Archive of news before 2004

Radhakrishnan Purushothaman is coming back after working for almost a year at India. From January 2005, he will be a Ph.D student in Manufacturing Engineering Program and an active member of our CAM-Lab. Radha graduated from WPI with an M.S in Manufacturing Engineering two years ago and worked at our CAM-Lab. for another year as a research associate. He came to Worcester earlier on December 21 and settled down quickly. He met many old friends. Everyone loves him and welcomes his back.

Amarjit gave a presentation at the CAM-Lab. Seminar, on Progress of CHT-q/t Research, on Monday, December 20, 2004.

Jayesh gave a presentation at the CAM-Lab. Seminar, on Research of Tempering Processes, on Monday, December 20, 2004.

Alfred gave presentation at the CAM-Lab. Seminar, on An Analysis on the Effect of 3D Insert Groove Design on Chip Breaking Chart, on Tuesday, December 21, 2004.

Nick and Dave gave presentation at the CAM-Lab. Seminar, on Quality Control Planning, on Tuesday, December 21, 2004.

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.

Po Tse gave a CAM-Lab. Seminar on Monday, December 13, 2004. His presentation is on Challenges in Transducer Cable Assembly for Ultrasound Medical Imaging Systems.

Dr. Hui Song from the CAM-Lab. at WPI gave an MFE seminar on Thursday, December 9, 2004. His presentation is on Monte-Carlo Simulation-based Tolerance Analysis for Production Planning.

A Manufacturing Engineering Seminar is jointed sponsored by the Materials Science and Engineering Program. The speaker is Dr. Cosme Furlong From Mechanical Engineering of WPI on Multiscale analysis and testing of MEMS and NEMS. The seminar was held on Thursday, December 2, 2004. For more details, please see, http://www.me.wpi.edu/MTE/News/

A special guest presentation and discussion of Manufacturing Engineering Seminar was held the same day, Thursday, December 2, 2004. The speaker is Ralph Reddick from EDS. He talked on CAD/CAM Applications in Tolerance Analysis and Production Planning.

Iain gave a seminar at Cam-Lab. on Adaptability based Retrieval in CAFixD, on Wednesday, December 1, 2004.

The traditional CAM-Lab. Thanksgiving party this year was held in the evening of Saturday, November 27, 2004, at Dr. Rong's House. Majority of current CAM-Lab. members enjoyed chess, pin-pong, piano, karaoke, etc. besides traditional turkey and other food.

WPI Manufacturing Engineering and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Worcester Chapter #25 held a Student Awards Night on Thursday, November 18, 2004 at WPI. Three WPI undergraduate students major in Manufacturing Engineering received the SME Outstanding Student Awards. They are Michael Caputo'05, Ryan St. Gelais'06, and Steven Tufo'06. Jack Healy, Director of the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership, gave a feature speech on "Manufacturing Industry: Past, Present, and Future".

A Manufacturing Engineering Seminar is jointed sponsored by the Materials Science and Engineering Program. The speaker was Professor Diran Apelian from WPI on Material Engineering Challenges for the Society of "Tomorrow": Housing, Transportation, Health, and Food Delivery Need. The seminar was held on Thursday, November 18, 2004. For more details, please see, http://www.me.wpi.edu/MTE/News

Darren gave a seminar at CAM-Lab. on Review on Computer-aided Fixture Design, on Wednesday, November 17, 2004.

Po Tse and Ted Kang passed their Ph. D qualifying exam recently and become Ph. D candidates. Congratulations to them.

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.

Alfred gave a seminar on A Study on 3D Groove Parameters influencing to the Chip Breaking Chart, on Wednesday, November 10, 2004.

On Sunday, November 7, 2004, during the WPI Admission open house, a presentation and Lab. tours were conducted to introduce WPI's Manufacturing Engineering Program to high school students and their parents. Dr. Rong, Iain Boyle, Matt Munaon, and Darren Qiu contributed to these activities.

Dr. Rong participated the semiannual meeting of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at Columbus, OH on November 3 and 4. He reported the project progress on Computerized Heat Treatment Planning System for Quenching and Tempering (CHT-q/t) as well as the status of applications of CHT-bf and CHT-cf developed in previous projects and the progress of the DOE project. The future work plan was discussed at the focus group meeting. Dr. Rong also met with former CAM-Lab member Cheng Bai and visited his company, IQ, at Columbus.

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.

Yi gave a seminar on Contact Stiffness Identification on Wednesday, October 27, 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.

Yao gave a seminar on Progress on Numerical Modeling and Simulation of Aluminum Casting on Wednesday, October 20, 2004.

After working with us for more than three years, Dr. Guowei Zhang has taken a permanent position as a manufacturing engineer at Continental Teves, at Culpeper, VA. Congratulate him and wish him a good future.

After working with us for more than three years, Dr. Xiangli Han has taken a permanent position as a senior software engineer at Surfware at Westlake Village, CA. Congratulate him and wish him a good future.

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

Jayesh and Amarjit gave a seminar on "Heat Treatment Simulation with SYSWELD", on Wednesday, October 13, 2004.

On Saturday, October 9, 2004, during WPI home coming event, the Haas Technical Center and Robotics Lab were setup up for demonstrations to WPI alumni. On Sunday, October 10, 2004, during the WPI Admission open house, presentations and Lab. tours were conducted to introduce WPI's Manufacturing Engineering Program to high school students and their parents. Dr. Rong, Iain Boyle, Matt Munaon, and Darren Qiu contributed to these activities.

Professor Jianyu Liang, the newest professor in our department, gave a seminar on Thursday, October 7, 2004. She talked on Lateral Superlattices for Nanometric Electro-Magnetic-Optic Applications. The seminar was jointly sponsored by Manufacturing Engineering Program and Materials Science and Engineering Program.

Besnik Cumani gave a CAM-Lab. seminar on Wednesday, October 6, 2004. His presentation was on Statistics Analysis of QCI

Dr. Xun Xu from University of Auckland, New Zealand visited our CAM-Lab. from September 28 to October 2, 2004. He gave a guest lecture, on STEP-NC Approach of Feature based Manufacturing, to MFE 530/ME 544 class on Tuesday, September 28 and a seminar to our Manufacturing Program on Manufacturing Research at Auckland University, New Zealand. During his visit, Dr. Xu had several discussions with Professor Rong, Dr. Song, David, and Darren for exchanging technical information and opinions. Dr. Xu is the leading faculty member of Manufacturing at Auckland University and currently is a guest research at National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST). Dr. Xu visited us around the same time last year and gave a CAM-Lab seminar as well as had a discussion meeting with our fellow researchers.

A delegation of eleven members from Huazhong University of Science and technology (HUST), headed by Professor Peigen Li, the Vice President for Academic Affair, visited WPI from September 27 to 29, 2004. The purposes of the visit are to establish an official relationships between WPI and HUST for academic and educational collaboration and to study WPI project-based engineering education and broad ME curriculum for enhancing the on-going ME related curriculum renovation. Professor Durgin, Vice president for Research and Associate Provost of WPI and Professor Li signed the Memorandum of Agreement between WPI and HUST and the Addendum I: Exchange Program for Undergraduate Students. Dr. Jun Han, Education Consul from The Consulate General of PRC in New York participated the signing of the General Agreement.

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.

Ted gave the second CAM-Lab. seminar of the year on Wednesday, September 22, 2004. His presentation was on Internet-based Robotic Monitoring and Control, a Summer Report.

Professor Rong gave a seminar to both Manufacturing Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering Programs on Thursday, September 16, 2004. The topic was Numerical Modeling and Simulation of Heat Treatment Processes. .

Professor Rong participated in the Board Meeting of Manufacturing Assistance Center (MAC) in the evening of Tuesday, September 14, 2004. MAC is a state funded non-profit organization to promote the growth of manufacturing in central Massachusetts. Professor Rong is a member of the board.

CAM-Lab participated and had a booth at the Emerge Technology Center of the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), the largest one in the world held in Chicago, IL, every the other year. Professor Rong, David and Darren, as well as Dr. Han and Dr. Zhang, were there to show have three techniques and systems displayed and attracted many people with nice discussions. The three techniques and systems are, Parametric Engineering for Manufacturing Systems (PEMS), Computer-aided Fixture Design and Verification, and Computerized Heat Treatment Planning. They also saw a lot of new development in machine tool technology and tooling technology. Professor Rong had meetings with industry leaders and academic professionals.

Jayesh Deshpande and Benick Cumani joined our CAM-Lab this year. Jayesh is in his first semester of MS study at WPI and he is from India. Nick is a part time MS student in Manufacturing Engineering Program. He is working with Intel Company in a Massachusetts facility. This is his last year of study.

Alfred gave the first CAM-Lab. seminar in the year on Friday, September 3, 2004. His presentation is on Study on Chip Radius in Up-curl Dominated 3-D Chip Formation with 3-D Insert Groove.

Dr. Kang, Amarjit and Yao visited American Heat Treating Company on Tuesday, August 31, 2004. Particularly, the modeling of rotary furnaces was discussed. They were glad to see the effective use of CHT-bf and CHT-cf, the two packages developed by our research team, in the planning of daily production.

Professor Rong, Dr. Kang, Amarjit and Yao visited Can-Eng Furnaces, a major manufacturer of continuous furnaces, at Niagara Fall, OR, Canada, on Friday, August 27, 2004. They toured the manufacturing facility and research Lab., and discussed many technical issues of furnace modeling.

Professor Rong has been elected to the ASME grade of Fellow on Tuesday, August 24, 2004. The Fellow is a distinction grade of the professional society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Professor Rong was recognized by his life long engineering achievements, especially in the area of academic research. Congratulations.

Yihong came back from his summer intern with Caterpillar at Peoria, IL and gave a seminar on his work at CAT on August 18, 2004. He had a very happy summer there, working on the virtual manufacturing area and learned a lot of practice knowledge. The group he worked with satisfied his work and may continue in the future.

A team from CAM-Lab of WPI visited several companies for research collaboration during the week of August 8-13. Dr. Rong and Dr. Han gave a presentation/demonstration on production planning to the manufacturing group at Caterpillar research center on Monday, August 9. Dr. Kang, Amarjit, and Yao visited the heat treatment research group at Caterpillar on Monday, where they helped the summer intern student on modeling Caterpillar furnaces with CHT-bf and discussed technical problems. They are toured the production facilities of heat treatment at East Peoria. From Tuesday, August 10, Dr. Kang, Yao, and Amarjit visited Ipsen at Rockford, IL, AlFe at DeFiance, OH, Surface Combustion at Maumee, OH, Timken, Canton, and AlFe at Wadsworth, OH. They discussed the furnace modeling with furnace manufacturing experts, heat treatment processes with production engineers, and the research plan with our industrial focus group members. It was a very productive trip.

Mr. Weishen (Darren) Qiu, a graduate from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China, joined us as a Ph. D student this year. Welcome Darren. He will work in the area of Computer-aided Fixture Design.

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 Company, 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.

Professor Rong participated in the Japan-US Symposium of Flexible Automation at Denver, CO, July 19-20. He presented a paper, Automated Setup Planning, in the conference. The paper was nominated by reviewers as a finalist of the best paper award.

Effective on July 1, 2004, the Manufacturing and Materials Engineering Program is replacing the original Manufacturing Engineering Program and the Materials Science and Engineering Program. Professor Richard D. Sisson, Jr. is the program director and Professor Yiming (Kevin) Rong is the associate program director.

Professor Rong visited China from June 1 to June 30. He visited Beijing, Dalian, Harbin, Shanghai, Xi'an, Hangzhou, and Wuhan.

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.

The WPI spring commencement was held on Saturday, May 22. Two members of CAM-Lab., Suqin Yao and Weiwei Wang, graduated with Ph. D in Manufacturing Engineering and M.S. in Computer Science, respectively. Congratulations to them. Suqin's family, her parents and husband, came to join the celebration. Weiwei's parents will come in the end of June. It is so good to see family reunion. Besides, Andy Li, an undergraduate work study in our Lab., graduated with B. S. in EE. Congratulations to him.

Professor Rong, together with Dr. Shaw Feng from NIST, visited GM research Center at Warren, MI on Monday, May 17. Dr. Feng and Professor Rong gave seminars on "Multiple Agent-enabled Systems Coalition for Integrated Manufacturing Processes and Supplier-chain Management" and Computer-aided Production Planning and Fixture design, respecitively.

On May 14, Professor Rong visited GM plant at Flint, MI for the heat treatment process modeling and simulation project. In the afternoon, Professor Rong visited Kettering University and met Professor Lacy King and her assistants, as well as Ted Kang from our Lab., who is doing summer study at Kettering. The summer plan for the project of monitoring and control of robot operation was discussed.

On May 15, Professor Rong visited Fairlane Products at Fraser, MI to discuss potential collaboration on fixturing projects.

Yihong (David) Yang will work with the Technical Research Center of Caterpillar Company at Peoria, IL for 12 weeks, as a summer intern students. Dr. Han will work with Delphi Corporation at Dayton OH, for several months, conducting PEMS application projects in production environment. Yuefeng (Ted) Kang will work at Kettering University at Flint, MI for the collaborative project on internet-based monitoring and control of manufacturing equipment.

The Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) held its spring meeting on May 13. Professor Rong and his research group reported the project on CHT-cf development on computerized heat treatment planning system for continuous furnace. A new project, Expanding CHT-bf and CHT-cf for Quenching and Tempering was approved by the CHTE board and discussed in the focus group meeting. The new project is planned for two years.

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.

Dr. Weifang Hu left us for Vistagy at Waltham, MA. We respect his choice and wish him a good future.

Victor Gonzalez successfully passed the oral part of his qualifying exam and became a Ph. D candidate in Manufacturing Engineering. His research topic is on Lean Manufacturing Application. Congratulations to Victor.

Professor Reinhold Ludwig from ECE department and Professor Rong visited Visteon at Mexico on April 15 for a preliminary study on an induction hardening project.

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 Rong visited Kettering University on March 8 for the collaborative project on manufacturing education funded by NSF. He participated in SAE annual conference at Detroit, MI on March 9 and 10, to present a paper on Manufacturing Planning for Mass Customization.

Dr. Jinwu Kang came fromTsinghua University, Beijing to work with us for a month from March 2 to April 2. He is working on the project of modeling and simulation of heat treatment processes funded by DOE and CHTE, WPI.

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.

Dr. Rong had another week-long trip to mid-west. He visited ESI at Bloomfield Hill, MI in the afternoon of Feb. 2 to introduce CHT-bf and CHT-cf, and to learn about SysWeld. On Feb. 3, Dr. Rong visited GM Powertrain Operations at Ypsilanti, MI to see the heat treatment facility and discuss the application of CHT-bf and CHT-cf. On Feb. 4, He participate the industrial focus group meeting for the DOE project on AL casting heat treating. On Feb. 5, Dr. Rong visited NRC and University of Western Ontario, both in London, ON, Canada, together with Professor Li and Professor Zheng from Harbin University of Science and Technology. They also met the former CAM-Lab member, Corey Li who is working with GM and at London that time for a GM-Canada project. On Feb. 6, Dr. Rong as well as Professor Li and Professor Zheng visited McMaster University at Hamilton, ON, Canada. Dr. Rong gave a seminar on Computer-aided Production Planning and Fixture Design to the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI).

Dr. Rong, Dr. Hu, and Dr. Han visited Vistagy at Waltham, MA. They met President and CEO, Steven Luby and Dr. Kang, former CAM-Lab member. The research and development in each side was introduced.

Radhakrishnan Purushothaman is leaving for India and Victor Hugo Gonzalez joined the CAM-Lab as a Ph. D student in the spring semester, 2004.

This year we have two new graduate students joining us at CAM-Lab. They are Mr. Yao Zhou from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and Amarjit kumar Singh from National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology (NIFFT), Ranchi, India. They will mainly work on the Heat Treatment Modeling and Simulation projects.

Dr. Rong, Dr. W. Hu, and Radha Purushothaman visited Caterpillar at Peoria, IL in Jan. 12-13 and John Deere at Moline, IL and Waterloo, IA in Jan. 14-15.

Dr. Rong attended the 2004 NSF Design, Service and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference at Dallas, TX in Jan. 5-8, 2004.

Dr. Rong visited China from December 19, 2003 to January 1, 2004. He visited Tsinghua University, BUAA, CAXA, and NSF-China in Beijing, HIT and HUST in Harbin, and DIT in Dalian.

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.

Dr. Rong participated the Industrial Advisory Committee meeting for an NSF project on Vertical and Horizontal Integration of Manufacturing Engineering Curriculum, as an academic partner at Kettering University at Flint, MI on December 15. Professor Lucy King is the Principal Investigator (PI). The meeting reviewed the progress of the NSF project with faculty presentation, student project demonstrations, Lab. tours, and a lot of discussions on the direction of the project and industrial participation in the project. The meeting is very successful with 8 people from 6 companies plus Kettering administrators (President, VPs, and Director of Research Administration) and professors and students.

Yihong (David) Yang passed his Ph.D qualifying exam with condition. Dr. David W. Yen from Delphi Corporation and Professor Samuel H. Huang from University of Cincinnati came to serve as advisory committee members. Congratulations to David.

Suqin Yao successfully defended her dissertation on Computer-aided Manufacturing Planning for Mass Customization of Non-rotational Parts. Dr. David W. Yen from Delphi Corporation and Professor Samuel H. Huang fromUniversity of Cincinnati came to the defense as advisory commettee members. Congratulations to Suqin.

Dr. Rong attended ASME IMECE 2004 in Washington, DC and presented two papers. During this time, he also visited Temple University at Philadelphia, PA, NIST at Gaithersburg, MD, and AMT at McLean, VA.

Dr. Rong attended the semi-annual meting of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE), WPI in Cincinnati, OH

Dr. Rong was invited to attend a workshop on Knowledge Management for Design and Manufacturing, organized by Integrated Manufacturing Technology Initiative (IMTI) at Nashville, TN on October 6-8.

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.

On September 19, Yi (Glory) Zheng has successfully passed the oral part of the Ph.D qualifying exam and the dissertation proposal defense. She has worked in our CAM-Lab. for two years and is working fixture stiffness study where the non-linear contact problem is the major barrier to overcome.

Dr. Rong and Radha participated in the ASM Heat Treat 2003 Conference and Exposition at Indianapolis, IN on September 15-18. They made three presentations to introduce the newly developed Computerized Heat Treatment Planning System for Batch Furnace (CHT-bf) and Continuous Furnace (CHT-cf). The system was demonstrated and a nice brochure was distributed.

Dr. Hui Song gave a seminar to Manufacturing Engineering faculty and graduate students on Thursday, September 11. The title of the seminar was Thermal Modeling for Finish Hard Turning.

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. Rong participated 2003 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences at Chicago, IL, on September 2-4, and presented a paper on Feature based Computer-aided Manufacturing Planning for Mass Customization of Non-rotational Parts at the Computers and Information in Engineering Conference.

A party was held for the new academic year on August 29. We celebrated the successful year of hard working and enjoyed the State Park at New Port, RI. It is particularly to welcome Weifang's coming back (also his family, especially his daughter) and wish Dr. Kang a nice trip back to Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, as well as a celebration of the graduation of Rohit.

On August 26, Rohit Vaidya successfully defended his thesis on Experimental Testing of a Computer-aided Heat Treatment planning System. He is working with American Heat Treating Company in CT. Congratulations to Rohit.

Dr. Weifang (Mike) Hu re-joined our CAM-Lab. again as a Research Assistant Professor from August 15, 2003.

Dr. Rong participated Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems Conference at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI on Thursday, August 21, and presented a paper on Computer-aided Reconfigurable Fixture Design.

Professor Z-J Pei from Kansas State University visited our CAM-Lab. on Thursday, August 7.

On August 7, Iain Boyle successfully defended his dissertation proposal and answered questions on fundamental manufacturing. He became a Ph. D candidate since then. Iain has worked in our CAM-Lab. for tow years and his dissertation topic is on Case-based Reasoning (CBR) with Application in Fixture Design. Congratulations to Iain.

Cheng Bai has accepted an invitation of working with IQ-Metrology Company at Columbus, OH, as a software engineer.

On Monday, July 28, Dr. Jinwu Kang gave a seminar on Personal Understandings about Research Work.
On Tuesday, July 29, Alfred Avanessian gave a seminar on Machining Chip Formation and Control.
On Thursday, July 31, Dr. Hui Song gave a seminar on Software Development.

more...

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.

Dr. Jinwu Kang came back from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, to work with us for two months. He is working on a collaborative research project of Modeling and Simulation of Heat Treatment Processes, funded by CHTE, WPI.

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

Dr. Hui Song joined our CAM-Lab. in June 2003. Dr. Song got his B.S in Mechanical Engineering in 1995 and M.S. in Materials Science in 1998, both from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His Ph. D in Mechanical Engineering was awarded by the University of Alabama in 2003. His research has focused on Manufacturing Process Modeling and Simulation.

Dr. Rong visited Ford Research Lab. at Dearborn, MI on Monday, June 16; Ford Assembly Line at Wixom, MI and Wayne State University on Tuesday, June 17; then National Research Council of Canada at London, ON, on Wednesday, June 18; and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on Thursday, June 19.

Mike Seabrook, ME sophomore, joined our CAM-Lab. as a work study student. He is helping the development of fixture design software tools and manufacturing planning systems.

Andy Li, junior of EE, has received a summer research fellowship to work in our CAM-Lab. He has worked with us as a work study student for more than two years. Andy will work on a project of cutter tool selection in manufacturing planning. Congratulations to Andy.

The Spring Meeting of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) was held at WPI, May 28-29, 2003. Dr Rong, Radha Purushothaman, and Weiwei Wang presented their research work on modeling and simulation of heat treatment processes in loaded furnace for both batch furnaces and continuous furnaces. Professor Rick Sisson presented the DOE project on a similar topic. Dr. Jinwu Kang was not able to participate the meeting. For details, see

Dr. Rong has made a two-week long trip from May 11 to 23. He visited several companies and universities, gave three presentations, and participated the North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC), as well as met with former CAM-Lab. members and friends.

Yefeng (Jeff) Sun graduated with an M.S. in Manufacturing Engineering in May 2003. Congratulations to him.

Three senior projects (MQP) have been finished this academic year. Tom Mitchel, Joe Natali, and Jeff Wessels from GE Aircraft Engines visited WPI to review the projects on April 28, 2003.

In March 29-April 1, Dr. Rong went to Nancy (stopped by Paris), France for attending the 2nd International Conference on Thermal Process Modeling and Computer Simulation. He presented two papers in the conference...

Chunyong Fei has passed the ME qualifying exam and become a Ph.D candidate. Congratulations.

On January 28, 2003, a user CAHTPS training program was held at WPI. People from GM Powertrain, IPSEN, Bodycote, and American Heat Treating companies participated in the training program. CAHTPS is a program for batch furnace modeling and simulation. When part load and thermal schedule are specified, the temperature profile of parts in furnace can be evaluated. Therefore, the part load as well as the thermal schedule can be well controlled and optimized. CAHTPS was developed under the support of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at WPI.

Rohit Vaidya has got an offer of internship for one year from American Heat Treating Company at Monroe, CT. The company intends to hire him when he graduates...

Professor Zhixiong Zhou, Dean of Mechanical Engineering School from Hunan University, China, and his wife visited our CAM-Lab. on January 20, 2003. Professor Zhou is currently with University of Connecticut.

Radhakrishnan (Radha) Purushothaman has successfully defended his M.S. thesis, "Sensor based Fixture Design and Verification", on January 17, 2003.

The CAM-Lab. web-site has a new face now, thanks to Mr. Stephen Lei, former team member of our Lab. The interface has been totally re-designed, the content has been re-organized, and new materials have been added.

On December 28, 2002, we had an end-year party at Dr. Rong's house. Besides most of the CAM-Lab. team members and their families, several alumnus and their families came to join us. They are Dr. Quansheng Lu, Dr. Yuezhuang Kang, Dr. Li Zhou, and Mr. Stephen Lei. Professor Zhenyuan Jia from Dalian University of Technology came to visit us and also participated the party.

In the academic year of 2002-2003, Dr. Rong is coordinating the manufacturing engineering seminar series. The seminars are scheduled in the afternoon of every Thursday.

The CAM-Lab. offices have been moved to the west wing of the third floor in Washburn Shop. Now all of the research group members are in the same area.