This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports fundamental research and education on mechanical micromachining of engineering materials. Mechanical micromachining refers to the application of milling, drilling, turning, and grinding at the micro scale. The research objective of this CAREER plan is to understand and model the effects of material grains (crystals) on mechanical micromachining processes. The size of material crystals for most engineering materials is comparable to the characteristic scale of mechanical micromachining. Therefore, prediction of the process performance requires capturing the crystallographic effects. The specific research approach includes a blend of experimental and theoretical methods to develop fundamental models for mechanical micromachining processes. The educational objectives of this CAREER plan are to train the next generation of manufacturing engineers, to bring diversity into manufacturing research and education, and to attract K-12 students to manufacturing engineering. The specific approaches involve modernizing the mechanical engineering curricula to include recent advances in micro and nano manufacturing by developing new courses and involving undergraduates in research; collaborating with minority institutions and hiring students from underrepresented groups; and partnering with Pittsburgh city schools to reach K-12 students.
If successful, the benefits of this work will be cost-effective manufacturing of high quality, high precision micro parts and miniature devices that will be utilized in medical, biomedical, aerospace, military, national defense, electronics, and consumer products industries. The research results will also enable bringing nanotechnology products to life by bridging the gap between the nano scale and the human scale through comprehensive capability of micro-scale manufacturing. The rapid impact of research to society will be realized by collaborating with industrial companies and government institutions. Since micro-manufacturing is seen as one of the most important areas for the future of manufacturing, this research and educational endeavor will enable retaining and advancing the competitiveness of the United States in manufacturing.
