UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In recognition of his exceptional contributions to the field of additive manufacturing, Guha Manogharan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Penn State, has been awarded the International Outstanding Young Researcher in Freeform and Additive Manufacturing (FAME Jr.) Award.
The FAME Jr. Award is presented annually to recognize an outstanding young researcher in the field of freeform/additive fabrication early in their career by the International Solid Freeform Symposium, the longest-running global conference on the topic.
At Penn State, Manogharan heads the Systems for Hybrid-Additive Process Engineering (SHAPE) lab, and his research focus includes 3D-printing custom orthopedic implants, direct hybrid manufacturing of metal, and indirect hybrid manufacturing where 3D sand-printing (3DSP) is integrated with traditional metal-casting processes.
Sometimes referred to as 3D printing, additive manufacturing builds objects by layer-upon-layer of materials like metal, plastics and ceramics. By creating entirely custom and complex parts for low-volume production runs, additive manufacturing is gaining ground in a wide range of applications.
“Additive manufacturing is bringing together many different fields with a common digital thread, and one can say it has transformed from its early days of ‘rapid prototyping’ to ‘rapid production’ now,” Manogharan said. “But there is a lot of scope for research and development in the hybrid post-processing side of AM to make these parts suitable for high performance applications in the aerospace and defense sectors.”
As an emerging pioneer in the field, Manogharan’s work harnesses the unique ability of metal additive manufacturing for interdisciplinary applications and nonmetal 3DSP to advance the adoption of nonconventional mold design to eliminate casting defects and improve the performance of castings using design-process optimization.
“I attribute this award as recognition for all the students in my lab I’ve been fortunate to work with and I consider this as a stepping stone to continue working in this field for years to come,” he said.
Manogharan recently accepted this honor in Austin, Texas, and delivered a keynote address.
“The applications of additive manufacturing are only going to grow,” he said. “It’s exciting to see all the research being transferred to real world applications.”