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Program

Lectures

M. Stanley Whittingham FRS, Ph.D.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
M. Stanley Whittingham FRS, Ph.D.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2019 Recipient
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Founding Director
NECCES and Chemistry Department
Binghamton University, SUNY
ASME 2024 Richard J. Goldstein Energy Lecture Award Recipient

Keynote Title: Li Batteries: 50 Years Old and the Future Challenges for an American Based Industry

Abstract: The Nobel Committee citation read: "They have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society, and are of the greatest benefit to humankind." Now the world needs to take action. Although lithium batteries celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2022, they still achieve only 25% of their theoretical energy density. Even at that level, they now dominate portable energy storage. The dominant anode and cathode today are graphitic carbon and the layered NMC oxides, LI[NiMnCoAl]O2. Both need improving. We must push the chemistry to its limits. Ten-year lifetimes demand 99.95% reaction selectivity.

Alternatives to Li-NMC cells will also be discussed, including the phosphates, with also a discussion of what is very technically and/or politically challenging and maybe not viable in an attempt to correct some of the exponential hype in the battery energy storage arena. A key challenge in the Western world is to build a sustainable supply chain and manufacturing capability that leapfrogs the present 30-year old technology. We need to stop building new "old gigafactories" in North America.

Biography: Stan Whittingham is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at Binghamton University. Dr. Whittingham was named a Knight Bachelor "for his Services to Research in Chemistry" as part of King Charles' June 2024 official birthday honours list. This honor entitled him to be known as Sir Stanley or Sir Stanley Whittingham. He was the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Laureate for the discovery of lithium rechargeable batteries, and the 2023 VinFutures $3M Grand Prize winner. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Fellow of The Royal Society. He presently leads the Battery-NY $113M economic development effort, and is the Chief Innovation Officer of the recently awarded NSF Upstate New York Energy Storage Engine. He is a founding member of NYBEST, and serves on the Board as Vice-Chair for Research, and Chief Scientific Officer of NAATBatt.

Jerry Qi

H. Jerry Qi
The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

Lecture Title: Light, Chemo-physics, and Mechanics in 3D and 4D Printing

Abstract: 3D printing (additive manufacturing, AM) where materials are deposited in a layer-by-layer manner to form a 3D solid has seen significant advances in the recent decades. The integration of AM with active polymers also leads to the birth of 4D printing where fabricated parts can change their shape, functionality, or properties as a function of time. In this talk, we will focus on a widely used 3D printing technique, digit light processing (DLP), where light is used to trigger photopolymerization chemical reactions and form a solid part rapidly. During photopolymerization, monomers are quickly converted to long chain polymers, accompanied by rapid change of mechanical properties as well as volume shrinkage. We will start with the development of a constitutive model where the evolution of viscoelastic properties as well as the volume shrinkage are captured during the photopolymerization process. The volume shrinkage normally would cause warping in 3D printing and should be avoided. We will introduce how we can develop strategies to reduce shape warping due to volume shrinkage through finite element simulations. We will also introduce how we can take advantage of volume shrinkage to create structures with controllable shape change. This also leads to the development of a new multimaterial AM technique, grayscale DLP (g-DLP) 3D printing. We will present our recent progress in how to use g-DLP to create functional graded parts with multi-mechanical properties, multi-color, and multi-conductivity. Finally, we will discuss future challenges and opportunities in 3D/4D printing.

Dr. H. Jerry Qi is the Woodruff Endowed Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and is the site director of NSF IUCRC on Science of Heterogeneous Additive Printing of 3D Materials (SHAP3D). He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tsinghua University and a ScD degree from MIT. After one-year postdoc at MIT, he joined University of Colorado Boulder as an assistant professor and moved to Georgia Tech in 2014. Prof. Qi's research is in the field of nonlinear mechanics of polymers and focuses on developing fundamental understanding of multiphysics properties of active polymers through experimentation and constitutive modeling then applying these understandings to application designs. He has been working on a range of active polymers, including shape memory polymers, light activated polymers, covalent adaptable network polymers (or vitrimers), and liquid crystal elastomers. In recent years, he has also been working on integrating active materials with 3D printing. He and his collaborators pioneered the 4D printing concept. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award (2007), Sigma Xi Best Faculty Paper Award (2018), Gerhard Kanig Lecture by the Berlin-Brandenburg Association for Polymer Research (2019), and the James R. Rice Medal from Society of Engineering Science (2023), the T. H. H. Pian Award from International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (2024), and the ASME Warner T. Koiter Medal (2024). He was elected to an ASME Fellow in 2015.

Pierre M. Suquet, Ph.D.

RECIPIENT
Pierre M. Suquet, Ph.D.
National de la Recherche Scientifique

Biography: Pierre Suquet is a former student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris where he received his BS in Mathematics. After a MS in Theoretical Mechanics from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris, he joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) as a junior scientist in 1978. He obtained his PhD and his Thèse d'Etat, all from UPMC, while being at the Laboratoire de Mécanique Théorique. In 1983 he was appointed Professor at the University of Montpellier and in 1988 he returned to CNRS as a senior scientist at the Laboratoire de Mécanique et d'Acoustique in Marseille. He headed this laboratory from 1993 to 2000. In 2000-2001 he spent a sabbatical year at Caltech where he was the Clarke Millikan visiting Professor. He has held part-time teaching positions at Ecole Polytechnique (Paris) from 1986 to 2008. His research interests are in the field of theoretical solid mechanics where he is interested in the formulation of constitutive relations for solid materials when several scales interact, especially in composite materials and polycrystals. His work covers mathematical analyses of elastoplasticity, homogenization and computational (spectral) methods for nonlinear composites, micromechanical problems and ductile failure of materials.

Pierre Suquet was awarded the Mandel Prize by the Ecole des Mines and Ecole Polytechnique (France) in 1988, the Ampère Prize by the French Academy of Sciences in 2000, the Koiter medal by the ASME in 2006 and the Prager medal by the Society for Engineering Science in 2024. He has given several prestigious lectures in Mechanics, including the Midwest Mechanics lectures and a sectional lecture at the ICTAM 2012. He has chaired the French National Committee for Mechanics from 2010 to 2022, has served as the Secretary General of the European Society for Mechanics (EUROMECH) and is an Honorary member of this Society. He is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and an international member of the National Academy of Engineering (USA).

The Timoshenko Medal was established in 1957 and is conferred in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of applied mechanics. Instituted by the Applied Mechanics Division, it honors Stephen P. Timoshenko, world-renowned authority in the field, and it commemorates his contributions as author and teacher.

S. A. Sherif, Ph.D.

RECIPIENT
S. A. Sherif, Ph.D.
University of Florida

Biography: Dr. SA Sherif is Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. He is a Life Fellow of ASME, a Life Fellow of ASHRAE, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, an Associate Fellow of AIAA, and a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy. He is the 2013-2014 Chair of the ASME Heat Transfer Division and the 2002-2003 Chair of the ASME Advanced Energy Systems Division. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the ASME Journal of Solar Energy Engineering. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the ASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications (2014- 2019). He is on the editorial boards of 25 other archival journals. He has 350 papers, one book, 24 book chapters, 240 technical reports, and two US patents.

Marian Bulla

RECIPIENT
Marian Bulla
Altair, Inc.

Biography: Marian Bulla, born on March 2, 1971, in Germany, is an accomplished engineer specializing in simulation, material data, and product safety. He is the Director of the OpenRadioss Community at ALTAIR, where he has been a key contributor since 2008. His career began with vocational training as an industrial mechanic, followed by military service and engineering studies at the University of Iserlohn. Bulla has worked in various roles in the automotive and engineering sectors, focusing on testing and simulation. He is actively involved in research projects, particularly in materials science, and has been an Associated Professor at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences since 2005. With over two decades of experience, Bulla is recognized for his contributions to safety engineering and material research, as well as his leadership in advancing technology through research and collaboration.


Stefan Kolling, Ph.D.

RECIPIENT
Stefan Kolling, Ph.D.
Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen

Biography: Stefan Kolling is a professor of mechanics at THM University of Applied Sciences in Giessen, Germany, specializing in crash simulation and material modeling. He earned his diploma in civil engineering in 1996 and another diploma in mechanics in 1998, followed by a PhD in solid mechanics from the Technical University of Darmstadt in 2001. After working as a development engineer at Daimler from 2002 to 2008, focusing on crash simulation, Kolling became a professor at THM. His research has been widely recognized, earning him the 2017 Research Prize from Hessian Universities, and his work has garnered over 2,800 citations. Kolling is active in professional organizations such as GAMM, IAPS, and DGM, and has presented at international conferences like IMECE 2023.


Elham Sahraei, Ph.D.

RECIPIENT
Elham Sahraei, Ph.D.
Temple University

Biography: Elham Sahraei is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She is the director of the Electric Vehicle Safety Lab (EVSL). Her research is focused on mechanical safety of lithium-ion batteries under extreme loading conditions. Her recent work has been sponsored by the automotive industry, FE software companies, state programs and Office of Naval Research. Prior to Temple, Dr. Sahraei was a Research Scientist at the Impact and Crashworthiness Lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-director of the MIT Battery Consortium, a multi-sponsor industrial program supported by major automotive and battery manufacturers. She earned her PhD degree from the George Washington University, her Masters from Sharif University of Technology, and her BSc from Isfahan University of Technology. Besides characterization and modeling of Li-Ion batteries, her expertise includes full-scale vehicle crash analysis, occupant protection, and analysis of roadside safety structures.

Weidong Zhu

LECTURER
Weidong Zhu
University of Maryland

Lecture Title: Dynamics of Time-Varying, Nonlinear, and Flexible Multibody Systems with Industrial Applications

Abstract: Starting from Lord Rayleigh's pioneering contributions in sound and vibration such as the Rayleigh's quotient and parametric oscillation, this lecture presents some new methodologies for analyzing and integrating the dynamics of time-varying systems, nonlinear systems, continuous systems, and flexible multibody systems, as well as nonlinear wave propagation. Two types of dynamic stability problems are addressed from the energy viewpoint in the first area: dynamic stability of translating media during extension and retraction, and parametric instabilities in second-order continuous systems with periodically varying lengths and/or velocities. The incremental harmonic balance method is used in the second area to handle periodic responses of high-dimensional models of nonlinear continuous systems and their stability and bifurcations, as well as quasi-periodic responses. New spatial discretization methods in the third area ensures that all boundary conditions of continuous systems are satisfied, and hence uniform convergence of solutions. New nonlinear models of slack cables with large deformations are developed for moving elevator traveling cables and plants under unsteady flows in the fourth area. Nonlinear wave solutions and their stability and bifurcations are studied in the fifth area. Some interesting results in these areas are revealed. Applications of the new methodologies to high-speed elevators, rotating wind turbine blades, automotive timing belts, tensegrity structures, and phononic structures are discussed. Some experimental results are presented to validate theoretical predictions.

Biography: Weidong Zhu is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the founder and director of its Dynamic Systems and Vibrations Laboratory and Laser Vibrometry and Optical Measurement Laboratory. He received his double major BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computational Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1986, and his MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University and the University of California at Berkeley in 1988 and 1994, respectively. He is a recipient of the 2004 National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He has been an ASME Fellow since 2010, and has served as an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Vibration and Acoustics and the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, as a Subject Editor of the Journal of Sound and Vibration, and as a Topical Associate Editor of Nonlinear Dynamics. His research spans the fields of dynamics, vibration, control, structural health monitoring, metamaterials, and renewable energy, and involves analytical development, numerical simulation, experimental validation, and industrial application. He has published 350 archival journal papers in these fields and has ten issued U.S. patents. He is a recipient of the 2020 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Research and the 2024 ASME Rayleigh Lecture Award.

Renee Zhao

AWARDEE
Renee Zhao
Stanford University

Lecture Title: Multifunctional Magnetic Origami Robots

Abstract: Millimeter/centimeter-scale origami robots have recently been explored for biomedical applications due to their inherent shape-morphing capability. However, they mainly rely on passive or/and irreversible deformation that significantly hinders the clinic functions in an on-demand manner. Here, we report magnetically actuated origami robots that can crawl and swim for effective locomotion and targeted drug delivery in severely confined spaces and aqueous environments. We design our robots based on the Kresling origami, whose thin shell structure 1) provides an internal cavity for drug storage, 2) permits torsion-induced contraction as a crawling mechanism and a pumping mechanism for controllable liquid medicine dispensing, 3) serves as propellers that spin for propulsion to swim, 4) offers anisotropic stiffness to overcome the large resistance from the severely confined spaces in biomedical environments. These magnetic origami robots can potentially serve as minimally invasive devices for biomedical diagnoses and treatments.

Biography: Renee Zhao is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, a Terman faculty fellow, and a Gabilan faculty fellow at Stanford University. Renee received her PhD degree in Solid Mechanics from Brown University and her postdoc training at MIT. Renee's research concerns the development of stimuli-responsive composites and shape morning mechanisms for multifunctional robotic systems. Renee is a recipient of the NSF Career Award, AFOSR YIP Award, ARO Early Career Program (ECP) Award, ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics award (2021), and the Eshelby Mechanics Award for Young Faculty. She is also a Kavli Fellow, recognized by the National Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the 35 Innovators Under 35 recognized by the MIT Technology Review.

Lihua Jin

AWARDEE
Lihua Jin
UCLA

Lecture Title: Functional architected materials by harnessing structure instabilities

Abstract: Architected materials are materials with micro-architectures, which give rise to unusual mechanical properties and functions that are difficult or impossible to achieve in homogeneous materials. In this work, new types of architected materials are developed to demonstrate energy absorption and spatiotemporal shape morphing by harnessing structure instabilities. Subjected to an axial compression, a wide hyperelastic column can discontinuously buckle, snapping from one stable equilibrium state to another, leading to energy dissipation, while upon unloading, it can completely recover its undeformed state. Making use of this property, we design an energy-absorbing architected material by stacking layers of wide hyperelastic columns, and fabricate it by multi-material 3D printing and sacrificial molding. Characterized by quasi-static and drop tests, the material shows the capability of energy dissipation and impact force mitigation in a reusable, self-recoverable, and rate-independent manner. In a second example, we achieve spatiotemporally programmable and reconfigurable metasurfaces with simple control by exploiting pseudobistability of viscoelastic shells, which are pneumatically actuated to a concave state, held for a certain period, and recover the initial convex state after a delay time when the load is removed. We computationally and experimentally show that the recovery time can be widely tuned by the geometry and material viscoelasticity of the shells. By assembling such shells with different recovery time into arrays, we build metasurfaces with pre-programmed spatiotemporal textural morphing under simple pneumatic actuation, and demonstrate temporal evolution of patterns, such as digit numbers and emoji, and spatiotemporal control of friction. Our work opens up new avenues in designing functional architected materials by harnessing structure instabilities.

Biography: Lihua Jin is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Before joining UCLA in 2016, she was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. In 2014, she obtained her PhD degree in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University. Prior to that, she earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Fudan University. Lihua conducts research on mechanics of soft materials, stimuli-responsive materials, instability and fracture, soft robotics, and biomechanics. She was the winner of the Haythornthwaite Research Initiative Grant, Extreme Mechanics Letters Young Investigator Award, Hellman Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, ACS PMSE Early Investigator Award, and Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Award.

Xiang Zhang

LECTURER
Xiang Zhang
University of Wyoming

Lecture Title: Multiscale Reduced Order Modeling and Design of High-Performance Materials: from Metal Fatigue Prediction to Composite Microstructure Design Involving Damage

Abstract: Computational modeling has long been adopted to facilitate the analysis and design of high-performance materials subjected to extreme conditions, such as those involving fatigue and damage. While progress has been significant, several modeling and design challenges remain, including: 1) finite element discretization of the complex microstructure; 2) capturing the highly nonlinear constituent and interfacial; 3) efficient and accurate upscaling from the microstructure to a structural component as these phenomena are highly dependent on the underlying microstructure behavior; 4) addressing the even more computationally prohibitive costs associated with microstructure design, especially those based on gradient-based optimization.

In this presentation, an efficient multiscale reduced order modeling technique based on the eigendeformation-based reduced order homogenization model (EHM) will be discussed, and highlighting its potential for addressing some of the challenges above associated with multiscale modeling and design. EHM works in a two-scale computational homogenization setting, leverages the concept of transformation field analysis, and focuses on model order reduction at the microscale, enabling efficient coupling to a structural simulation. EHM first partitions the microstructure into a few sub-domains (also known as parts) and precomputes the so-called coefficient tensors, including each part’s localization tensor and the interaction tensors between parts. By assuming a uniform strain response over each part, a reduced-order nonlinear system can be derived and solved for the part-wise responses to replace the full field microscale equilibrium problem, achieving high computational efficiency for moderately low levels of error. EHM framework is rather general, and its adaption for metal plastic and composite damage will be discussed in this presentation, along with several of its major algorithm and implementation advancements. These advancements include achieving sparsity for better scalability, considering multiphysics, adaptive mode order reduction, load-dependent ROM construction, coefficient tensors constructions, and its integration with a gradient-based optimization framework for nonlinear composite design. The accuracy and efficiency characteristics of EHM, for both modeling and design, are fully explored and demonstrated by comparison with direct numerical simulations.

Biography: Dr. Xiang Zhang has been an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Wyoming since 2019, leading the Computations for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory. Before joining UW, he earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Vanderbilt University, followed by a postdoctoral research experience in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interest is computational mechanics, with a particular focus on developing sophisticated multiscale /multiphysics methods in conjunction with data-driven methods for the modeling, design, and manufacturing of high-performance materials and advanced manufacturing processes.

Yashashree Kulkarni

LECTURER
Yashashree Kulkarni
University of Houston

Lecture Title: Statistical Mechanics of Membranes: Applications from Materials Science to Biology

Abstract: Interfaces are ubiquitous in materials. In crystalline materials, interfaces such as grain boundaries and twin boundaries are associated with numerous critical phenomena such as grain boundary sliding, and migration, that govern the mechanical properties and failure mechanisms in materials. Biological membranes, such as cell membranes that separate cells from their environment, play a vital role in critical physiological processes like endocytosis, cell division, and cell motility. Statistical mechanics and continuum mechanics are powerful theoretical tools that have provided phenomenal insights into the mechanics of these biological membranes and crystalline interfaces over decades.

This talk will present two of our recent studies that highlight the use of statistical mechanics to understand material behavior from thermal fluctuations. As an application in materials science, we put forth the viewpoint that monitoring thermal fluctuations of crystalline interfaces by way of atomistic simulations can serve as a computational microscope to understand the kinetics of grain boundaries. As an application in biology, we present a continuum mechanics and statistical mechanics-based model for active biological membranes. Most studies, until recently, have focused entirely on passive (or "dead") membranes that exhibit only equilibrium thermal fluctuations. In contrast, active membranes are "alive" with their own energy source capable of circumventing equilibrium considerations and exhibit fluctuations that are non-thermal in origin. Our non-equilibrium statistical mechanics results explain the role of activity in determining the size distribution of vesicles which are the primary modes of communication and transport in cell biology.

Biography: Yashashree Kulkarni is the Bill D. Cook Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of Houston. She received her bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in India in 2001 and her Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics from Caltech in 2007. After spending two years as a postdoctoral scholar at University of California San Diego, she joined the University of Houston as an Assistant Professor in 2009. Her research focuses on understanding mechanical behavior of materials using continuum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and multi-scale computational modeling. She currently serves as an associate editor for ASME's Applied Mechanics Reviews. She is the recipient of the 2010 DARPA Young Faculty Award, the 2016 Kittinger Teaching Excellence Award from UH, the 2017 Sia Nemat-Nasser Early Career Award by the ASME Materials Division and became an ASME Fellow in 2022.

Julia Greer

RECIPIENT
Julia R. Greer, Ph.D.
California Institute of Technology

Biography: Greer obtained her S.B. in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Advanced Music Performance from MIT in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Stanford, worked at Intel (2000-03) and was a post-doc at PARC (2005-07). Julia joined Caltech in 2007 and currently is a Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering at Caltech, as well as the Fletcher Foundation Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, and the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Applied Physics.

Julia joined Caltech in 2007 and currently is a Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering at Caltech, as well as the Fletcher Foundation Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, and the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Applied Physics. Greer has more than 170 publications, has an h-index of 79, and has delivered over 100 invited lectures, which include 2 TEDx talks, multiple plenary lectures and named seminars at universities: Covestro Distinguished Speaker at U Pitt, Cooper lecture at Cornell, Israel Pollak Distinguished Lecture Series at Technion, David Pope lecture at Penn, and Thayer Visionaries in Technology at Dartmouth, the Gilbreth Lecture at the National Academy of Engineering, the Midwest Mechanics Lecture series, and a "IdeasLab" at the World Economic Forum. She recently received the Nadai Medal from ASME Materials Deivision (2024), the Eringer Medal from the Society of Engineering Science (2024), was selected as Alexander M. Cruickshank (AMC) Lecturer by the Gordon Research Conferences (2022), was the inaugural AAAFM-Heeger Award (2019) and was named a Vannevar-Bush Faculty Fellow by the US Department of Defense (2016) and CNN's 20/20 Visionary (2016). Her work was recognized among Top-10 Breakthrough Technologies by MIT’s Technology Review (2015). Greer was named as one of “100 Most Creative People” by Fast Company and a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum (2014) and received multiple early career awards.

Greer was a theme lead in DOE’s Basic Research Needs workshop (2020), serves on the National Materials and Manufacturing Board through National Academies (since 2020), and was selected to participate in the first DoD's Bush Fellows Research Study Team, BFRST (2020). Greer is also a concert pianist who performs solo recitals and in chamber groups, with notable performances of "Prejudice and Prodigy" with the Caltech Trio (2019), "Nanomechanics Rap" with orchestra MUSE/IQUE (2009), and as a soloist of Brahms Concerto No. 2 with Redwood Symphony (2006).

Xin Zhang, Ph.D.

LECTURER
Xin Zhang, Ph.D.
Boston University

For groundbreaking work on innovations, applications and commercialization of metamaterials, both those that enable highly efficient air-permeable sound silencing and noise reduction and those that markedly boost MRI signal-to-noise ratio, significantly improving performance.

Lecture Title: Unleashing the Power of Metamaterials to Reduce Noise and Enhance MRI Imaging

Abstract: Noise control is a major challenge across various industries, often requiring solutions that maintain essential airflow and ventilation. MRI technology, though invaluable for diagnosing diseases, can be expensive and cumbersome. Recent breakthroughs in metamaterials—engineered materials with unique, non-natural properties—promise transformative solutions. In this talk, I will explore two groundbreaking metamaterials: one that dramatically enhances MRI imaging by improving the signal-to-noise ratio, and another that efficiently reduces noise while allowing for unobstructed airflow. These innovations not only advance medical imaging but also address longstanding noise issues in numerous mechanical systems, offering practical and impactful solutions for both healthcare and industrial applications.

Biography: Xin Zhang is the Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Boston University, renowned for her pioneering research in metamaterials and microelectromechanical systems (or microsystems). In addition to the Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award, her recent accolades include the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, the Walston Chubb Award for Innovation from Sigma Xi, the STAT Madness All-Star Award, the Per Bruel Gold Medal for Noise Control and Acoustics, and Technical Achievement Awards from IEEE’s EMBS and Sensors Council. She is a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, ASME, IEEE, AAAS, AIMBE, APS, and Optica, and an Associate Fellow of AIAA.

For significant contributions to the research, education, and practice of nonlinear dynamics, resulting in significant advancements in the modeling, analysis, simulation, design, and manufacture of robotics, aerospace systems, and mechanical and fluid power transmissions.

Friedrich Pfeiffer, Ph.D.

RECIPIENT
Friedrich Pfeiffer, Ph.D.
Technische Universität Munchen