Professor Howell received his bachelor’s degree from BYU and master and doctorate degrees from Purdue University. Prior to joining the BYU faculty in 1994, he was a visiting professor at Purdue University, an engineering consultant for Engineering Methods, Inc., and an engineer on the design of the YF-22 (the prototype for the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor). On July 1, 2019, Howell was appointed as the Associate Academic Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies.
While teaching at BYU, Howell has mentored many students, including Mark Rober, who is known for his engineering inventions on YouTube.
He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), former chair of the ASME Mechanisms & Robotics Committee, and has been associate editor for the Journal of Mechanisms & Robotics and the Journal of Mechanical Design. He is the recipient of two ASME awards, Purdue Outstanding Mechanical Engineer Award, and the BYU Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Lecturer Award.
Vice President Howell’s academic research focuses on compliant mechanisms, including origami-inspired mechanisms, space mechanisms, microelectromechanical systems, and medical devices. He is the coeditor of the Handbook of Compliant Mechanisms and the author of Compliant Mechanisms, which are published in both English and Chinese. His lab’s work has also been reported in popular venues such as Newsweek, Scientific American, Popular Science, and the PBS documentary program NOVA.
