Okwudire then completed his graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, earning a Masters of Applied Science in 2005 and a Ph.D. in 2009, both in Mechanical Engineering.

Okwudire's research at the University of Michigan and Ulendo Technologies, Inc. has played a critical role in the recent emergence of low-cost fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers capable of printing at much higher speeds than their predecessors[3] by using software driven vibration compensation to maintain high print quality.

[4][5] As the 3D printing community grappled with how to introduce vibration compensation to open-source firmware, in early 2020,[6] Okwudire encouraged members of the community on a public online forum to explore input shaping as a simpler alternative to the more-advanced FBS (filtered B-splines) approach that his research group had used in their 2017 research.

The goal of the Pathfinder workshop is to equip the attendees – mostly women and students from underrepresented groups – with the knowledge and skills needed to develop strong CVs, early in their PhD process, to make them competitive for faculty positions.

The NextProf Pathfinder program has now expanded to include the University of California, San Diego and the Georgia Institute of Technology.