Professor Rong was invited to a reception at NY for welcoming Mr. Jianjun Cen, the new Education Counselor at the Consulate General of China in New York in the evening of Friday, September 12. He also talked to the former Education Counselor, Mr. Fanglin Ai, who is going back to China soon, as well as Mr. Dongbo Fang, the Education Consul in charge of MA.

Professor Rong attended the meeting with UTC colleagues at the Higgins House of WPI on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. The appreciation was shown to the 2008 gift from UTC and Pratt & Whitney (link). Professor Sisson talked on the lessons learned from previous MQP with UTC. He particularly introduced the MQP in China program.

On August 23, Saturday, Professor Rong visited Washington, DC, to see his long time friends, Professor Xun Xun from University of Auckland, New Zealand and Dr. Ian Wang from NRC Canada, who are participating an IEEE conference there. He also met Dr. Anzy An at Fannie Mae. Anzy was a CAM-Lab member and is going back China as an associate professor of economics at Central Finance University, Beijing, China.

Professor Rong had a meeting with the MQP team at GE Cincinnati on Monday, August 25. Three WPI students did their summer interns at GE Aviation Service Sector and now to start their senior project (MQP) in A term. They had dinner together in the evening of Sunday.

On the way to Cincinnati, OH, on Sunday, August 24, Professor Rong also met with Dr. Lei Zhang, who just left our CAM Lab. Last month and now is working with Scientific Forming Technology Company at Columbus, OH, and Yong Bai, who was also our CAM Lab alumni and working in Cincinnati area.

The Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at WPI held its first semi-annual meeting of 2008 on May 29, Thursday (Board meeting and dinner reception on May 28). Dr. Gang Wang presented his project on carburizing modeling and fatigue study. Professor Rong, Radha Purushothaman, Bose Xiao, and Dr. X. Chen also participated the meeting.

Professor Rong and Feng Jiang visited Saint Gobain at Worcester, MA in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 28, 2008. The recently developed Grinding Wheel Model was introduced and discussed.

Professor Rong, Dr. Lei Zhang, and Dr. Hui Wang visited Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) at Hartford, CT on Wednesday, May 28, 2008. They learned CCAT’s operations and service to industry of the nation. They also introduced the research work at CAM Lab., particularly on Computer-aided Fixture design and Computerized Heat Treatment Modeling and Simulation. The possible collaboration was discussed.

Professor Rong, Kuekun (Chris) Li, and Wei Tian visited Saint Gobain at Worcester on Friday, April 18, 2008. They met with Dr. Subbu and Dr. Y. Tian to discuss the project progress and future plan.

Professor Rong was invited to the Senior Dinner of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity House in the evening of Monday, April 14, 2008. About 40 students are living in the house in a very organized manner. Many faculty members and staff were invited to celebrate the coming graduation of their seniors. Congratulate the seniors for their accomplishment at WPI and wish them a bright future up coming.

Eugeny Sosnovsky and Professor Rong attended the ASEE Zone 1 conference at West Point, NY on March 28 and 29, 2008. Gene is a senior student and was in our MQP in China 2007 team. He presented the MQP project on Design Process Development that he and Brad Windsor, together with partners from HUST, did for CIS, Wuxi, China. Brad was sick and unable to attend the conference. Professor Rong presented another paper on Extending the WPI Practice on Project based Education in the conference.

Bowang (Bose) Xiao visited Oakland University and GM Powertrain in MI in the week of March 23-29. He did residual stress measurement to the test castings after air-quenching at OU and visited the quenching facility of GM engine blocks for acquiring production condition information which will be used in the future tests and simulation.

Professor Rong and Dr. Gang Wang participated the TMS Annual Meeting at New Orleans, LA, in March 11-13, 2008. Besides presenting two papers by Dr. Wang, they joined the dinner to honor Professor Diran Aplien as the new elected president of TMS. They also met with many friends there.

Professor Amy Zeng and Professor Rong visited Nypro, Clinton, MA, and Amphenol, Nashua, NH, respectively, with the senior project teams of WPI and HUST students, on Monday, March 10, 2008. This is the beginning of the MQP in China projects in 2008.

Hua Li and Hui Wang spent a week at Caterpillar, Peoria, IL from March 2 to 8, 2008, working on a demonstration and on site testing of their new development of Computer-aided Modular Fixture Design System for Welding. Their work was highly recognized for the functions and practical application effectiveness. The research and development work will be continued toward more intelligent and robust. Thanks for their hard working and congratulate their achievement.

Feng Liu came back from Detroit, MI, after working at GM Powertrain for four weeks. He has been working on the project of Computer-aided Casting Systems Design.

Professor Amy Zeng and Professor Rong visited NSF and met with program directors on January 31, 2008. The possible expansion of the MQP in China program was discussed.

Professor Rong, along with Dr. Jingping Ge and Lei Zhang from JYL Solutions, visited Scientific Forming Technology Corporation at Columbus, OH on January 8, 2008. The collaboration among CHTE/WPI, SFTC, and JYL was discussed for the commercialization of the CHT technology and systems for modeling and simulation of heat treatment processes.

Professor Rong participated the panel meeting at NSF on December 19, 2007.

Professor Rong started another trip to Asia on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. First, he visited National Tsinghus University and National Chiao Tung University at Hsinchu, Taiwan on Friday, November 30. He met with many old friends. Then he visited National Taiwan University at Taipei on Saturday, December 1. Professor Rong traveled down south to Tainan on Sunday, December 2, to participate the International Forum on Systems and Mechatronics, where he gave an invited speech and presented a technical paper on Tuesday, December 4. He also visited National Cheng Kung University and the Sorth Hi-Tech Business Development Zone on Monday, December 3. Professor Rong continued his trip to Shanghai, China on Wednesday, December 5, from Taipei through Hong Kong.

Professo Rong met with Dr. Tony Wu, Director of Business Development of Bodycote Asia, and Ed Jamieson, Director of Technology & Quality at Bodycote, as well as Professor Liang Gao from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), in Shanghai Pudong Airport on Wednesday, December 5. They talked about WPI’s MQP in China program. On Thursday, December 6, Professor Gao and Professor Rong visited Amphenol TCS Changzhou Operations in the morning, meeting with Mr. Sky Wang and his colleagues, and Nypro Suzhou Operations in the afternoon, meeting with the Pan China Supply Chain Manager, Mr. Ron Alciati. Besides tours to the facilities, the MQP in China 2008 was discussed in detail. On Friday, together with Professor Tryggvason from WPI, Professor Rong visited Caterpillar Shanghai Office (meeting with the Materials Technology Manager at China R&D Center and Technology & Solutions Division, Mr. Gary Yerby) and the new Technical Center of Saint Gobain at Shanghai (meeting with the General Manager, Dr. Dieter Linnhoefer and Technical Shared Service, Mr. Alex Wang). They left Shanghai for Wuhan via over-night train in the evening of Saturday, December 7.

On Sunday, December 9, Professor Gao and Professor Rong met with the HUST students who are going to WPI for their senior projects in March-May (D Term) 2008 and the students who may participate the MQP in China 2008 program in summer 2008. Professor Rong also met old and new friends there, as well as several HUST students who participated the MQP in China before, and talked a lot on both education and research collaboration. On Monday, Professor Tryggvason gave a seminar to HUST professors and graduate students, on Engineering Education in USA, followed by a discussion meeting with HUST faculty and administrative members of Mechanical Engineering School. The issues and future of the MQP in China program was discussed in addition to the general topic of engineering education. In the afternoon, Professor Tryggvason had a campus and Lab tour of HUST, after the lunch with the HUST President, Professor Peigen Li and several university officers. Professor Rong had a meeting with WPI-HUST Senior Project Center colleagues to discuss the details of MQP in China 2008. In the evening, Professor Tryggvason and Professor Rong flied back Shanghai in the evening of Monday, December 10.

On Tuesday, December 11, Professor Rong visited CIS (meeting with the General Manager, Mr. Lim Tek Hong and his colleagues) and REM (meeting with the President Al Barry and General Manager Chay Chin Tat) companies who are sponsoring MQP in China program in 2008, as well as a potential sponsor, Bodycote (meeting with General Manager China Li Shen), all in Wuxi, China. Professor Tryggvason and Professor Rong came back US from Shanghai in the morning of Wednesday, December 12.

Professor Rong visited Jensen Industries at North Haven, CT on Monday, November 26, 2007. He met with Don Cornell, the Vice-President, and Jeff Sitkin, the Manager of Refining Business Development. Professor Rong learned the industrial practice on dental CAD/CAM business and discussed possible collaboration of Jensen with WPI.

Professor Rong visited Amphenol TCS at Nashua, NH on Monday, November 19, 2007. He met with Bill Doherty, General Manager of Production Operations, and Mark St. Hilaire, Operation Manager. They discussed the continuation of the MQP in China program with Amphenol and planning for the 2008 projects for exchange students from HUST and for the MQP in China students.

Professor Rong and Mr. Feng Jiang participated the ASME IMECE 2007 at Seattle, WA, in November 12-14, 2007. They presented two technical papers and met with several old and new friends. They came back to Worcester in the morning of Thursday, November 15.

Professor Rong visited Saint Gobain at Worcester and met with Dr. Bob Smith, the Director for Manufacturing Excellence for Saint-Gobain Abrasives, as well as Dr. Subbu, on Monday, November 12, 2007. Potential student projects on Lean Manufacturing with Saint Gobain were discussed.

The research team, Dr. Hua Li, Dr. Hui Wang, and Mr. Hong Guo visited Caterpillar at Peoria, IL in November 7-8, 2007, to report and demonstrate the results of the project, Computer-aided Modular Fixture Design for Welding. The work tasks in next step was reviewed and discussed. Professor Rong and Dr. G. Wang joined them on November 8.

Professor Rong and Dr. Gang Wang participated the CHTE semi-annual meeting at Chicago in November 6-7, 2007. They met with many old and new friends in heat-treating related industry. The project progress and the new project were discussed.

Professor Sisson and Professor Rong, as well as the two students, Mr. Dennis Proulx and Mr. Patrick Hill, who are doing their IQP (junior project), visited Worcester Technical High School and met with Mr. Peter Crafts, Director of Vocational/Technical Education, Mr. Edwin Coughlin, Treasurer of Electrical Contractors and Network Service, and several other colleagues in the school. A tour was given to the visitors and the project idea was discussed. The visitors were deeply impressed by the lab condition and the way of student learning at Worcester Tech High, particularly in the practice learning side.

Professor Rong and Mr. Wei Tian made a project progress report presentation at Saint Gobain Worcester, on Monday, October 29, 2007. The first two phases of the project on Signature Analysis of OD Grinding Processes has been finished and the next phase tasks were discussed in the meeting. About ten SG engineers participated in the presentation and discussion. The project will be continued according to the comments from the discussion.

Radha, Dr. Gary Wang, and Professor Rong visited Surface Combustion at Maumee, OH, on Monday, October 22, 2007. The research work on furnace model improvement and calibration was discussed. The new CHTE project on vacuum carburizing and fatigue life analysis, as well as furnace gas reclamation were also discussed.

Professor Rong attended ASPE Annual Conference at Dallas, TX, in October 17-19, 2007, where he presented the research on simulation study of thermal analysis in micro-machining based on the work Dong Lu was working on at both WPI and Shandong University in China.

Feng Liu and Ashwin Joshi from WPI CAM Lab visited GM Powertrain at Pontiac, MI from October 1 to 12, 2007 (Ashwin came back on October 6). They studied GM practice on Casting System Design. They helped GM to construct CAD (UG) models of the casting system and run simulations for system performance evaluation. The work will be continued at WPI as part of a research project.

Professor Rong visited GE Aviation Service Facility at Strother, KS, on Monday, October 8, 2007. A group of WPI senior students were finishing their senior project (MQP) on Lean Manufacturing Implementation there and had their final presentation.

Professor Rong gave an invited speak on “Working Across the Globe – Real life Experiences”, at ASME District A Student Leadership Seminar (SLS) Conference, at Worcester, MA on October 6, Saturday, 2007.

Professor Amy Zeng at Management Department of WPI and Professor Rong visited Nypro on Thursday, September 27, 2007. They met with Mr. Rashid Shaikh, Senior Director of Global Supply Chain, and Mr. Ronald Alciati, Supply Chian Manager – Pan China, and discussed the WPI’s MQP in China program. Professor D. Guo from Dalian University of Technology joined the visit and the discussion.

Leo and Jingping participated the NSF SBIR/STTR Grantees’ Conference at Arlington, VA on September 17-19, representing JYL Solutions. They met the NSF program managers and other professionals to discuss the project progress and funding for next phase.

Attending ASM conference. Radha and Gary attended ASM Annual Conference at Detroit, on September 17-19. They presented two papers and two posters, as well as meeting a lot of people.

Professor Rong attended the International Conference on Engineering Education (ICEE), at Coimbra, Portugal, from September 3-6, 2007. He presented a paper on MQP in China: Doing Project and Beyond.

Professor Rong visited GE Engine Services facility at Winfield, KS. Two WPI students are doing their MQP there on Lean Manufacturing Implementations.

Professor Sisson and Professor Rong, as well as Dr. Maniruzzaman, visited Air Product at Allengton, PA. They learned the research activities and facilities at Air Product, and introduced MPI/CHTE research and operations at WPI. The interested research topics were also discussed.

Professor Rong and Dr. Leo Zhang visited GM Powertrain at Pontiac, MI, on Thursday, May 31, to discuss a detail plan for the newly established research project on modeling and simulation of air quenching processes for Aluminum. They also visited the heat treatment plant at Saginaw, MI and Oakland University.

Many CAM-Lab members visited EastTech show at West Springfield, MA on Wednesday, May 23, 2007. They are Professor Rong, Dr. Hua Li, Hong Guo, Chris Li, and Wayne Tian. They learned the new development in manufacturing industry.

Professor Rong participated the 2007 Third Wave AdvantEdge International Users’ Conference at Seattle, WA, on Wednesday, May 16, 2007. He presented the resent work done by Dong Lu on Micro-machining Process Simulation with AdvantEdge. He also learned the new progress of other people’s work and discussed the technology development in the field.

Professor Rong was invited to visit California State University at Long Beach on Thursday, May 10, 2007. He gave a seminar on Computer-aided Production Planning and Fixture Design. He also visited Boeing Laboratory at CSULB.

Dr. Leo Zhang, Professor Sisson, and Professor Rong visited Deform Company at Columbus, OH on Wednesday, April 25, 2007. The commercialization of the CHT systems for heat treatment process modeling and simulation, developed under WPI CHTE support.

Three exchange students from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China visited Amphenol TCS production facility at Mexicali, Mexico from April 16-26, 2007, where they continued their senior project of Lean Manufacturing Implementation at Amphenol. They studied a mass production line from collecting data, analyzing the production flow, identifying problems, and giving suggestions of improvements. Professor Rong visited the Mexicali plant on April 23 and discussed the progress with the team.

Dr. Zhang and Professor Rong visited CSN company in Indianapolis, IN, on April 4, 2007. They introduced their research work on Heat Treatment Process Modeling and Simulation. A potential project of optimization of steel annealing processes was discussed.

Professor Rong arrived at Shanghai on March 21, 2007. First, he and Professor Liang Gao, Co-director of WPI-HUST Senior Project Center in ME, first visited Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Nanjing,together with Dr. Steve Liu from Saint Gobain. Then they visited Amphenol TCS Changzhou Operations, CIS Wuxi Operations, Key Stone Wuxi, and Saint Gobain Shnaghai Operations to prepare MQP in China 2007. They also visited FixtureWorks in Hangzhou before coming to HUST at Wuhan on Saturday, March 24, 2007.

At HUST, Professor Rong met with President Peigan Li, ME Dean Professor Xinyu Shao, and other colligues to discuss the operation of the MQP in China Program, the impact to engineering education, and logistical arrangement. Professor Rong had a meeting with twenty two HUST students who are doing senior projects with WPI students in summer 2007. Eight of twelve HUST students who participated the MQP in China program last year came to the meeting and shared their experience with the new students. Professor Rong also visited the new Engineering Practice Annex where the MQP in China program will be hosted from this year. He got much impressed by the new building, machine tools, and student activities he saw during the visit. He met many old friends who supported the program in last two years. Professor Caihua Xiong and Professor Ligang Cai introduced the progress of the on-going National High-Tech (863 and 973) projects on Digital Manufacturing and manufacturing planning, which Professor Rong participated as international collaborating co-PI.

On March 28, Professor Rong visited Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he was hosted by Professors Baicheng Liu, Shoumei Xiong, Qingyan Xu, and Jinwu Kang, all in Mechanical Engineering Department. He left Shanghai to go back USA on March 29, 2007.

Professor Rong and the HUST exchange students as well as William Tang, their project partner at WPI, and Wayne, graduate student and their peer advisor at WPI, went to Nashua, NH to visit Amphenol TCS to understand the company and their project. Another project partner, Andy Anderson could not make the trip because he was on the way back from his IQP at London, UK. The project is on the application of Lean Manufacturing principle to Amphenol’s operations, mainly in Maxicali, Mexico. The team will be visiting there in April. The project will be continued in summer for applications in Amphenol’s Changzhou Operations in China, by another HUST team with William and and Andy.

Dr. Lei Zhang visited Caterpillar at Peoria, IL from March 5 to 9, 2007. Professor Rong came to join him on March 8. They, together with Radha who is doing one-year intern with CAT, studied the new furnaces recently installed in CAT East Peoria facility and process control of the heat treatment process, discussed Radha’s Ph. D dissertation research topics, and future collaboration with CAT. CAT gave an A++ comments to Rahda’s work at CAT. We were proud of his representation of WPI’s quality of practical research. Professor Rong also met with David Yang’s team for a potential project on Computer-aided Modular Welding Fixture Design.

Dr. Lei Zhang and Professor Rong visited GM Powertrain Division at Pontiac, MI on January 19, 2007. Potential research projects on materials processing process modeling, simulation, and optimal design were discussed.