天美传媒

Clayton works closely with industry partners such as Samsung, Bosch and Ford to establish and execute cooperative research projects and academic engagement initiatives.

Pivotal in founding Greenville Technical College鈥檚 Center for Manufacturing Innovation (CMI), Clayton brought on corporate partners to fortify the program including GE, KUKA Robotics and Hass Automation, among others. As CMI鈥檚 first executive director, he furnished it with state-of-the-art equipment, developed the curriculum for the state鈥檚 first four-year degree from a technical college and built educational collaboration programs between Clemson and the college.

Clayton also served as the research division director at the South Carolina Department of Commerce, the state鈥檚 economic development agency in charge of industrial recruitment and attraction of foreign direct investment. While there, he co-developed South Carolina鈥檚 innovation plan to support entrepreneurship and technology-based economic development. His work lead to the creation of the state鈥檚 innovation office and catalyzed the angel investor tax credit. Behind the scenes, Clayton supported global business development efforts, including the recruitment of global brands such as Continental, Samsung, Volvo and Google, among others, resulting in $20 billion in capital investment in the state.

A former nuclear fuel design engineer with Westinghouse Electric and gas turbine engineer with GE Power, David earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Clemson University and an International M.B.A. from the University of South Carolina.

Gravish’s research focuses on better understanding the challenges of movement and manipulation in micro-scale robotic and biological systems. Current understanding of locomotion and manipulation in micro-scale systems lags behind our ability to create devices at these scales (i.e. microrobots). We also lack an intuitive understanding of the strategies animals use for movement and manipulation at these scales.  To bridge this knowledge gap between manufacturing and movement, Gravish studies high-speed, robust and agile locomotion in microscale biological systems such flying and running insects and looks for the principles of dynamic locomotion at the micro-scale. In addition, Gravish manufactures at-scale microrobots to test locomotion and manipulation hypotheses. His research takes an integrative approach, through quantitative biology experiments and robotics manufacturing and experiments, based on the mechanics driving the interaction between the animals and their environment when they move. He aims to discover principles for robust movement in complex environments with limited sensing and control. Gravish’s overarching goal is to expand our knowledge of movement and manipulation capabilities in micro-scale biological and robotic systems through novel manufacturing and experiments.