Materials and smart manufacturing

Wayne State University offers exceptional strength in a number of key advanced manufacturing areas, many of which are multidisciplinary, with faculty collaboration among various departments. Wayne State is a partner in the national manufacturing consortium LIFT (Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow), and a key member of Advance Michigan, an Investment in Manufacturing Communities Partnership program.

WSU faculty members are experts in some of the important advanced manufacturing technologies, including:

• Nano-micro manufacturing (biomedical and energy devices)
• Advanced materials thermal-mechanical processing (including additive manufacturing)
• Automation in manufacturing
• Lightweight materials (composites and mixed materials) manufacturing
• Design for sustainable manufacturing

Digital and quality control aspects including nondestructive evaluation are embedded in all of these areas. Realtime monitoring and application of statistical controls also are strongly emphasized. In many instances, Wayne State faculty members take a systems approach to solve manufacturing problems.