Robert Twiss

Lecturer in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Robert G. (Greg) Twiss is a Principal Engineer in Supply Chain Operations at Cisco Systems. In this role, he is responsible for design, development and production strategies across Cisco Supply Chain, Engineering, and Partner groups. He has also held Engineering executive management positions leading product design teams across Cisco’s routing, switching, security, and collaboration product lines.

Before Cisco, Greg was a client manager, program manager, and senior product designer at IDEO Product Development. There, he led product design and innovation consulting projects directing Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Industrial Design, and Human Factors disciplines. He also was an early founder of "IDEO U", IDEO's education consulting practice. Prior to IDEO, Greg held technical management and analyst positions at Lockheed-Martin in high-speed aero-thermodynamics and Computational Fluid Mechanics. He also provided design support for flight vehicle and wind tunnel testing at NASA-Ames Research Center.

Greg has a significant interest in product design and design thinking practices with a particular focus on the role of improvisation and prototyping in product development, presentation and visualization skills, and improving customer experience design.

In addition, he has 75+ Patents awarded and pending in the mechanical design, healthcare, consumer electronics, networking and telecommunications, user interface, and data analytic fields.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Lecturer in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Contact Information

  • Office Location: 305 Teer Bldg, Durham, NC
  • Office Phone: +1 919 593 0808
  • Email Address: gtwiss@duke.edu

Education

  • M.Sc. Stanford University, 1990

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

  • Patents. United States Patent and Trademark Office. 2021
  • Finalist, Chainnovator. Gartner. 2018
  • Supply Chain Innovation. Frost and Sullivan. 2017

Courses Taught

  • ME 424L: Mechanical Systems Design
  • ME 421L: Mechanical Design
  • EGRMGMT 590: Advanced Topics in Engineering Management
  • EGRMGMT 578: Designing Customer Experiences in Technology
  • EGR 190: Special Topics in Engineering
  • EGR 121L: Engineering Innovation

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