His academic degrees and professional licensure includes a Ph.D. in 1995 from MIT, P.E. license from New York State in 1994, M.S. from Rensselaer in 1991, and B.S. from Syracuse University in 1986, all in mechanical engineering. Prior to his graduate studies, Dr. Walczyk worked for 6 years in industry including two years as a machine designer for an automation company, and four years with GE in their sonar division as a mechanical engineer and later at global research as a R&D engineer. He began his academic career at RPI in 1996 after having finished a 6-month DAAD fellowship at the RWTH Aachen University (Germany) related to computer-aided manufacturing. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez in 2004.