Professor Schaefer has more than twenty years experience in computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing, both in industry and academia. He has been an active member of the design communities in the US, the UK and Germany. Over the past ten years, Prof. Schaefer has conducted research on product modeling, variant design, product life-cycle management, design-with-manufacture integration, standardized product data exchange and digital and virtual engineering. His current research focus concerns the highly topical areas of cross-disciplinary integrated design of complex engineered systems, research at the forefront of cloud computing-based design and manufacture (CBDM), a key element of the advanced manufacturing movement, as well as the impact of social networking platforms and the Internet of things on next generation product development.