Materials, Mechatronics & Manufacturing Engineering

Computational Fluid Dynamics
Biological Flows
Acoustics
Noise Control
Additive Manufacturing
Acoustics

Dr. Hitesh D. Vora is the Jim and Lynne Williams Endowed Associate Professor at the School of Materials, Mechatronics and Manufacturing Engineering at Oklahoma State University. He is also the Director of the Industrial Training and Assessment Center (ITAC), which is funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Director of the Great Plains Center of Excellence (GPCoE), and the Director of the Rural Energy Assessment Center (REAC), funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

 

Dr. Vora is leading efforts to enhance the ITAC Program and the GPCoE at OSU, which supports clean energy workforce development and energy efficiency improvements for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across 13 Great Plains states. Under his leadership, the ITAC has performed over 1,100 energy assessments at no cost to clients, saving more than $138 million in energy costs. Dr. Vora will lead this new $7M center as a director who will be housed within OSU's Industrial Training and Assessment Center (ITAC) is one of five competitively selected higher education institutions to serve as Centers of Excellence for DOE's Industrial Training and Assessment Centers (ITAC) Program. ITAC provides no-cost energy audits to small- and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) such as manufacturing plants, commercial buildings, and water and wastewater treatment plants in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and northern Texas to help them reduce energy and waste and increase productivity while training the next generation of energy management professionals.

 

A dedicated educator, Dr. Vora, teaches courses related to Energy Management, Smart Manufacturing, Additive Manufacturing, Modeling and Simulations, preparing the next generation of engineers. His research focuses on improving energy efficiency in SMEs, and he has secured over $13 million in federal funding from agencies like the DOE, USDA, and Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

 

Dr. Vora’s work has strengthened OSU’s visibility and measurable impact through applied engineering leadership, scholarly productivity, and national professional engagement.  A major milestone was OSU ITAC receiving the U.S. Department of Energy “Center of the Year” Award (2025) among 37 national ITACs, recognizing exceptional performance and outcomes. Complementing this applied excellence, Dr. Vora’s scholarly influence includes 1,595 citations, an h-index of 22, and 32 i10-index publications (last updated Jan 16, 2026), strengthening CEAT’s footprint across materials science, energy systems, and advanced manufacturing. His impact has also been recognized through major honors, including the Hamm Institute Faculty Fellow Award (2025–2026), the Land-Grant Award for Excellence (2023), and the Emerging Manufacturing Leaders Award (2025). These distinctions demonstrate broad, sustained recognition of his leadership and scholarship.

 

Dr. Vora was recently appointed as a Regional Vice President of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) South Central Regions (13-states) of the USA. He is also an Executive Board Member and Student Chapter Director for the Association of Energy Engineers – Oklahoma Chapter (AEEOK). In addition, he is also a faculty advisor for the AEEOK OSU Student Chapter and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME OSU Student Chapter).

 

Dr. Vora has 15+ years of research experience in the areas of smart manufacturing, energy engineering, and management. Awarded more than $13.28M in funding ($11.76M as a PI) through federal and other grants. Exceptional track record of teaching students for 10+ years in new and innovative ways, and 10+ years of industrial experience.

 

Dr. Vora is committed to the land-grant mission of OSU by training students through real-world energy assessments, ensuring the region's SMEs achieve significant energy savings, which further boosts regional economic and workforce development.

 

Research Interests:

1.      Energy Engineering and Management

• Energy efficiency and improvement (industrial assessment, productivity improvements in the manufacturing environment, smart manufacturing integration emphasizing energy efficiency and sustainability, ISO 50001- Energy management systems, etc.)
• Alternative and renewable energy applications (hydrogen, solar, biofuels, wind) with interests in areas such as electric grid integration, process intensification, energy efficiency, distributed-energy solutions, and/or manufacturing and scale-up.
• Large-scale energy storage (batteries, chemical, thermal) with emphasis on materials, devices, hybridization, and/or integrated systems
• Digital Twins – Energy Systems – Industrial Plants

 

2.       Manufacturing

• Smart Manufacturing
• Additive Manufacturing (aka 3D Printing) – Surface Engineering, BioProcessing, etc.
• Measurement Science/ Metrology of Additive Manufacturing
• Multiphysics finite-element modeling (FEM) and simulations