Design-Led Innovation in Additive Manufacturing: From Intelligence to Manufacturability and Monitoring

Abstract: 

Additive manufacturing (AM) presents transformative opportunities for engineering design enabling novel geometries, integrated functionality, and distributed production. However, to fully realize its potential, AM adoption must be guided by rigorous and intelligent design strategies.

In this seminar, Prof. Yaoyao Fiona Zhao presents a cohesive research program that addresses the full design-to-deployment pipeline for AM systems. Organized around the core questions of what to redesign, how to redesign, whether it can be manufactured or monitored, and what intelligent systems can be developed to support this process, the program integrates design theories and frameworks with data-enabled decision support.

The talk will highlight contributions in Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), including part consolidation theory, lattice structure modeling and optimization, and early-stage sustainability evaluation. It will also showcase recent advances in machine learning for AM, particularly in real-time process monitoring, defect prediction, and data-driven metamaterial generation. While grounded in design research, the program integrates computational tools—such as numerical simulations and surrogate models—when appropriate to support manufacturability and performance analysis.

The seminar concludes with a discussion of the future of intelligent and explainable AM design systems, and the implications of this research program for scalable, sustainable, and cross-disciplinary innovation in advanced manufacturing.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Yaoyao Fiona Zhao is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University, where she holds the titles of William Dawson Scholar and Ram Panda Faculty Scholar in Sustainable Engineering & Design. She leads the Additive Design and Manufacturing Laboratory (ADML), recognized as a leading research group in additive manufacturing and sustainable design and manufacturing.

Her research spans the intersection of design innovation, advanced simulation, and AI-driven manufacturing, with contributions in areas such as design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), multifunctional and bio-inspired design, numerical modeling of AM processes, manufacturing informatics, and the application of machine learning to intelligent, sustainable, and adaptive manufacturing systems.

Dr. Zhao serves as an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering (JCISE) and is a member of the editorial board of Virtual and Physical Prototyping. She has received multiple Best Paper and Outstanding Paper Awards from leading journals and international conferences. Her other major honors include the NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement Award (2018) and the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design Associate Editor Award in 2019, 2020, and 2024—recognizing her sustained contributions to the field.