Dalton Bolen is a Supply Chain Planning Engineer with experience across manufacturing engineering, operations, and supply chain planning. He currently works at Caterpillar Inc. in East Peoria, where he focuses on assembly optimization, layout planning, and value stream and support area transformations.

Dalton has a strong background in manufacturing operations and has contributed to projects aimed at increasing asset utilization while improving visibility into asset performance and efficiency. He is particularly passionate about forward looking technologies, automation, and the future of manufacturing.

In addition to his professional role, Dalton was actively involved with the Makerspace at Bradley University during his studies, helping to establish curriculum and expand access to hands on manufacturing technologies.

As a judge, Dalton looks forward to recognizing innovation, excellence, and meaningful impact among the submissions.