Thomas Goodman

Thomas D. Goodman is a founder of FBE Associates, Inc. and its Secretary-Treasurer, as well as its chief technical leader. He has an engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati (BSE in ME) and has been absorbed in software development since he was eight years old. At FBE, Tom is the architect of MH Pro! and the primary author of the technical patent that is the basis for MH Pro!.

Tom began his professional career at Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Michigan. He became the first member of the group that Bob Harrison created at Saginaw Steering to develop and support the Engineering Network and the Saginaw Division Analytical Engineering team. In this capacity he helped Pat Race build an EDS engineering support team that provided engineering services to Saginaw Division and several other GM automotive components divisions.

In 1991, when Pat Race created (with several Saginaw Division engineers) the Automated Concurrent Engineering (ACE) project, Tom became one of the first Knowledge Engineers. The ACE project built systems that automated part and tooling engineering to a greater extent than those that had previously been in use for automotive component design. The projects implemented engineering decision trees, interfaces to external analysis programs, automated interpretation of results, CAD integration, and design documentation. This automation of these engineering tasks allowed parts and tools to be designed, validated, and deployed in a fraction of the time previously required.

Tom consulted on several ACE projects, and completed with Jim Lint a system that automated the design and CAD documentation of metal forming tools for progressive bulk forming. In the course of this work, Tom developed a live interface between the ACE tools and the Unigraphics CAD system.

Before EDS at the University of Cincinnati Tom’s interests were finite element analysis and signal analysis leading up to a senior project in automotive vibration modes.