Research

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."  - Beverly Sills

 

Manufacturing has significantly contributed to improved quality and sustainability of human life.  My research goal is to advance the understanding and knowledge of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and to promote its wide applications in future engineering systems. AM is a digital manufacturing process that has become a disruptive manufacturing technology, especially for medical and aerospace industries, in which small-quantity-production is dominant. It is predicted that AM will dominate most manufacturing concerns in future mass customization. To achieve the full potential of AM in cost and time savings, the development of novel AM processes, new process control methods, and a wide selection of functional materials are critical.  In addition, AM enables revolutionary new design by using complex three-dimensional shapes, heterogeneous material properties, and multi-functionality.  Systematic knowledge regarding modeling, analyzing, synthesizing, and optimizing such product designs are required to achieve desired performance.

At USC, our research group aims to develop AM technologies that enable people to revolutionize future product design and manufacturing. We are especially interested in Additive Manufacturing in micro-scale and meso-scale and the related design, modeling, and computation methods. Since AM-based digital manufacturing involves both physics-based manufacturing and computation-based design and control, we strive to address the challenges in AM research by fusing theoretical, computational, and experimental knowledge with systematic thinking. This interdisciplinary research philosophy, by tightly integrating both hardware and software sides of AM technology, is at the core of my research group.

We are currently working on the following three topical areas:

 

Examples of Additive Manufacturing (AM) research performed in our lab (refer to Publications for the details)

- AM processes and systems

Multi-scale AM systems Multi-material AM systems Reusable and recycle supports In-situ assembly (around inserts)

- Devices and applications empowered by AM

Biomedical Energy Fluidic Electrical and magnetic Optics

 - Engineering materials enabled by AM

Composites Ceramics Polymers Metals

- Modeling and control methods for AM

Accuracy Speed Resolution Strength Tooling

- Shape and material design methods for AM

4D printing Digital material design Truss structure design Complex shape design Augmented reality-based Design

 

Awards and Honors