Advanced manufacturing

Bin Li  | Dr. Li is performing computation-directed design and processing of lightweight materials for automotive and aerospace applications.

Mano Misra | Dr. Misra is using solid-state friction stir process for joining dissimilar materials and for fabricating novel, functionally graded materials. He is also using solid-state cold spray to fabricate high-density, functional coatings.

Yufeng Zheng | Dr. Zheng is conducting multi-scaled characterization of metals produced by additive manufacturing using advanced electron microscopy to explore the next generation high-performance lightweight alloys for aerospace and biomedical applications.

Kostas Alexis | Dr. Alexis leads the Autonomous Robots Lab and emphasizes on research towards resilient robotic autonomy. His research contributions are in the fields of control systems, path planning, and simultaneous localization and mapping, alongside unmanned aircraft development especially for long-endurance missions.

David Feil-Seifer | Dr. Feil-Seifer is an associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering. His research in advanced manufacturing includes

1. Investigations into how human-robot interaction can be best structured for everyday workplace interaction
2. Distributed cognitive architectures for enabling multi-human multi-robot teams to complete complex tasks
3. Curriculum development for robotics education that occurs pre-graduate school

Hung La  | Dr. La is an expert in robotics and control systems. He has authored/co-authored over 100 papers in major journals and international conferences. Several of his papers have won best conference paper awards and best paper finalist. He has managed over $2.5 million of federally funded projects (NSF, NASA, DOT) as the role of PI and Co-PI. He founded and is directing the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab

Monica Nicolescu | Dr. Nicolescu is the director of the University's Robotics Research Lab. She conducts research in the areas of human-robot interaction, robot control, learning, and multi-robot systems. Dr. Nicolescu’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy and Nevada Nanotech Systems. In 2006 she was a recipient of the NSF Early Career Development Award (CAREER) Award for her work on robot learning by demonstration.

Alireza Tavakkoli  | Dr. Tavakkoli is an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. His research interests are at the cross-section of visual computing and robotics, with an emphasis on robot vision, semantic world representation, and efficient teleoperation. At the University of Nevada, Reno he is affiliated with the computer vision laboratory and the integrative neuroscience program.

Patrick Laplace | Dr. Laplace’s research interests are in the area of advanced sensor hardware and sensor design for mechanical and electro-optical systems. He has developed deployable sensor systems, including data acquisition and communication systems, for both large-scale experiments and major infrastructure deployment.  His current focus is in the development of effective sensor / communication networks for civil infrastructure and the production / manufacture of systems.

David McCallen |  Dr. McCallen’s research work includes the development of advanced electro-optical sensors for transformational displacement/deformation-based monitoring of intelligent civil infrastructure. Associated work is developing new systems for the earthquake monitoring of critical infrastructure with a focus on reliable and rapid detection and localization of damage from destructive natural hazard events. The developed systems will require high-technology fabrication and manufacture.

Mohamed Moustafa |  Dr. Moustafa’s research activities include the development of advanced construction materials and innovative construction methods. His work in ultra-high-performance concrete can contribute to new fabrication and manufacturing technologies for civil infrastructure.

Sesh Commuri | Dr. Commuri has over 25 years of industry/academic/research experience in automation, systems engineering, and embedded applications. His research interests include application of robotics and automation in advanced manufacturing and design of cyber-physical systems in the age of industry 4.0.

Yantao Shen | Dr. Shen is currently an associate professor whose expertise is in robotics, sensors and actuators, automation, and their applications in advanced manufacturing, space exploration, environmental monitoring and medicine.

Ronald Gibson | Dr.  Gibson is an adjunct professor of mechanical engineering. His research expertise is in the analysis, design, manufacturing and testing of advanced composite materials.

James Hanna | Dr. Hanna is a mechanician with interests in shape-programmable materials (4D printing), web handling and converting (roll-to-roll processing), sheet forming, and other applications of mechanics and geometry to processing of structures and materials.

Yifei Jin | Dr. Jin's primary research interests involve 3D bioprinting of living tissue constructs, 3D printing of hydrophobic functional materials, yield-stress fluids for 3D printing applications, stimuli-responsive materials for 4D printing applications, and fabrication of multi-layered capsules.

Yiliang Liao | Dr. Liao has expertise in laser-based advanced manufacturing, micro/nanoscale manufacturing, additive manufacturing (3D printing) as well as advanced materials processing towards applications in soft robotics, energy storage, biomedical engineering, etc.

Pradeep Menezes | Dr. Menezes is working in the areas of advanced green- and bio- manufacturing, such as composites and additive manufacturing, cold-spay coatings, surface engineering and tribology, bio based lubricants, characterization at micro and nanoscale, self-cleaning and self-lubricating materials, metal forming and metal cutting technology, friction stir processing and welding, and rock drilling.