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Roger Emanuel Kaufman
Professor Emeritus of Engineering and of Anatomy and Cell Biology

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

E-Mail: kaufman1@gwu.edu

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*Little known historical fact: In 1586 the inventor Rogerius Kaufmanicus took the above motion picture using his recent creation, the Camerius Digitalis Animatus. Unfortunately Rogerius failed to patent his invention at the time, and died penilus (as they said in those days) so the above rare film of Fontana moving the obelisk is all that remains as evidence of his achievement.

Education

Tufts University (College of Engineering)
Department of Mechanical Engineering (1958-1962)
B.S., 1962

Yale University (School of Drama)
Department of Theatre Engineering (1962-1965)
M.F.A., 1965

Yale University (Graduate School)
Department of Engineering and Applied Science (1965-1966)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (School of Engineering)
Division of Machines and Structures (1966-1968)
M.E., 1968

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (School of Engineering)
Division of Machines and Structures (1967-1969)
Ph.D., 1969

P.E. License #7477 (District of Columbia)

Speciality Areas and Research Projects

 

Books

Films

(These five 16mm. KINSYN films are now part of the permanent collection of The Library of Congress and are stored at the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center's Packard Campus in Culpepper Virginia.)

  • "KINSYN III" 16 mm. motion picture, sound, 2,200 ft., one hour duration, originally presented at the 14th ASME Mechanisms Conference, Montreal, Canada, September, 1976.
  • "KAUFMAN'S KINSYN KINEMATIC KINETOGRAPHY KAPER" 16 mm. motion picture, sound, 425 ft., 11 minutes duration, originally presented at the 13th Design Automation Conference, San Francisco, June 1976 and at the 14th ASME Mechanisms Conference, Montreal, Canada, September, 1976.
  • "KAUFMAN'S KINSYN KINEMATIC KINETOGRAPHIC KARTOON", 16 mm. motion picture, sound, 225 ft., 6 minutes duration, originally presented at the 14th ASME Mechanisms Conference, Montreal, Canada, September, 1976.

    (These three films have been requested for showing by numerous companies, universities, and government laboratories. Among these have been Mattel, General Electric, E.I.duPont deNemours, General Motors, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, University of Wisconsin, and others. Several companies and universities have acquired copies of these films. Among these have been American Can Co., Digital Equipment Company, MCAUTO, General Dynamics, the U.S. Naval Academy, and others. MCAUTO and Boeing Computer Services based the development of their mechanism synthesis software packages on material shown in these films.)

  • "KINSYN - An Interactive System for the Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms"16 mm. motion picture, sound, 28 minutes duration, originally presented at the Third World Congress on Theory of Machines and Mechanisms, September 13-20, 1971, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia; also presented by invitation at "On-Line 72: International Symposium and Exhibition of On-Line Interactive Computing", September 4-7, 1972, Uxbridge, Middlesex, England.

    • (This film has been shown at several other conferences in this country and abroad; in addition, it was a part of M.I.T.'s Inaugural Events Program on the occasion of the inauguration of President Wiesner. It has frequently been requested by professors in computer science, kinematics, and engineering design at a number of universities; and has been shown at numerous industrial seminars at companies such as General Motors, Western Electric and Procter and Gamble, and at government agencies such as NASA.)

  • "Teabag Machine and Front End Loader" 16 mm. motion picture, silent, 250 ft.,6 minutes duration, originally presented at the 14th ASME Mechanisms Conference, Montreal, Canada, September, 1976.
  • "Toys for the Handicapped" 14 minute 35 mm sound color motion picture produced by United Cerebral Palsy National Association, showing devices designed and built by students working under the direction of R.E.Kaufman
Videotapes

Patent

Other Publications

Articles about Professor Kaufman

  • The 50th Anniversary Tribute Issue to Engineering of Machine Design Magazine , September 20, 1979 carried an article "A Troubled World Looks to Technology." That article had a photo and description of the KINSYN I computer system being used to design an artificial limb.
  • That same KINSYN I photograph also appears in Francis E. Wylie's book M.I.T. in Perspective, the official history of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1861 to 1976. (Little Brown, Co.)
  • The Editorial by J. Michael McCarthy in The Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, February 2011, Vol. 3 entitled "Kinematics, Polynomials, and Computers--A Brief History" includes a photo and discussion of KINSYN.
  • The paper "Lessons Learned from Kinematics Research Applied to Medical Device Design" by Arthur Erdman in The Journal of Biomedical Engineering, February 2018, Vol. 140 includes several photos and a discussion of the pioneering role of KINSYN and its role in the first interactive patient specific design of a medical device.
  • The Detroit Free Press had an article on uses of humor in serious areas, such as psychiatry. Professor Kaufman was interviewed for the article and The FORTRAN Coloring Book was used as an example.
  • Machine Design Magazine for October 20, 1977 had a feature news article entitled "Mechanical Design: Let the Computer Do It". The KINSYN III computer system was the main topic of this article.
  • Machine Design Magazine for October 7, 1982 had a feature article entitled "Software for Mechanical Design." There was a sidebar in that article entitled "Mechanism Design on a Microcomputer" which was a discussion of Micro KINSYN along with five photos of the system. Also there was extensive mention of KINTECH and of the KINSYN7 system as well.
  • Machine Design Magazine for March 24, 1983 had a feature article entitled "Designing Mechanisms on a Personal Computer." This article was specifically about Micro KINSYN and a second program marketed by Terak, Corp. which was originally patterned after KINSYN.
  • Machine Design Magazine for August 20, 1987 had a feature article by the staff editor entitled "Modeling Dynamic Mechanical Systems." This article starts with "Mechanism design using desktop computers was pioneered by Roger Kaufman of KINTECH who first offered his KINSYN package on souped-up Apple //e computers..."
  • A number of other articles have also referred to the KINSYN system as having been the first such computer system for interactive mechanism design.
  • The "History of Computer-Aided Mechanism Design" section of Mechanism Design by Erdman and Sandor (Prentice Hall, 1997) says "computer graphics applied to mechanism design received its christening in the early 19701s by Kaufman. KINSYN1 was a custom-built program at M.I.T. and should be recognized as the major milestone in kinematic design"
  • The most recent edition of Theory of Machines and Mechanisms by Uicker, Pennock, and Shigley (Oxford University Press, 2011) says "The earliest such program was KINSYN (KINematic SYNthesis)..." and goes on to devote a half page to a classic photo of a device I designed during filming of the KINSYN III movie over three decades ago.
  • My virtual reality simulator research was the topic of a Faculty Focus sidebar entitled “Harnessing Success”, Jamie L. Freedman, GW Magazine, p. 7, Fall 2005
  • It was also the topic of several paragraphs in “My Virtual War: A disturbing stroll through a simulated battlefield”, Mark Alpert, Scientific American, pp 94-95, February 2006
  • My Marine virtual reality simulator harness research was also the topic of several paragraphs in “Navy Researchers Target, Virtually”, Robert K. Ackerman, Signal, AFCEA International Journal, July 2006
  • Numerous publications by and about the award winning Aeron® and Embody® chairs by Herman Miller Company state that "Research conducted by designer Bill Stumpf with Roger Kaufman at George Washington University identified the relationship of the body’s major pivot points as it moves between forward and deeply reclined sitting. This work resulted in the Kinemat® tilt of the Aeron® chair in 1994." For instance, see the papers Promoting Healthy Movement and Natural Alignment: THE RESEARCH AND DESIGN BEHIND THE EMBODY® TILT, or The Kinematics of Sitting: Ergonomic criteria for the design of the Aeron® chair by Bill Stumpf, Don Chadwick, and Bill Dowell.
  • The article "Engineering design education and rehabilitation engineering" by the late Robert W. Mann, ScD, Whitaker Professor Emeritus, Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, gives an excellent discussion of the Creative Technological Aids project we had with Kennedy Hospital for Children. Here is an excerpt from that article.

Awards

Other

    President and founder of KINTECH, Inc. 1982-1989
    (KINTECH developed and marketed KINSYN7 and MicroKINSYN. These were specialized computer-aided mechanism design systems. Among the users of KINTECH's products were McDonnel Douglas Company, General Motors Fanuc, AMP, Inc., Proctor and Gamble, General Dynamics, Polaroid, Xerox, and others. McAuto, Boeing Computer Services, and others have since developed kinematics software packages based on the KINSYN7 system.)


    As a consultant to Herman Miller, Inc., I designed and synthesized the reclining chair mechanisms which are the heart of U.S. Patent 4,718,716 assigned to Herman Miller.

    As a consultant to Bill Stumpf & Associates, I also was the originator of the "Kinemat Tilt®" mechanism and principle which became both the kinematic and visual heart of Herman Miller's award-winning Aeron® chair and which is the basis for the "Embody Tilt® in the more recent Embody® chair. The Aeron chair won ID Magazine's Best in Furniture in its 1995 "Annual Design Review." It set a new benchmark in both ergonomics and aesthetics and quickly found a place in the design collections of major museums. It was named the "Design of the Decade" and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. The Embody chair was named the "Best of 2008" by Wired Magazine. The Aeron is covered by U.S. Patent D346,279 as well as by the following foreign patents: German M9209024.9; Great Britain 2027194; Spain 0129035; France 9207613; and Taiwan 38287.

    Another major invention I originated in 1961 was the Home Trash Compactor. My 1961 design was shown to a jury of engineers from industry as part of an undergraduate class I took at Tufts University. Ten years later Whirlpool and Kenmore came out with a commercial version that was essentially the same as my original design. That product became the best selling home appliance of the year in 1970, the year it was introduced.

    Elements from my KINSYN computer software have been copied by several companies, both here and abroad. For example, KINSYN formed the basis for McAuto's (McDonnel Douglas Automation's) mechanism synthesis package.

    As a "consulting teacher" I have freely given away many ideas to my students and others. Among the ideas I originated which have become the source for major patented products was the kinematic principle behind the "Remote Center Compliance" robot wrist. I gave this idea to a pair of my MIT graduate students who came to me for help while they were working for Draper Laboratories. Draper and others now have patents on the RCC. It has become a basic robotic component. A number of companies including IBM now manufacture these devices.

    My life in the theater and how I Accidentally Ended Up a Professor of Engineering...

    Lately I have been working on a simple perpetual motion machine that I expect will make my fortune. If no prior art shows up I plan to retire on the patent licensing fees!

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    * One of Kaufman's Corrupted Historical Documents based on Theatrum MachinarumNovum, Exhibens Opera Molaria Et Aquatica Constructum Industria, George Andrea Bockleri, MDCLXII
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