MechE Seminar Series: Jian Cao

Speaker: Jian Cao

Title: Challenges and Opportunities in High-mix Manufacturing

Abstract: Current research efforts at my group aim to advance the capability to co-design materials and manufacturing processes using hybrid physics-based and data-driven approaches. In this talk, I will focus on metallic alloys, which are critical for enhancing the energy efficiency and performance of engineering systems. To shorten the material development cycle, we have developed a high-throughput system (DABI) for alloy fabrication and testing of temperature-dependent properties, including initial yield stress, elastic modulus, hardening, creep, and oxidation. Furthermore, I will demonstrate our work in the development of differentiable simulation tools (JAX-FEM series) to achieve effective and efficient property extraction from DABI’s experimental results and in process design and control of metal additive manufacturing. Our solutions particularly target three notoriously challenging aspects of the process: long history-dependent properties, complex geometric features, and the high dimensionality of their design space. This integrated framework of material design, fabrication, evaluation and part optimization lays the foundation for component-material co-design and accelerate the design-to-deployment cycle.

About the Speaker: Cardiss Collins Professor Jian Cao (MIT’95, MIT’92, SJTU’89) specialized in manufacturing processes and systems, particularly in deformation-based processes and laser additive manufacturing processes. Prof. Cao is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S). Prof. Cao now serves as an Associate Vice President for Research at Northwestern, Board of Directors of SME, and Board of mHUB in Chicago – accelerator for hardtech innovation and manufacturing.

When 11:00 am - 12:00 pm on 17 April 2026
Building ENG 245 110 Cummington Mall