Research Areas
Incremental Forming
Flexible fabrication processes are key to enable distributed manufacturing or point-of-need manufacturing for rapid low-volume production or custom-specific products. We aim to get the first part right with a focus on Double-sided Incremental Forming.
COMPOSITES FORMING
Polymer-based composites are strong candidates for lightweight structures. We aim to develop an integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach to take material architecture and process-induced local variations into the modeling of material behavior and part performance.
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
We’re working on rapid certification and new process development in DED processing for tool path generation and parameter control for desired microstructure and component geometry. Modeling efforts and in-situ monitoring for temperature and defects allow for controlled processing.
Common Themes
AI-ENABLED
We use deep learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, in modeling complex path-dependency of material behavior, in predicting spatial thermal histories in flexible manufacturing processes, in analyzing imaging data and planning laser path for additive manufacturing, to name a few.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS
We design, fabricate and assemble unique research instruments to facilitate our process innovation, to have a deep understanding of process mechanics, and to create open-architecture systems for effective collaborations.
CORPORATE COLLABORATIONS
We have collaborated with small businesses and large corporations to explore new frontiers, to implement strategies developed in our group, to shorten the development cycle, and to reduce manufacturing cost. 60% of our past Ph.D. graduates are now in industry.
15 past post-doc fellows; 35 Ph.D. graduated (57% industry, 34% Academia, 9% Labs); 3 current post-docs; 15 current Ph.D. students; 5 NSF Graduate Research Fellows; 2 DoD Fellowship Awardees; 4 DOE Fellowship Awardees; 2 Northwestern Presidential Fellows; 2 Northwestern Ryan Fellows; 6 McCormick Cabell Fellows; 4 Mechanical Engineering Martin Fellows
240+ Journal articles; 16 Book chapters; 4 Literature awards; 2 Op-ed articles
