Metal additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are now frequently used in the aerospace, automotive, medical, and energy sectors for fabricating end-use components. The digital nature of the supply chain involved for metal AM production becomes increasingly susceptible to numerous types of cyber- and cyber-physical threats.

With this project a complete real time monitoring and control system for thermal material processes (TMP) will be developed to reduce inconsistencies during the process. TMP is a field of manufacturing where a concentrated energy source is used to fuse or change the properties of materials, welding and laser additive manufacturing are considered TMP. In TMP, the area where energy intersects the working materials is referred to as the heat affected zone (HAZ). New algorithms will be developed that uses a camera to measure the HAZ geometry and temperature in real-time.

In modern automotive engineering, vehicles are primarily designed in the virtual space to enable a rapid vehicle design process. However, this process is heavily constrained by the time and computational requirements necessary to generate the vast number of simulations needed for vehicle design. Fortunately, modern machine learning (ML) techniques may be used to dramatically accelerate the generation of new simulation results.

Large fiberglass parts cannot be easily recycled. In this proposal, a recycling method will be developed to meet the needs of Proslide. Waste Fiberglass generated by Proslide will be transformed into recycled parts that can be re-used by the company. This will accomplished in several steps by first taking the waste parts to a recycling facility to break down the parts into useable fiberglass material. The material is then converted to a material that can be used by industrial 3D printing machines. The 3D printer is then used to produce complex shaped parts.

Today, the manufacturing industry is facing a very rapid revolution. The end users of products can order at any time, in any quantity and always with very short delivery times. The shopping digitalization dramatically changes the consumption landscape in a global competition environment. Consequently, the industry is forced to adapt the way they are producing.

There is an urgent need for carbon free sources of energy to mitigate the climate change effects. Hydrogen is a very promising fuel to transition to climate-friendly energy and sustainable energy future. However, most hydrogen is produced from carbon sources and thus undesired emissions are unavoidable during the production. One key solution is to use extract hydrogen by reacting metal powders with water. In this research, aluminum and iron powders are used to cogenerate hydrogen and high-purity alumina in a carbon neutral process.

Accelerometers are a type of sensor that have various applications from everyday handheld devices such as smart phones to complex systems such as airplanes. Sensors are devices that we use to “see”, “hear” or” sense” the environment around us. With accelerometers, we are measuring motions.

In the fabrication of a battery-free water leak detector, packaging process requires to expose the sensor to water in a specific way, while protecting some electronics components on the inside from water. This research is to develop a high-speed and high precision laser microwelding process to fabricate an aluminum or stainless steel foil water-proof housing for the electronics of AquaSensing’s battery-free water leak detector.

Although home hemodialysis (HHD) benefits patients including improving their lives’ quality, self-cannulation is currently a limiting and challenging step in their treatment. In this study, we aim to solve this problem by developing an epidermal film/patch with a vein visualization capability. A detachable mobile needle-guide tool can be mounted on the epidermal patch which can help patients to accurately perform self-cannulation through their skin.

One in three women, including up to 58% of pregnant women and 48% of new mothers, experience a pelvic floor disorder (PFD) in their lifetime. PFD affects the everyday lives of women from urinary continence, fecal continence, painful sex and their shame in discussing these symptoms. The lack of comprehensive medical devices to provide for women who suffer from gynecological and pelvic health complications is a serious issue that still has not been resolved. The existing single-functional devices are either outdated and painful or extremely inconvenient to use.