Mark Plecnik is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah. His research spans from computational & theoretical activities to prototyping & experimentation, with all contributions grounded in the computational design of geometry for new robotic inventions. Interests include forming configuration surfaces to influence prevailing dynamics, using neural nets to synthesize manipulators with customized multi-directional transmission characteristics, and integrating reconfiguration into design tools for overcoming traditional trade-offs. Plecnik received the NSF CAREER Award in 2022. He received the Freudenstein Young Investigator Award from ASME in 2024. He is a senior member of IEEE.