. In 2019, she relocated with advisor Dr. Tony Schmitz to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) where she received her MS in 2022 and her PhD in 2023.   Emma has worked as an R&D Associate Staff Member in the Advanced Machining and Machine Tools Group at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since the fall of 2019. Her research interests are in machining dynamics, machine tool design, and manufacturing workforce development. Her work at UTK and ORNL has included: designing, constructing, and demonstrating a 3-axis CNC milling machine leveraging an additively manufactured mold and concrete filled composite base structure to illustrate alternatives to imported castings; manufacturing a device to make N95 material in support of COVID-19 PPE production efforts; modeling to predict the tool tip vibration response for the selection of stable machining conditions; and delivering on-machine instruction for America’s Cutting Edge in-person CNC machining training. Emma has been involved with ASPE since 2018 and began her role as an associate editor with Precision Engineering in 2024. Her professional recognitions include: 2023 SME Thirty under 30, 2022 UT-Battelle Special Event Award, 2020 UT-Battelle Technology Transfer Award and 2020 UT-Battelle Director’s Award for the rapid development and deployment of melt blowing and charging technology to enable domestic production of N95 media, and a 2019 ASPE Student Scholarship Award.

Education

Publications