MAE Seminar: Additive Manufacturing Enabled Excellence in Research, Education, and Economic Development

Details

Additive Manufacturing Enabled Excellence in Research, Education, and Economic Development

Tuesday, January 31, 2023, at 12:50 pm
Location: In-Person MAE-A, Room 303

Ryan Wicker, Ph.D., P.E.
Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh Murchison Chair I Professor and Director
W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation
University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract
The Keck Center for 3D Innovation, originally founded in 2000 and recently celebrated a groundbreaking on a new $80M building (shared with the Aerospace Center) at The University of Texas at El Paso, represents a world-class advanced manufacturing research facility that focuses on the use and development of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for fabricating 3D objects that are plastic, metal, ceramic, of bio-compatible materials, composite materials, or that contain electronics. The Keck Center has always promoted student engagement, professional development, and success through a commitment to strategic research excellence, providing its student participants with unparalleled educational opportunities. As an example, advanced research in Laser Powder Bed Fusion AM of metals requires expertise across many disciplines, requiring advanced knowledge in experimental fluid mechanics, non-contact temperature measurements, microsecond level control, materials and metallurgy, data science and management, and more. As the criticality of components produced via these technologies continues to increase, understanding the key elements of the process and their interactions that impact ultimate part performance is required to reduce processing variability and improve the repeatability and reproducibility of manufactured components. With student success, research excellence, and trust but verified experimentation mindsets, the Keck Center produces next-generation AM thinkers and doers with an approach rooted in fundamentals and process transparency. Several examples of the breadth and depth of research enabled via AM will be provided. In addition to research and education, the Keck Center, through UTEP’s outstanding students, is driving a new economy in the El Paso region enabled through AM, with its most recent success being recognized as one of 21 regions (out of 529 initial applications) awarded the Economic Development Administration’s American Rescue Plan’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge.

Biography
Ryan Wicker, Ph.D., P.E., is the endowed Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh Murchison Chair I professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), director and founder of the UTEP W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation (Keck Center) and America Makes Satellite Center, and Editor-in-Chief and founding editor of Additive Manufacturing, an Elsevier journal. Ryan received degrees in mechanical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin (B.S., 1987) and Stanford University (M.S., 1991, and Ph.D., 1995), worked at General Dynamics Fort Worth Division (1987-1989), and has spent his entire academic career at UTEP (1994-present) in his hometown of El Paso. Ryan has co-founded three university spin-out companies, holds 29 U.S. patents and nine foreign patents, published hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, and has employed more than 500 student researchers in UTEP’s Keck Center with many of them becoming leaders in the additive manufacturing industry.

MAE Faculty Host: Yong Huang