Jian Cao, Ph.D
Cardiss Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Director, Northwestern Initiative on Manufacturing Science and Innovation
Northwestern University
Friday, Mar. 26th at 3pm
ABSTRACT: Manufacturing translates ideas, innovation and raw materials into products used by societies as a driving force for raising their living standards. To enhance the versatility of manufacturing processes and to fully integrate design and manufacturing for system optimization, research efforts at Cao’s group are rooted in advancing new flexible manufacturing processes, and in enhancing system optimization using the combination of the ICME (integrated computational materials engineering) and data-driven approaches. This talk will provide a quick overview of these activities and then focus on selected processes, i.e., rapid dieless forming for producing three-dimensional sheet parts without geometry-specific tooling, and metal-based powder-blown additive manufacturing. The integration of the fundamental process mechanics, techniques including machine learning to achieve effective and efficient predictions of material behavior compared to conventional methods, and process control paves the foundation for translating expertise and skills from the hands of a few to hands of many.
BIO: Dr. Cao (MIT’95, MIT’92, SJTU’89) is the Cardiss Collins Professor, Director of Northwestern Initiative for Manufacturing Science and Innovation, and an Associate Vice President for Research (AVPR) at Northwestern University. She served at the National Science Foundation as a program director for two years. Professor Cao is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ASME, SME, and of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP). Her major awards include the ASME Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal (2020), SME Gold Medal (2020), Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship from DoD (2019), Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award (2017) from ASME and Pi Tau Sigma, SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal (2016), ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award (2012, 2018), ASME Young Investigator Award (2006) from Applied Mechanics Division, and the NSF CAREER Award. Prof. Cao is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Materials Processing Technology. She served as President of the SME North America Manufacturing Research Institute, and Chair of ASME Manufacturing Engineering Division. She is a recipient of the ASME Dedicated Service Award (2011). As an AVPR, Prof. Cao fosters the collaboration between disciplines across and beyond Northwestern. She is a Board member of mHUB, Chicago’s first innovation center focused on physical product development and smart manufacturing.