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

Professor Rong and Xuekun (Chris) Li attended the ASME Manufacturing Engineering Division annual conference at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, on October 5-6. Chris presented a paper of Kinematics Analysis of Grinding Processes with a Virtual Grinding Wheel Model and Single Grain Grinding Simulation. They also visited the Mechanical Engineering School and their Manufacturing Research Labs.

Professor Rong attended International Symposium on Advanced Abrasive Technology (ISAAT) in Gold Coast, Australia in September 27-October 2, 2009. He presented two papers on their recent study of Modeling and Simulation of Grinding Processes, and met many colleagues in the field with a lot of discussions. Professor Rong also visited Auckland University in New Zealand on September 25 in the same trip. He gave a seminar on CAD based Production Planning and Fixture Design to the faculty and graduate students of Mechanical Engineering Department

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

Professor Rong and Dr. Liang (Leo) He visited Fluxtrol company in Auburn Hills, MI on Monday, September 21, 2009. They met with Dr. Nemkov and Rob Goldstein as well as several their colleagues, to discuss a commonly interested project

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 Rong made another short trip to China on September 9-16, 2009. He visited Tsinghua University in Beijing, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, and the newly established Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen. He discussed the commonly interested topics with his friends and colleagues while he met with the HUST students who just finished their MQP in China projects with WPI students in the past summer for continuation of the project with Saint Gobain Shanghai

Dr. Gang Wang and Bose Xiao attended the bi-annual ASM/HTS conference at Indianapolis, IN in September 14-16, 2009. Bose made two presentations on Stress Analysis in Air Quenching and the Heat Transfer Coefficient Analysis for High-pressure Hydrogen Quenching. Dr. Wang also involved several other projects presented in the conference with Professor Sisson’s group, as well as chaired one session of the conference. Gary and Bose had several meetings with colleagues of CHTE member companies to discuss the HPHQ project in addition to general chat with the participants.

Wei Tian presented his mini-project on producibility analysis at Pratt & Whitney of East Hartford, CT on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. Professor Rong attended the presentation

Dr. Hua Li attended the Computer and Information in Industry (ASME/DETC/CIE) conference at San Diego, CA, in August 30 – September 3, 2009, where he presented a paper on CAD application.

Professor Rong and Bose Xiao, together with Professor Sisson, visited Air products at Allenton, PA on Wednesday, September 2, 2009. They met with Dr. Rana Ghosh and his colleagues to discuss the progress of the CHTE project on H2 Quenching

As the new academic year starts, CAM Lab had a cook out get together at South Quinsigamond Lake State Park, on Sunday, August 30, 2009. Besides the current CAM Lab members, Professor Takashi Matsumura from Tokyo Denki University (currently visiting MIT at Boston) and Dr. Jinsheng Wang from Saint Gobain Shanghai, as well as several recent “graduated” members joined the party and enjoyed the food and other activities, including booking and fishing in the park.

In this academic year, we are glad to welcome several new members of CAM Lab., including Professor Yi Zhang from Congqing University and Dr. Yaqin Zhou from Donghua University, as visiting scholars, and Mr. Haolun (Victor) Li and Mr. Xingcheng (Alex) Zou as graduate students. Wish them to enjoy working at our CAM Lab and with other colleagues.

Dr. Hua Li participated the ASME Design Engineering Technology Conference in San Diego, CA, August 31-Spetember 2, 2009. He presented a paper on CAD/CAE applications.

Xunkun Li attended the 59th CIRP General Assembly in August 23-29, 2009 at Boston, MA. He met many scholars in the general area of production research, from all over the world.

Professor Rong and Xuekun visited Saint Gobain Worcester on Tuesday, August 18, 2009. They met with Dr. Subbu and Dr. Tian to discuss the commonly interested technical projects.

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.

Two visiting scholar from China finished study at our CAM Lab. and went back China on August 17, 2009. Dr. Liangzhi Fan rejoins Wuhan University of Science and Engineering to continue his faculty responsibility in Mechanical Engineering and Ms. Lan Yan went back Hunan University to continue her Ph. D dissertation on grinding system study. We enjoyed working with them in the past year and wish them a successful development of their professional career.

Even under challenging economic condition, twenty one (14 last year) senior students from WPI went to China for their Major Qualifying Projects (MQP) or Interactive Qualifying Projects (IQP) this year. These students were majoring ME/MFE, MGE/IE, RBE, ECE, and MA at WPI. They worked with twenty senior students from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), nine from Southeast University (SEU), and four from Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU) in mixed teams on eight projects sponsored by Caterpillar China, CIS Wuxi Operations, Saint Gobain Abrasives Shanghai Operations, Aucksun Metal, BYC and YPC, SCC, HUST, and BJTU. Two projects were further divided into two subprojects. The projects were,

1. Lean Manufacturing – Undercarriage Inspection at AsiaTrak
2. Green production LED application at CIS
3. Fixture System for High Force Grinder, Saint Gobain
   • Mechanical System and Control system
4. Wuhan 2009 Robotic Soccer, Wuhan Team
   • Group #1 and Group #2
5. Developing an Electro Galvanized Steel Price Index System for Jiangsu Aucksun Metal
6. A Comparative Study of the Purchasing Management Strategies at BYC and YPC
7. Contract Management for International EPC Projects at SCC
8. Comparative Study on Engineering Education in China & USA, IQP Team

The final presentation of the projects was held on September 31, 2009 at HUST. All teams from Southeast University in Nanjing and Beijing Jiaotong University came to Wuhan for the final presentation. All teams introduced their projects in a very professional way. The final presentation was hosted by Professor Liang Gao and Kevin Rong, the Co-Directors of HUST-WPI Senior Project Center in Mechanical Engineering. The 90+ (70+ last year) participants include

• Professor Xinyu Shao, Vice President of HUST
• Gary Yerby and Paul watts, Project sponsor: Caterpillar
• Alex Wang and Adiseshaiah Seshu, Project sponsor: St. Gobain
• Liying Wang, Project sponsor: CIS
• Chris Cheng and Sky Wang, Amphenol TCS, Changzhou
• Xiaoping Gao, Air Products and Chemicals
• Wuhan Heavy Duty Machine Tool Group
• Wuhan Shipbuilding Industry Company
• Professors from Wuhan University
• Professors from Wuhan University of Technology
• Professors from Wuhan University of Science and Technology
• Professors from Wuhan University of Science and Engineering
• Professors from Shanghai University
• Professors and students at WPI, HUST, SEU, and BJTU

On the same day, a mini-symposium was held to discuss the need of quality engineering graduates in industry. The following short presentations were made first,

• Alex Wang from Saint Gobain
• Gary Yerby from Caterpillar
• Chris Cheng from Amphenol TCS Changzhou
• Xiaoping Gao from Air Products Shanghai

After the presentations, a lot of discussions were made on the need and best practice of innovation and globalization in higher education.
During the project time, the WPI students visited many places in China and all of them enjoyed the experience in China. For more details, please see the MQP in China web-site.
Professor Rong and Professor Amy Zeng from Management were the major project advisors from WPI. Professor Wenjin Lou and Professor Jon Abraham were the co-advisors for the ECE and MA students.
During this time, Professor Rong visited Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Southeast University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Tsinghua University, Dalian University of Technology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai University, Donghua University, South China University of Science and Technology, Hunan University, Shandong University, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Suzhou Industrial Park Institute of Vocational Technology, and Wuxi Institute of Technology. At several universities, he gave presentations on the topics of his research, as well as Engineering Education at WPI. Professor Rong also visited the following companies besides all the project sponsoring companies,

• CAT Suzhou, Tianjin, and Beijing offices
• CIS Wuxi
• Saint Gobain Shanghai
• UTC Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhuzhou
• Amphenol TCS Changzhou and Amphenol Shenzhen
• Changchun FAW-TG Tooling Systems Engineering
• Beijing Blue Technology
• Bodycote Wuxi
• Air Products Shanghai
• Johnson Control Shanghai

Professor Amy Zeng has also visited several schools and companies, including Nypro Shenzhen. Dr. Hui Wang and Mr. Xuekun Li from our CAM Lab. involved some of the activities with Professor Rong. They met with several former CAM Lab. members, i.e., Professor Zhenjia Li at Harbin University of Science and Technology, Dr. Jinwu Kang at Tsinghua University, Dr. Caihua Xiong at HUST, Shulin Li and Jianping Yu at Zhuzhou, Hunan, Dr. Dong Lu from Nanchang, Feng Jiang and Jun Zhou at Shandong University, Dr. Xubin Chen at Wuhan, and Xi Xu at Shenzhen.
Next year, the program will be further expanded to run in two groups of students in E and A terms. The students will be from different majors (ME/MFE/IE/RBE/ECE/CEE) and working with the students from different universities of China (and Korea possibly) and on different projects of MQP and IQP. All projects will sponsored by global companies and institutes.

During the summer, Professor Rong also attended 19th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing, Middlesbrough, UK, 6th – 8th July, 2009. He presented a paper on grinding process study, authored by Xuekun and himself.

Chris Li attended the 42nd CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems: Sustainable Development of Manufacturing Systems at Grenoble, France, June 3-5, 2009. He presented one paper on “Fabrication process analysis based 3D grinding wheel modeling”

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

Bose Xiao attended Experimental Mechanics Annual Conference at Albuquerque, NM, June 1-4, 2009. He presented a paper on “Numerical Study on Calibration Coefficients for Hole-drilling Residual Stress Measurement”. He also met the professionals in the field and learned a lot

Professor Rong visited University of North Texas at Denton, TX, on Monday and Tuesday, June 1 and 2, 2009. He learned the recent development at the College of Engineering and met several key people of university operations

Professor Rong, Dr. Liang He, and Chris Li visited Precision Grinding Solutions company and Aerospace Techniques company, both in CT, on Friday, May 29, 2009. They met with Curt Reed and Mario Tardif respectively, and discussed the commonly interested projects.

Professor Rong, Dr. Gang Wang, and Bose Xiao participated the semi-annual meeting of Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at WPI on Thursday, May 28, 2009, with reception dinner and board meeting on Wednesday. They reported the progress of the project on High Pressure Hydrogen Quenching

Xuekun (Chris) Li visited the Aerospace Component Manufacturing (ACM) Show at Hartford, CT, on Tuesday, May 26, 2009. He learned a lot about local aerospace industry and discussed the technical problems with several companies

Professor Rong, Chris Li, and Leo He visited Aero Gear and Barne Aerospace companies in Windsor, CT in the morning, and Saint Gobain Worcester, MA in the afternoon on Friday, May 22, 2009. They discussed the common interested research projects and possible collaboration.

Professor Rong visited Fluxtrol company in Detroit, MI. on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. He met with Professor Valentin Nemkov, Director of Research, Robert Goldstein, Director of Engineering, and Rick Smith, Technical Coordinator. They discussed the commonly interested research projects and potential collaboration.

WPI held its 141 graduation Commencement on Saturday, May 16, 2009. Among the happy men and women, Radha walked through the graduation with Professor Rong’s accompany and celebrated with his family member from far away for his Ph. D Degree. Hua Bai and Wei Tian also walked through and celebrated their completion of MS degrees. Several BS and BS/MS awardees who went to China with Professor Rong for senior project last year and the year before also enjoyed the good weather and congratulations.

Professor Rong, Chris Li, and Liang He visited University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, and United Technology Research Center, East Hartford, CT, on Friday, May 15, 2009. They Met with Professor Bi Zhang and Dr. C. Guo, discussing the common interested projects.

Professor Rong and Bose Xiao from CAM Lab participated the Innovation Workshop on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at WPI on Campus. They learned and practiced the five principles of innovation with consideration of engineering education at WPI. The workshorp was co-organized by WPI trustee, Dr. Kurt Carlson and his colleagues from SRI.

Xuekun (Chris) Li and Waleed Ben Rashid attended 2009 AdvantEdge Users Conference at Dallas, TX in May 12-14, 2009. They presented the recent work on micro-machining modeling and simulation with applications in grinding process study.

Professor Rick Sisson and Professor Rong visited H2 Pump company at Albany, NY on Tuesday, May 12, 2009. They met with Glenn Eisman, Dave Neumann, and their colleagues at H2 Pump, Bill Bernard, Dan Goodman, and BJ Bernard of Surface Combustion to discuss commonly interested projects.

The exchange students from HUST visited Nypro company at Clinton, MA on Monday, May 11, 2009, as their last activity before returning China.

Professor Rong participated an NSF proposal review panel meeting on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at Washington, DC.

Professor Rong and Dr. Liang He visited University of Connecticut at Storrs, CT on Wednesday, May 6, 2009. They met with Professor Bi Zhang and discussed the common interested project on grinding processes.

Chinese Students Association (CSA) at WPI held its annual senior dinner on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Professor Rong was invited and attended the celebration as the faculty advisor of CSA.

Shaun Price successfully defended his MS thesis on Case based Reasoning with application to Welding Computer-aided Fixture Design, on Tuesday, May 5, 2009. He will work witha local company after graduation. Congratulations to Shaun.

The MQP in China 2009 groups did their Final presentation of PQP on Monday, May 4, 2009. This also discussed other topics in their last meeting before heading to China in June.

On Friday, May 1, 2009, the seven exchange students from HUST made their final presentation in four groups on their senior projects. They have spent seven weeks at WPI, studying on the projects with strong industrial background. In addition, they seated in a class to feel about the class room life of study at WPI, as well as the MQP presentations. The exchange students also have visited Amphenol TCS at Nashua, NH, and Saint Gobain at Worcester, MA.

Chris Schlichting, an MS student in our Manufacturing Engineering Program at WPI, gave a seminar on A Sustainable Approach to Lean Manufacturing, on Thursday, April 30, 2009. Chris has worked with Professor Rong on this subject for about one year. He proposed his own opinion on the subject and encouraged a lot of discussions.

Professor Rong visited Amphenol TCS at Nashua, NH, on Thursday, April 30, 2009. The exchange students from HUST, Simon Guo and Frank Zhi, made the final presentation of their senior project at ATCS. Their project received high recognition from the company management and engineering teams, as an example showing the capability and effectiveness of undergraduate research of real world problems in a very short time.

A delegation from the Education Ministry of China visited WPI, Worcester Technological High School, and Quinsigamond Community College in April 29 and 30, 2009. The delegation includes the government officer from Ju Liu, the deputy director of Higher Education department at the Education Ministry, Professor Jiangzhong Cha, UNOSEC Chair and Professor from Beijing Jiaotong University, Qiang Shan, President of Suzhou Industrial Park Institute of Vocational Technology, Jing Gu, Dean of Studies at Wuxi Institute of Technology, and Hong Yin and Jin Ji from Higher Education press. They met with WPI Provost John Orr, WTHS Director Peter Crafts, QCC President Gail Carberry and four vice presidents, as well as their colleagues. The purpose of the visit is to study the US professional education system with different market target. The delegation also visited our CAM Lab and hosted by Professor Rong entirely.

Professor Toshiharu KAGAWA from Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, gave a Manufacturing Engineering Seminar on Friday, April 24, 2009. His presentation is on Measurement and Control of Compressible Fluid and its Application for Factory Automation. Professor Kagawa was hosted by Professor Fofana. He also visited our CAM Lab and met with Professor Rong before the seminar.

On the senior project (MQP) presentation day, April 23, Thursday, 2009, many posters were displayed and presented by WPI senior students, including the projects advised by Professor Rong, both on campus and in China. The PicoBrew system development team and the Grinding for Surface Finish team received the Manufacturing Engineering best MQP awards while the GE Lean Manufacturing Project was chosen with cash award by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Worcester Chapter. All projects were judged by external and WPI professionals. Congratulations to them.

Although the weather did not cooperate with rain, the MQP in China 2009 group had a long time expected cook out get together on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at Campus Center, WPI. Besides enjoying the food and soda, they exchanged the information with previous-year group members and exchange students from HUST, shared the travel and visa experience in China, and discussed the projects and activities.

Professor Rong and Chris Li visited United Technologies Research Center on Friday, April 17, 2009. They met Dr. Changsheng Guo and Dan Vience to discuss potential research projects.

Dr. Liang He gave an MFE seminar on Thursday, April 9, 2009. Dr. He is from Tsinghua University, Beijing China, and jointed our CAM Lab as a research associate, after working at Capital Steel Corporation in China for a short time, earlier this year. He presented his dissertation work on Heat Treatment with Residual Heat of Casting for 319 Aluminum Alloy.

Professor Rong visited Amphenol TCS at Nashua, NH, on Friday, April 3, 2009. The senior students from HUST did a progress report presentation of their senior project on Lean Manufacturing, to the President of the company, Richard Schneider, and Eric Juntwait. WPI graduate student Matt Heslop also visited the company.

Dr. Mohsen Mahvash, Assistant Research Professor at Boston University gave a seminar to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members, on Thursday, April 2, 2009. His presentation topic was, Haptic Feedback for Surgical Teleoperaors and Training Simulators. Dr. Mahvash also visited our CAM Lab and Professor Fisher’s Robotics Research Lab.

Professor Rong visited Surface Combustion company at Maumee, OH on Monday, March 30, 2009. He discussed the on-going project of High Pressure Hydrogen Quenching with CHTE, with Max Hoetzl, Ben Bernard, and Ralph Poor, and also had a telecom discussion with the project focus group co-chairs at Air Products, Rana and Zbig.
Professor Rong also visited GM Powertrain, Fluxtrol, and Inductoheat companies in the trip, as well as met several “old” friends in the area.

Professor Rong attended the ASM Heat Treatment of Light Metal Conference at Anaheim, CA on March 25-26, 2009. He made a presentation on Cycle Time Reduction in Heat Treating Aluminum Castings.  He also met with an old friend, Dr. Jun Wan at Siemens UGS over there.

Professor Rong and his associates, Dr. Gang Wang, Bose Xiao, and Chris Li, visited Ai Products at Allentown, PA, on Monday, March 23, 2009. They met with Rana Ghosh, Zbig Zurecki, Stewart Stringer, and Steven Ruoff, and discussed the on-going CHTE project on High Pressure Hydrogen Quenching, as well as other common interested projects.

MQP in China 2009 group, together with the exchange students from HUST had the first get-together in D term on Saturday, March 31, 2009, to formally start the summer MQP preparation (PQP). The PQP procedure and communication with project partners/sponsors were discussed, while enjoying the food and drinks.

Professor Rong was invited to visit Saint Louis University at St. Louis, MO, on Friday, March 20, 2009. He met with the school administration (Dean of Engineering, Head of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department), faculty members and students, as well as visited the laboratories. Professor Rong gave a presentation on one of his research topics, Heat Treatment Process Modeling and Simulation. He also introduced the WPI education system.

Professor Rong was invited to have a reception meeting with President Binglin Gu and his colleagues from Tsinghua University Beijing, China, at Boston on Sunday, March 15, 2009. The new development in Tsinghua University was introduced and the role of Tsinghua alumni abroad may play to contribute to the university and the nation was discussed

On Friday, March 13, 2009, Professor Rong and one group of the exchange students from HUST (Simon Guo and Frank Zhi), as well as the visiting professor from University of Salford, UK (Dr. Wenbin Wang) visited Amphenol TCS at Nashua, NH, for Frank and Simon to start the senior project on Lean Manufacturing. The plant manager Mr. Eric Juntwait and his colleagues gave then a plant tour and discussed the project with them.

Professor Wenbin Wang from University of Salford, UK, gave a seminar to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty on Thursday, March 12, 2009. His presentation topic is on Complex Systems Modeling

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.

Seven exchange students from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, came to study at WPI for seven weeks in D term. They work in three groups. One group is working on a lean manufacturing project sponsored by Amphenol TCS, Nashua, NH. The other two projects are on supplier chain management and grinding process modeling where the students work with graduate students in the area. Professor Amy Zeng and Professor Rong are their advisors

Professor Mustapha Fofana gave a seminar presentation to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members on Thursday, March 5, 2009. His presentation title is, Punctuate, Impact & Nurture Computational Thinking (PIN-Computational Thinking).

Glenn Elsman, President of H2 Pump company, and his associates visited CHTE WPI on Thursday, March 4, 2009. Professor Rong participated the discussion, with Professors Apelian and Sisson, on potential collaboration on research projects in the area of heat treatment.

Professor Rong and Dave Ortendahl of WPI CDC visited LFI company in RI on Wednesday, March 4, 2009. Potential research projects in senior project (MQP) and graduate levels were discussed. They learned that several recent WPI graduates are working in the company.

Dr. Liang He gave a presentation at CAM Lab seminar on Wednesday, March 3, 2009, on his dissertation research of modeling the continuous casting/forming processes and his working experience at Capital Steel Company in China.

On Thursday, February 26, 2009, Professor Rong gave a seminar presentation to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members, on Doing Project and Innovation.

The students chapter of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at WPI had a meeting to help students in Mechanical Engineering Department in their determination of concentrations. Professor Rong introduced the Manufacturing Engineering concentration, together with several other professors in ME who introduced other concentrations of Mechanical Design, Biomedical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering.

The groups of WPI students who are going to China for MQP and IQP in summer 2009 had a get together on Thursday, February 24, 2009. There are twenty one WPI students going to China this year for their MQPs or IQPs, working with more than forty Chinese students from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Southeast University, and Beijing Jiaotong University, on eleven projects sponsored by six companies and two universities.

Professor Amy Zeng from management department of WPI gave a seminar to Manufacturing Engineering graduate students and faculty members on The Role of Basic Research/Scholarship in Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Questions and Thoughts.

Professor Rong had individual meetings with twenty five of his advisees on the advising day of Thursday, February 19, 2009 (and three on the next day), and helped them to determine their course selection for the year of 2009-2010, as well as their professional goals.

Professor Rong and Dr. Gang Wang participated the ASM/TMS Annual Conference at San Francisco, CA in February 15-18, 2009. Dr. Wang presented a paper on Multiphase Flow Model of Porosity Formation for Casting Process of Aluminum Alloy. Professor Rong had a get together with former CAM Lab members and there in the bay area. They are Dr. Yuyun (John) Zhang, Dr. Li Zhou, and Zhinyang (Kendra) Rong.

Dr. Liangzhi Fan from China joined our CAM Lab. on Monday, February 16, 2009. He graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, with BS and Ph. D degrees. Dr. Fan is a faculty member of Wuhan University of Science and Engineering, China. He will work with us for six months under a scholarship from Chinese Government.
 Dr. Liang He from China joined our CAM Lab on Thursday, February 19, 2009. He graduated with BS and Ph.D degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing China, and worked at Institute of Technical Research, Capital Iron & Steel Group, Beijing, before coming to US. Dr. He will work on manufacturing process modeling and simulation.

Professor Rong visited China in February 2-13, 2009 to prepare the MQP in China program in summer. During the short time, he visited the companies of Caterpillar Suzhou office, Saint Gobain Shanghai Center, Pratt & Whitney Shanghai Office and UTC Beijing Training Center, CIS Wuxi, REM Wuxi, Seco Tianjin, and Sany Beijing, as well as contacted Amphenol TCS Changzhou. The projects with sponsors for this year have been finalized in spite of the slow economic condition. Several companies have shown strong intention to sponsor projects next year and several companies could not sponsor projects this year, primary due to the economic down turn. Professor Rong met with the students in groups who participated the MQP in China program last year, who had applied the program for this year, and the students who are coming to WPI as exchange students in D term this year. They had a lot of introduction, discussions and comments about the program.

Professor Rong also visited Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, Southeast University Nanjing, Shanghai University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tsinghua University Beijing, and Beijing Jiaotong University. He made presentations at these schools before, introducing WPI and the MQP program and had more depth discussion with them this time on Engineering Education reform in US and in China. Professor Rong learned the following. One article based on his previous presentations was published in a Chinese journal of Engineering Education, to introduce the WPI education system. One paper by Professor Diran Apelian and Gretar Tryggvason at WPI was translated and published in a separate magazine. A book published by Professor Cha and his colleague at Beijing Jiaotong University, who visited us last year, included a case of WPI on the best practice of Engineering Education, together with Waterloo Canada, MIT, and T7 Group University System in Belgium.

Dr. Hui Wang joined Professor Rong in several activities in China during his vacation time. He came back WPI on the same day as Professor Rong.

Professor Rong visited Amphenol TCS, Nashua NH, to discuss the sponsorship of MQP in China program. This is the third year for Amphenol TCS to sponsor the projects for exchange students from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in China.

Mr. Bowang (Bose) Xiao gave a seminar to MFE graduate students and faculty members on Thursday, January 29, 2009.  He presented his research work on, “Air Quenching Of Aluminum Alloy Castings, Part III—Residual Stress Measurement”. This is part of his dissertation research.

Mr. Feng Liu defended his MS thesis on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. His thesis title is, Optimized Design of Gating/riser System in Casting Based on CAD and Simulation Technology”. Feng is working at Solidworks now. Congratulations to him.

Professor Rong and Xuekun (Chris) Li visited Saint Gobain Worcester on Thursday, January 15, 2009. Chris presented his research on Grinding Wheel Modeling with a lot discussions with Saint Gobain colleagues afterwards.

The archive of news, 2008.

The archive of news, 2007.

The archive of news, 2006.

The archive of news, 2005.

The archive of news before 2004.