ISyE Seminar Series: Gary Kunkel

"Smart(er) Manufacturing for Medical Devices"

Gary Kunkel

Director of Imaging Technology and Analytics
Medtronic

About the Seminar:

This presentation explores how data, imaging, and AI are transforming modern manufacturing into a smarter, more connected ecosystem. It highlights Medtronic’s journey toward scalable, democratized manufacturing analytics—integrating automation, vision inspection, and AI-driven insights to improve quality, efficiency, and decision-making across 100,000+ SKUs. Through examples such as the Analytics for Manufacturing Imaging (AMI) platform and Automated Vision Inspection (AVI) systems, it illustrates how deep learning, MLOps, and hyperscale infrastructure convert every image into actionable intelligence. The session demonstrates how accessible, data-centric platforms empower engineers and operators alike—enabling “Every Image, Every Analytics, Everywhere, Everybody”—and accelerating the realization of best-in-class, data-driven manufacturing.

Associated Papers:

• Zhang, Y., Davison, B.D., Talghader, V.W., Chen, Z., Xiao, Z., Kunkel, G.J. (2022). "Automatic Head Overcoat Thickness Measure with NASNet-Large-Decoder Net." In: Arai, K. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2021, Volume 2. FTC 2021.
• Li, G., Feng, C. ., Woldesenbet, A. ., King, B., Hadavi, H. ., Moku, V. ., Loken, K. ., & Kunkel, G. (2020). "Deep Learning based Optical Inspection with Centralized Analysis for High Volume Smart Manufacturing." Annual Conference of the PHM Society, 12(1), 9.

About the Speaker:

Gary Kunkel is the Director of Imaging Technology and Analytics within Medtronic’s Enterprise Operations Innovation team. He leads a team at the forefront of developing machine and computer vision technologies for inspecting, characterizing, and monitoring medical devices across all of Medtronic's product’s manufacturing lines.

Before joining Medtronic, Gary was the Director of Recording Head Metrology and Analytics, where his team pioneered cutting-edge metrology and image analytics solutions, achieving ultra-precise measurements at the sub-angstrom level and supporting high-volume production of three million units per day. During his tenure at Seagate, he held engineering and management roles spanning system and sensor design, computational modeling, measurement, test and reliability, and process development.

Gary’s academic background includes a Council on Science and Technology Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellowship in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Minnesota. Despite his passion for aerospace, he has yet to build a rocket that wasn’t made of cardboard.

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