UH professor’s expertise in 3D printing gets global spotlight

person standing at a podium with a presentation in the background — UH Mānoa College or university of Engineering Assistant Professor Tyler Ray

A College of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Engineering faculty member presented his hottest investigation in emerging sides of 3D printing in front of a team of intercontinental specialists as aspect of the Nationwide Academy of Engineering’s The Grainger Basis Frontiers of Engineering application. Assistant Professor Tyler Ray grew to become the initial researcher from Hawaiʻi to take part in the program’s 28-yr history.

Sixty extremely attained early-occupation engineers from corporations, universities, and government labs in the U.S. and China satisfied July 18–20 to examine primary-edge research and technological function throughout a vary of engineering fields as aspect of the China-The united states Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Chosen by the United States Nationwide Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, individuals are challenged to assume about developments and troubles at the forefront of parts unique from their own to foster collaboration, share new methods and techniques throughout fields, and facilitate international cooperation and understanding amid the upcoming era of engineering leaders.

Contributors in the U.S. collected at the Beckman Center of the Nationwide Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, California, and contributors in China achieved at the Chinese Academy of Engineering Headquarters in Beijing. Each and every team achieved for actions at their host institution and then engaged practically in bilateral conversations with their counterparts throughout the Pacific.

Between the subjects talked over integrated the newest developments of slicing-edge engineering technological innovation in the subsequent locations:

Wearable electronics and human overall health
Additive producing and over and above
H2o sustainability
Food items safety in the context of major info and genomics

Ray’s presentation, a person of the 8 from the U.S. delegation, was showcased in the “Additive Producing and Beyond” session. Additive production techniques (3D printing) are speedily evolving to develop close-use products at industrial scales with profound implications for the potential of production. Ray presented a roadmap for harnessing rising additive manufacturing methods to print purposeful resources with new kinds of homes, together with electrical, optical and thermal. These materials could be useful for apps spanning from power storage, this sort of as ultra-little, powerful batteries, to foods, for instance in 3D-printed plant-based mostly steaks.

“As engineers, we seek out solutions to some of the most hard complications struggling with our world-wide, interconnected modern society. This was an extraordinary possibility to examine the difficulties and possibilities in just the additive producing subject with a varied viewers of some of the brightest engineering minds in China and the U.S.,” Ray explained.

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Ray was a 2022 receiver of the UH Mānoa Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Investigate and Inventive Do the job. The award recognizes up to two tenured/tenure-track faculty mentors each individual academic 12 months who have demonstrated committed and sustained excellence in college mentoring of undergraduate college students in their analysis and resourceful function endeavors.

—By Marc Arakaki