Sara Shonkwiler

Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering
Headshot of Sara Shonkwiler

Summary

Sara Shonkwiler’s research focuses on optimizing manufactured part quality. She is particularly interested in how to efficiently use data to speed up additive manufacturing part quality predictions and the additive manufacturing design cycle. She likes to spend her free time in the mountains.

Sara Shonkwiler joined the University of Nevada, Reno in August 2026 as an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, and Materials Engineering. Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona with Professor Hannah Budinoff.

Sara earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where she had an NSF graduate research fellowship. Her B.S. is in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Education

  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2025
  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, 2018

Research interests

  • Geometric shape representations for manufacturability analysis and surrogate models
  • Machine learning surrogate models for additive manufacturability analysis, including laser powder bed fusion distortion and residual stress
  • CAD/FEA dataset creation & analysis of data 
  • Composite design optimization and part evaluation
  • Editable CAD from text and images
  • Design for additive manufacturing & additively enhanced casting

Research openings

  • Our lab has one to two Ph.D. positions available. A background in manufacturing or mechanical engineering is preferred. Industrial engineering, materials engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, and physics majors are also possible fits. Please send your resume and transcripts to Professor Sara Shonkwiler for consideration. Undergraduate and master’s degree students are encouraged to contact Professor Shonkwiler for research opportunities.