Chinedum Okwudire, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious Miller Faculty Scholarship, granting Dr. Okwudire the title of Miller Faculty Scholar for the next two years. The Miller Faculty Scholarship, endowed by Engineering alumnus Leonard G. Miller, is an honorary title awarded to the most accomplished assistant and associate professors in the College of Engineering.
Dr. Okwudire is a renowned scholar of additive manufacturing, nano-positioning, machining, distributed manufacturing, and smart manufacturing systems who was recently identified as a “leader transforming manufacturing.” Dr. Okwudire’s work to accelerate and improve the quality of 3-D printers by reducing the effects of vibration has drawn much praise in recent months.
Invented at the University of Michigan and developed by Ulendo, a company founded by Dr. Okwudire, the software, called FBS (Filtered B Splines), “essentially serves as a translator between the commands that would print the part in a perfect world, and how the machine needs to compensate for vibrations in the real world.”
Dr. Okwudire was also spotlighted in April 2022 for another software he developed, with the support of the U-M College of Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The software, called SmartScan, reduces harmful heat buildup in laser powder bed fusion printers. Implementation of SmartScan resulted in a 41% improvement in heat distribution and a 47% reduction in deformations.
Congratulations, Dr. Okwudire.
