Department of Mechanical Engineering Fall Seminar Series: Jochen Mueller

Description

Jochen Mueller, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, will give a talk titled "Utilizing Digital Fabrication to Drive Innovation in (Multi-)Functional Materials" for the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The first 50 people can view the talk in-person; otherwise, please register to view the talk over Zoom (Passcode 156138). All in-person events at Johns Hopkins must follow university COVID-19 policies. See current guidelines online.

Abstract:

Human creativity paired with modern, computational tools can derive the most captivating designs. The physical realization, however, remains a challenge, as both academia and industry continue to strive for a process that is economical, fast, repeatable, and that enables unlimited design freedom. Digital Fabrication and, in particular, Additive Manufacturing (AM) has emerged as a potent alternative to conventional processes and is considered by many the holy grail. Despite the hype, however, AM still lacks behind the expectations and is often incapable of handling the required complexity, which significantly limits progress in dependent research fields.

In the seminar talk, I will address both the digital design of novel materials and structures with outstanding properties, and the fabrication thereof. I will show how the mutual exclusivity between strength and toughness can be overcome and how (multi-)functionality, such as actuation and sensing, can be integrated on a materials level. This requires AM-based solutions specifically tailored to such complex designs that cannot be fabricated in any other way. I will further address the general limitations of AM and show ways on how they can be overcome.