Design and Manufacturing

Design and manufacturing is a vigorous area of mechanical engineering research. Contemporary approach to design of components, parts, machines and processes can nowadays combines creative inspiration with powerful computational and design tools. Manufacturing, i.e. the set of technologies that realizes design, has also seen rapid development in recent years with the advent of additive manufacturing. Many of the faculty within the Mechanical Engineering department are active in the Design and Manufacturing research domain. Research activities include:

• Additive manufacturing
• Topology and design optimization
• Design of medical implants
• Super plastic sheet metal forming
• Friction-stir welding of plastics
• Design and manufacturing of shape memory alloys
• Machining of composite materials
• Machine tools and machining
• Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)

In particular, MEMS devices or miniaturized structures are rapidly growing owing to its wide applications in medical, health, sensing, and many other industries. These MEMS devices, with physical dimensions in the range of less than one micron up to several millimeters, are usually fabricated using integrated-circuit (IC) microfabrication and high-resolution 3D printing techniques.

Several of the faculty also conduct their research within design and manufacturing through various externally or internally funded research projects, some in close collaboration with industry. Several ongoing projects are also conducted through active research centers, especially the research center on Advanced Design and Additive Manufacturing (ADAM).