MAE Distinguished Speaker Series 2025 Seminar on Physics-based AI-assisted Design and Control of Manufacturing Processes

11 Nov 2025 03.00 PM - 04.00 PM LT3 (North Spine, NS4-02-32) Current Students, Public

Cardiss Collins Professor Jian Cao

Director, Northwestern Initiative on Manufacturing Science and Innovation

Associate Vice President for Research

Northwestern University, USA

This seminar will be chaired by Prof Zhou Kun.

Seminar Abstract

Current research efforts at my manufacturing 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 demonstrate our work in the development of differentiable simulation tools, sensing, and process control to achieve effective and efficient predictions and control of a material’s mechanical behavior in metal additive and metal forming processes. Furthermore, I will show how we use machine learning to accelerate the physics-based simulations and to realize active sensing with the goal of effective in-situ local process control. 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.

Speaker's Biography 

Cardiss Collins Professor Jian Cao (MIT’Ph.D, MIT’MS, SJTU’BS) specialized in innovative manufacturing processes and systems, particularly in the areas of deformation-based processes and laser additive manufacturing processes. She is the Founding Director of the research center on Manufacturing Science and Innovation at Northwestern, known as NIMSI. Prof. Cao is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S). Cao was the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Materials Processing Technology. Prof. Cao now serves as an Associate Vice President for Research at Northwestern, a member of the National Materials and Manufacturing Board of the National Academies, a member of the Defense Materials, Manufacturing and its Infrastructure (DMMI) Standing Committee of the National Academies, Board of Directors of SME, and Board of mHUB – accelerator for hardtech innovation and manufacturing in Chicago.

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