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David Espalin

Director, El Paso Makes

David Espalin, Ph.D., joined NCDMM in September 2024 as Director of El Paso Makes – a subsidiary of NCDMM servicing El Paso and West Texas manufacturers with access to quality suppliers, industry resources, and research needed to ensure the demands of aerospace and defense markets are met. Before joining NCDMM, he spent 16 years researching and developing additive manufacturing (AM) and automation solutions for application in health, aerospace, naval, defense, and energy.

Previously, Dr. Espalin was a tenured Associate Professor in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). He developed and taught courses focused on AM while maintaining a research portfolio funded in the amount of ~$22M (over seven years) when serving as PI and co-PI. Through these research efforts, he collaborated with organizations like the National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy, Air Force Research Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Honeywell, and Raytheon.

Dr. Espalin holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from UTEP. His graduate studies focused on the development of hardware and software for hybrid AM technologies that combined AM with machining, ultrasonic processing, microdispensing, and electronics integration. His research is well documented through numerous patents and in high-impact academic journals (e.g., The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology and The Additive Manufacturing Journal); and has inspired work in the burgeoning area of hybrid manufacturing.

While at UTEP, Dr. Espalin was the Director of Research for the W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation – a state-of-the-art AM facility. He also held a Research Fellow appointment at the Applied Research Laboratories at The University of Texas at Austin (a Department of Defense University-Affiliated Research Center focusing on acoustics, electromagnetics, and information sciences) that fostered collaborative research in piezoceramic AM. He was also Program Director of UTEP’s Graduate Certificate program in 3D Engineering and Additive Manufacturing focused on filling the industry’s need for a workforce with AM expertise.