Office: ECES 150
1111 Engineering Drive, 427 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0427
Mark E. Rentschler is a professor, entrepreneur, inventor, program director, design engineer, roboticist, expert witness, and seasoned engineering consultant. He has over 15 years of leadership in mechanical and biomedical engineering consulting and intellectual property development. Dr. Rentschler is a published subject matter expert focused on medical devices, surgical robotics, mechanical design and mechatronic design and control.
Dr. Mark E. Rentschler is a tenured professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), a Senior Member the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Member of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and a licensed professional mechanical engineering in the State of Colorado (PE.0042566). Dr. Rentschler holds degrees from the University of Nebraska (BS in mechanical engineering, 2001; PhD in biomedical engineering, 2006) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS in mechanical engineering, 2003).
Dr. Rentschler joined the faculty at the University of Colorado in 2008. He also hold a secondary appointment in the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (Aurora, CO) and an affiliate position in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Colorado Denver (Denver, CO). He was the founding director of the Graduate Design Program in mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado (2010-2020). This program immerses 50 graduate students annually in industry sponsored design projects. In 2012, he co-founded Design Center Colorado that brought both the Graduate Design Program and Senior Design Program together.
In 2018, Dr. Rentschler became the founding CEO of Aspero Medical, a spin-out company that is focused on gastroenterology device technologies. He has also held commercialization leadership positions as Senior Engineer and Director of Operations with Virtual Incision Corporation, a start-up company in robot-assisted surgical technologies. Dr. Rentschler has performed research at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD), Cessna Aircraft Company (Wichita, KS), and the Union Pacific Railroad (Omaha, NE).
Dr. Rentschler’s laboratory at the University of Colorado focuses on answering key research questions to enable “smart” medical devices and surgical robotics leading toward healthcare innovation and an operating room of the future. These efforts include design of novel surgical tools, devices, and robotics; characterization and modeling of how these tools, devices, and robots interact with the patient; and optimization based on these models. His research activities have been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Conmed Electrosurgery, Medtronic, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. His research has been well received by the scientific community, resulting in over 80 published peer-reviewed journal papers, over 100 conference contributions, over 20 issued patents. . For these efforts, he has been awarded department (Woodward Outstanding Faculty Award), college (Dean’s Performance Award for Outstanding Junior Faculty), campus (Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award), and university-wide (New Inventor of the Year) research awards.
Dr. Rentschler’s teaching focuses on mechanical component and systems-level design. He has taught courses in Machine Component Design, Senior Capstone Design, Medical Device Design, Advanced Product Design, Graduate Design, and Design Thinking. Since 2008, he has taught over 800 undergraduate and graduate students in mechanical engineering, with his courses consistently rated near the top in the department and college in terms of overall course and course instructor. For these efforts, he has been awarded department (Outstanding Graduate Education Award, Outstanding Graduate Educator, Outstanding Undergraduate Educator), college (Charles Hutchinson Memorial Teaching Award), and campus (Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Faculty Award) education awards.