About this Event
Jian Cao
Cardiss Collins Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Director, Northwestern Initiative on Manufacturing Science and Innovation Northwestern University
I view manufacturing as an integration platform that translates ideas and resources into products used by societies. Current research efforts at my group are rooted in advancing new flexible manufacturing processes using the combination of the mechanics-driven and data-driven approaches. In this talk, I will focus on two flexible processes, i.e., rapid dieless forming for producing three-dimensional sheet parts without geometry-specific tooling, and powder-blown additive manufacturing. Specifically, I will show how the integration of the fundamental process mechanics, process control, and techniques including machine learning to achieve effective and efficient predictions of material behavior paves the foundation for translating expertise and skills from the hands of a few to hands of many.
Biography:
Dr. Jian Cao (MIT’95, MIT’92, SJTU’89) is the Cardiss Collins Professor and the founding Director of NIMSI, the university research center on manufacturing science and innovation at Northwestern University. Cao is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ASME, CIRP, and SME. Her major awards include the ASME Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal, SME Gold Medal, DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, ASME and Pi Tau Sigma Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award, SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal, ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award, and several major junior awards. 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, Chair of ASME Manufacturing Engineering Division, and a program director at NSF. She is a recipient of the ASME Dedicated Service Award. She has been an Associate Vice President for Research at Northwestern since 2012, fostering the collaborations between disciplines across and beyond Northwestern. Cao is a Board member of mHUB, Chicago's first innovation center focused on physical product development and smart manufacturing.
