A delegation from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai University in China visited WPI in October 7-8, 2009. The purpose of the visit was to learn about the engineering education system at WPI, which Professor Rong made two presentations to introduce about at Shanghai University in the past summer. The delegation met with Professor Gretar Tryggvason, Head of ME, and Professor Rick Sisson, Director of MFE/MTE and Dean of Graduate Studies, as well as Professor Rong. A lot of discussion was made on project based education and possible collaboration between the two schools for exchange programs. The delegation also visited three courses, ES 1020, ME 3320, and ME 545, to learn about the classroom teaching. They tour the campus and manufacturing labs. The delegation had visited Georgia Tech before visiting WPI and would visit MIT and the Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

A delegation from Beijing Jiaotong University visited WPI on Tuesday, September 22, 2009. The delegation includes Professor Zhiming Liu, Vice-Dean of Mechanical Engineering School for Undergraduate Programs, Professor Guoxiu Li, Vice Dean of Mechanical Engineering for Graduate programs, and Ms. Xinhua Deng, Director of International Cooperation. BJTU is a sponsor of the MQP/IQP in China program of WPI and just signed a master agreement of collaboration with WPI by WPI President Berkey and BJTU President Ning, in summer this year. The delegation met with Professor Sisson, Dean of Graduate Studies and Director of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering as well as Professor Zhikun Hou and Jianyu Liang, Professors of Mechanical Engineering. Potential collaboration and exchange programs between WPI and BJTU were discussed

A delegation of Chinese Heat Treatment Society visited CAM Lab. and CHTE of WPI. They met with Professor Rick Sisson, Director of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering and Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor Rong. Professor Rong introduced WPI and CHTE organization and activities while Professor Sisson tour the laboratory facility at WPI. Dr. Steve Mashl from Bodycote came to WPI from Andover, MA and introduced the research activities at Boducote. The delegation attended the HTS conference and show at Indianapolis, IN in September 15-16, where ASM/HTS held a special reception for them to meet with the heat treatment community in USA. Professor Sisson met with them as the president of ASM/HTS and introduced the progress of implementing the 2020 Roadmap of Heat Treating Industry

Professor Takashi Matsumura from Tokyo Denki University visited us on Monday, August 17, 2009. He is our “old friend” and has visited us several times, while Professor Rong also visited him at TDU several times too. Their co-authored paper received the outstanding paper award at North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC) in May this year. During the visit, Professor Matsumura introduced his recent work on micro-machining of glass materials with applications and machining burr control in micro-drilling operations. Mr. Xuekun Li introduced our recent work on grinding process modeling and simulation. Dr. Liang He also participated the discussion.

Dr. Dezhi Wang from Boston College visited our CAM Lab on Thursday, June 4, 2009. He toured the Manufacturing and Materials Engineering laboratories. He met with Professor Jianyu Liang and Professor Rong, and discussed commonly interested topics.

Professor Wenbin Wang from University of Salford, UK, visited our Cam Lab. and WPI from March 11-14, 2009. He was Professor Rong’s classmate at Harbin University of Science and Technology during 1977-1981. Then Professor Wang continued his higher education in China and UK, worked in Operations Research area, and now is the director of Centre for OR and Applied Statistics. During his sabbatical leave in North America, Professor Wang visited University of Toronto, University of Michigan, University of Cincinnati, and University of Maryland, besides WPI. Professor Wang had a meeting with Professor Amy Zeng at Management Department, gave a seminar to MFE program at WPI, met with CAM Lab. members, participated the welcoming dinner for HUST students, and visited Amphenol TCS at Nashua, NH..

Professor Liang Gao, the department head of Industrial Engineering and Co-Director of HUST-WPI Senior Project Center at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan China, visited WPI in December 8-13. Besides meeting with Professor Rong, he met with Professor Gretar Tryggvason, Head of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Zhikun Hou of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Amy Zeng of Management Engineering.

Professor Bi Zhang from University of Connecticut visited our CAM Lab on Friday, November 14, 2008. He came to WPI to attend an Applied Grinding Research Seminar and give a technical presentation on Experimental Study on Artificially Ordered Super-hard Wheel for Machining. He spent some time in the afternoon with Professor Rong, Xuekun Li, and Lan Yan to discuss the research work on Grinding at our CAM Lab.

Al Barry of Stanly Lock and REM visited us on Wednesday, November 12, 2008. The MQP in China and other interested topics were discussed. Al has been supporting the summer MQP program in China for past three years and worked very well with our students. He gave a lot of suggestions on enhancing the program and will continue to support next year.

Professor Xin Wu at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI visited our CAM-Lab on Wednesday, September 24, 2008. He gave a talk on his recent research on metal forming to all CAM Lab members and interested graduate students in Manufacturing Engineering Program at WPI. Xuekun Li introduced our work on micro-machining and grinding with a good discussion

Professor Paul Gumpel from Hochschule Konstanz Technical University of Applied Science, Hochschule Konstanz, Germany, visited us for a short time. He met with several professors at WPI. The possibility of exchanging students was discussed, particularly in Materials Science and Engineering area.

Professor Takashi Matsumura from Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo, Japan visited us on Wednesday, August 27. Mr. Xuekun (Chris) Li and Feng Jiang introduced our recent study on grinding process modeling and simulation. Professor Matsumura introduced his work on micro-machining. A lot of discussions followed.

The project leader of Amphenol TCS Changzhou Operations, Mr. Sky Wang, visited WPI during his short working assignment at ATCS Headquarter of Nashua, NH on April 17-18, 2008. ATCS has been sponsoring the MQP in China program in both US and China. Currently one group of exchange students from HUST are working on their senior projects with ATCS and another tam of WPI students, as well as their partners at HUST, are doing their PQP for their MQP which will be conducted in China in E term in the summer. Besides discussing with Professor Rong for the summer project at Changzhou, Sky met with the WPI team Clinton McAdams and Mike Pagonis, to introduce more details of the project and discussed their questions. William Tan from last year ATCS project team came to say hello to Sky. They worked together last summer in Changzhou. Sky also talked a lot with the HUST team at Nashua during the week.

Professor Lihua Dong from Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China, visited our CAM Lab on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. She met with Professor Rong and Professor Amy Zeng at Management Department. Common research topics were discussed.

Dr. Changsheng Guo from UTC, Paul Cotonoir from Becker College, Nick Cumani from Rohm and Haas, and Dr. Yinggang Tian from Saint Gobain, visited WPI during the project presentation day on April 15, 2008. Besides looking at student projects (some of them served as judges), they visited our CAM Lab and discussed on our research topics too.

Professor Jianzhong Cha from Beijing Jiaotong University, Professor Arthur D'huys from University College Leuven and Professor Frank Docky from Leuven Institute of Technology visited us at WPI on March 16, Sunday, and March 18, Tuesday. They met with Professor Gretar Tryggvason, Head of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Diran Apelian, Director of Metal Processing Institute, Professor Richard Sisson, Director of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering Program, and Professor Rong. The discussion was focused on the innovation of engineering education, particularly on the industrial projects and global experience in engineering curriculum. Possible collaboration among BJTU, Group T colleges, and WPI was explored. Professor Cha also serves as UN-ESCO Chair on Cooperation between Higher Engineering Education and Industries and a Board Director of Leuven Engineering School. Professor D'huys serves as the Vice President of Group T University College Leuven.

Dr. Xiangli Han visited our CAM Lab, where he worked in for a few years, on Saturday, November 3, 2007.

Professor Zhenbing Hou and his Wife visited WPI and our CAM Lab on October 25-27, 2007. Professor Hou was a pioneer manufacturing engineering educator in China and has been working on Machining/Grinding processes for many years. He was a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology and Tongji University, both in China. After his retirement, Professor Hou has worked with Oklahoma State University for many years. Professor Hou introduced his research work and particularly discussed with the graduate students on the current research projects in the area at our CAM Lab of WPI.

.Mr. Seyed Raissi, Director of Supply Chain (Americas), and Ronald Alciati, Supply Chain Manager for Pan China, visited WPI on Tuesday, October 16, 2007. They met with Professor Amy Zeng of Management and Professor Rong. The global senior project program was particularly discussed. From this year, Nypro will join our in MQP in China program by sponsoring projects in both US and China for students from WPI and HUST, China.

.Professor Young S. Kim from Kyungpook National University, Taegu, Korea, visited WPI on Monday, October 15, 2007. He met with Professor Gretar Tryggvason, ME Department Head, and Professor Rong, as well as Mr. Hyoung jun Lee, the visiting student from KNU. The international exchange program for senior projects is particularly discussed. WPI will continue to accept KNU students doing projects on campus and plan to send our students to Korea for joint team project with industry as their senior projects (MQP).

.Professor Dongming Guo, the Vice President of Dulian University of Technology, Dalian, China, visited our CAM Lab. and WPI. He met with Provost Orr, Associate Provost McGimpsey, ME head Tryggvason, and Professors Sisson, Liang in ME, and Zeng in MG. Professor Guo gave a presentation on Engineering Research and Education at Dalian University of Technology, as a special Manufacturing Engineering Seminar. He is a long time friend of Professor Rong and had a lot of discussion with him and Cam Lab members. Professor Guo also visited Nypro and Saint Gobain companies during his visit in the area.

Mr. Al Barry visited us on Thursday, September 20. Al was the CEO of CIS who has sponsored projects for our MQP in China program for two years. Now Al has started his own company, Wuxi Rapid Engineering and Manufacturing, in China, and will continue to sponsor the MQP in China program. Al met with our ME head, Professor Gretar Tryggvason and accepted the invitation of being a ME advisory board member. Al is an alumni of ME WPI.

Dr. Yihong (David) Yang from Caterpillar Research Center, Peoria, IL visited our CAM Lab. The on going project on Computer-aided Modular Fixture Design for Welding was discussed. Davis was a member of our CAM Lab and graduated with Ph. D in Mechanical Engineering last academic year. He has been working with CAT for about three years.

Dr. Qigui Wang from GM Powertrain visited our Cam Lab on September 7, 2007. Two on going research projects on Modeling and Simulation of Gas Quenching project and CAD Model Generation for Casting Design Optimization System (CDOS) were discussed.

Amir Prat from Intelitek, Manchester, NH, visited WPI on January 9, 2007. The company produces OpenCim system and Leanmate system for training and education. Potentially WPI and Intelitek may work together for WPI course innovation, particularly in Industrial Robots and CNC areas, and education system development.

Professor Takashi Mastumura from Tokyo Denkey University, Japan, visited us on August 14, 2007

Marketing Manager Meri Lazar and Commercial Development Manager Derek Miller from Air Product visted WPI on Tuesday, April 26, 2005. They had meetings with Professor Sisson and Professor Rong. Radha demonstrated CHT-bf and CHT-cf.

The SME Member Relations Manager, Ms. Edye Buchanan, visited WPI on Wednesday, April 20, 2005. She gave a presentation to our MFE graduate students and SME WPI students chapter. Her presentation is on the Introduction of SME Membership Benefit, Particularly as Student Members.

Weizhen (Wayne) Li, former member of CAM-Lab., visited us on March 19 -20. He graduated with M.S. degree in 1996 and currently is working with IBM in New York State.

Professor Xinyu Shao and Professor Bin Li from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, visited WPI in March 16 and 17, 2005, after participating the Mechanical Engineering Education Conference at San Diego, CA. The conference next year will be held in Beijing, China and HUST is one of the hosting organizations. They met with Provost Simpson and Associate Provost Durgin as well as visited our CAM-Lab.

Professor Shao Gave a seminar which was cosponsored by Manufacturing Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering programs. The topic of the seminar was Mechanical Engineering Education and research at HUST.

HUST and WPI have signed collaboration agreements last November. Besides collaborative research and joint graduate degree programs, five WPI students will go to HUST in the coming summer for their MQP in China. Next year a group of HUST students will come to WPI for their senior projects.

Professor Cuilian Zhao from Shanghai University joined us on Sunday, March 13, 2005. She will work at CAM-Lab for about three months. Professor Zhao's research area is in CAD/CAM applications. She has led a research group and conducted several projects for different companies in China. Currently she is working towards her Ph.D degree. Hopefully her research experience will benefit us, particularly in the area of CAD/CAM application program development, and also her working experience with us is helpful in the development of her professor career.

Dr. Kezhun Li from Case New Holland at Chicago, IL visited us on Wednesday, February 16 and gave a seminar to Manufacturing Engineering Graduate students and professors as well as local industrial personals who were interested. The topic of his speech is on Application of Digital Prototyping and Simulation in Off-highway Vehicles. Dr. Li also visited our CAM-Lab and discussed relevant research topics with us.

Professor Pierre Dupont from Boston University gave a seminar on Trajectory Optimization for Dynamic Needle Insertion to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members at the last Manufacturing Engineering Seminar of the year, on Thursday, December 16, 2004.

Professor Julie Chen from University of Massachusetts at Lowell gave a seminar on NanoManufacturing: Current Needs, Future Opportunities to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members as well as local industrial professionals, on Thursday, November 11, 2004.

Professor Robert B. Jerard from University of New Hampshire gave a seminar on Smart Machine Tool Architecture to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members as well as local industrial professionals, on Thursday, October 28, 2004.

Professor Alan Zehnder from Cornell University gave a seminar on Self-oscillation and Entrainment in MEMS to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members as well as local industrial professionals, on Thursday, October 21, 2004.

Professor Bi Zhang from University of Connecticut gave a seminar on Machining vs. Grinding to Manufacturing Engineering graduates and factulty members as well as local industrial professionals, on Wednesday, October 13, 2004.

Dr. K. (Subbu) Subramanian from Saint-Gobain Abrasives gave the second Manufacturing Engineering Seminar on Thursday, September 23, 2004. He talked on "Technology Value Chain - What is it? Why do we need one ?" Subbu has been the Director of Higgins Grinding Technology Center (HGTC) and newly takes the responsibility of the Director of High-Performance Materials Division.

Marc Abouaf, the Technology Director of Semiconductor Department at Saint-Gobain High-Performance Materials visited the CAM-Lab. at WPI. Marc learned about our research work and Lab. conditions. The potential student projects were discussed.

Dr. Hiroshi Yaguchi from Kobe Steel, Japan, visited the Metal Processing Institute (MPI) at WPI. He gave a seminar to the graduate students and faculty in the Manufacturing and Materials Engineering (MME) Program, introducing Kobe Steel and their research on materials processing. He also met with Professor Diran Apelian, Rick Sisson, and Kevin Rong to learn about the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at WPI and discuss the potential collaboration between Kobe Steel and CHTE.

Joseph A. Gosselin from Design Comapny, Canton, CT visited the CAM-Lab. at WPI. Joe worked at Pratt & Whitney as a tooling engineer for many years. He initiated and co-supervised several undergraduate projects with WPI. Joe learned about our new research work and discussed potential projects.

Education Counselor Ai Fanglin and consul Han Jun from The Consulate General of People's Republic of China in New York visited Professor Rong at WPI. Professor Rong introduced the research work at CAM-Lab. and international collaboration with Chinese Universities.

Mark Gordon, President of Fairlane Products at Fraser, MI, Tatsuki Imao and Katsuya Imao, VP and General Manager of Imao, Japan, visited the CAM-Lab at WPI. They learned and showed a great interest in our long-time research on Computer-aided Fixture Design.

Dr. Krich Sawamiphakdi from Timken visited WPI on May 12, 2004. He met with Professor Sisson and Professor Rong to discuss the projects on quenching and furnace modeling.

Joel Stein and Shoshanna Grossman from Elsevier Publisher visit CAM-Lab at WPI on March 23. They had a campus tour and discussed with Professor Rong on the upcoming book, authored by Professor Rong, Professor Huang (University of Cincinnati), and Professor Hou, Advanced Computer-aided Fixture Design, which will be finished later this year and published early next year.

Professor Zhu, who was Professor Rong's advisor at Tsinghua University, visited the CAM-Lab. at WPI from February 22 to March 20. He worked with our colleagues to exchange the technical idea on computer-aided fixture design.

Professor Guangyu Tan from Harbin University of Science and Technology (HUST), China visited the CAM-Lab at WPI from February 11-24, to conduct an NSF sponsored international collaborative research project on Machining Process Modeling and Analysis. Professor Zhenjia Li, also from HUST, visited us from February 15 to 20. Alfred presented his work to the visitors on February 18, Wednesday, with a lot of discussions. On February 19, Professor Li introduced his long-time research in machining area and Professor Tan gave a seminar on his research work on Machining, as well as an introduction of HUST.

Professor Warren DeVries, the Division Director of Design, Manufacture, and Industrial Innovation at NSF visited WPI and gave a seminar on "The NSF's Investments for Manufacturing Enterprises of the Future". Warren also visited the research centers and Labs at WPI, met with school administrations and faculty members.

Professor Yi Jia from University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez visited the CAM-Lab. at WPI from December 18 to January 7. He spent time to discuss with Dr. Rong for research collaboration, work with research associates and assistants at CAM-Lab. to introduce his research and to understand our research, and study at WPI Library to catch the new development of the technologies. (see a picture)

Professor Baicheng Liu from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, visited MPI and CAM-Lab. of WPI on October 1-5. He discussed research collaboration with Professor Apelian, Professor Sisson, and Professor Rong. Professor Liu gave a seminar on New Progress on Numerical Modeling and Simulation of Casting Processes on Thursday, October 2. (see a picture)

Dr. Xun William Xu, from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, visited our CAM-Lab. on September 5-7. Dr. Xu is a senior Lecture and Director of Manufacturing Systems Group at Auckland. Besides exchange the research and education in both universities, Dr. Xu gave a seminar to our CAM-Lab on Step-based Production Planning, introducing his long time research in the area. Dr. Xu plans to spend part of his sabbatical leave with us at WPI next year. (see a picture)

Professor Z-J Pei from Kansas State University visited our CAM-Lab. on Thursday, August 7. Professor Pei is a long-time friend of dr. Rong. He was visiting Norton Company at Worcester where he used to work and still has research collaboration.

Dr. Rong, Dr. Kang, and Radha have visited Timken at Canton, OH on Wednesday, July 16; OhioMet at Elyria, OH and Surface Combustion at Maumee, OH on Thursday, July 17. The purpose of the visits is for the CHTE research project, Computerized Heat Treatment Planning for Batch and Continuous Furnaces.

Formal CAM-Lab member, Venkat Gurusamy visited back on Saturday, July 12. he is working with MAX-Exact Software Company at Foster City, CA.

Professor Zhixiong Zhou, Dean of Mechanical Engineering School from Hunan University, China, and his wife visited our CAM-Lab. on January 20, 2003. Dr. Rong introduced our research activities and discussed about common interested research areas. Professor Zhou is currently with University of Connecticut as a senior visiting scholar for a year.

Professor Yuanzhong Lei, Division Chief of Mechanical Engineering of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSF-China), visited WPI on Jan. 15, 2003. He met with Professor Gretar Trigvenson, Department Head of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Kevin Rong, Director of Computer-aided Manufacturing Laboratory at WPI. The progress of the collaborative research project, Machining Chip Formation and Breaking, was discussed. The project is funded by NSF-China and Ford Powertrain Operations, and collaborated with Harbin University of Science and Technology in China. Professor Lei also visited University of Massachusetts, University Columbia, and University of Connecticut during his stay in the area

This year, Dr. Rong is coordinating the Manufacturing Engineering Seminar at WPI. The following has visited WPI.

1. December 12, Professor Lucy King from Kettering University
2. November 25, Professor Baicheng Liu from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
3. November 14, Mr. Jason Melvin, Ph.D candidate from MIT
4. October 31, Ms. Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi, Ph.D candidate from University of Michigan
5. October 17, Professor Robert Jerard from University of New Hampshire
6. October 10, Professor James C. Li from RPI
7. October 3, Dr. Ian Wang from National Research Council of Canada
8. September 26, Professor Jun Ni from University of Michigan

This year, Dr. Rong is coordinating the Manufacturing Engineering Seminar at WPI. The following have visited WPI.

1. April 3, 2003, Dr. Xiaoping Li from National University of Singapore
2. March 27, 2003, Dr. Kori Ehman from Northwestern University
3. March 20, 2003, Dr. Darek Ceglarek from University of Wisconsin-Madison
4. March 13, 2003, Dr. Haechang Gea from Rutgers University
5. February 27, 2003, Professor Leon L. Shaw from University of Connecticut
6. February 11, 2003, Dan Donaldson from DataPaq Company
7. February 6, 2003, Professor Xiaochun Li from University of Wisconsin-Madison
8. January 23, 2003, Dr. Changsheng Guo from United Technology Research Center (UTRC)
9. December 12, 2002, Professor Lucy King from Kettering University
10. November 25, 2002, Professor Baicheng Liu from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
11. November 14, 2002, Mr. Jason Melvin, Ph.D candidate from MIT
12. October 31, 2002, Ms. Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi, Ph.D candidate from University of Michigan
13. October 17, 2002, Professor Robert Jerard from University of New Hampshire
14. October 10, 2002, Professor James C. Li from RPI
15. October 3, 2002, Dr. Ian Wang from National Research Council of Canada
16. September 26, 2002, Professor Jun Ni from University of Michigan