Reuben F. Burch V

Reuben F. Burch V, Ph.D. is the Associate Vice President for Research out of the Office of Research and Economic Development. He is also an Associate Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering, the Jack Hatcher Endowed Chair for Engineering Entrepreneurship, the Associate Director of Athlete Engineering at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Center (CAVS), and founder of Athlete Engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU). Prior to returning to academia in the Fall of 2016, Dr. Burch spent 14 years working for and with global Fortune 500 companies in research and development areas such as virtual reality design, weapons systems and training, satellite systems and geospatial data, high-value financial software systems, logistics technology and management, autonomous vehicle design, wearables, and human performance. He has served as a logistics and technology advisor for numerous universities and multiple Fortune 100 companies around the world and currently serves as an advisor for elite wearable technology companies. In serving in his advisory council member roles, he has influenced the design of existing and future industrial tools, specifically ruggedized handheld, tablet, and wearable form factors. He also presently serves as a consultant to the world’s largest venture capital firms due to his entrepreneurial experience. His ever-growing intellectual property and patents can be found here: https://patents.justia.com/inventor/reuben-f-burch.

Dr. Burch’s primary research interests presently center around human factors and ergonomics, cognitive engineering, macroergonomics, and human-technology interactions with different athlete personas including: sports, industrial (repetitive motion tasks), tactical (warfighters and emergency first responders), and at-risk (tele-health and rehabilitation) athlete populations. A brief video describing Athlete Engineering can be found here: https://www.weringtrue.msstate.edu/athleteengineering/index.html. He relies upon the industrial, athletic, and academic professional networks he has created to enhance his academic expertise both in research and in the classroom. His industry- and athletics-based research is one of the most interdisciplinary at MSU and spans across multiple journals read by many different end users who seek applied knowledge. More information about Burch’s research output can be found here: https://www.cavs.msstate.edu/research/athlete_engineering.php. Because of his world-class research team, he has won numerous National Science Foundation (NSF) awards to build and validated new wearable technologies utilizing stretch sensors. The work from the NSF Wearable and Athlete Engineering teams at MSU can be found in the ongoing “Closing the Wearable Gap” publication series.