Can AI Boost Design for Additive Manufacturing?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly emerging as a key enabler of innovation. What does this mean for design, particularly when it comes to designing new products and components for additive manufacturing?

On Oct. 26, Digital Engineering will convene a panel of industry experts to address that question during the keynote session for the 2023 Design & Simulation Summit. You can find more details about the virtual conference here.

With powerful pattern recognition and natural language processing, AI or machine learning is expected to drastically lower the learning curve for design and simulation software and transform its user experience. In fact, leading design and simulation software companies are already incorporating AI into their software offerings. Additive manufacturing presents new challenges in design, since the technology allows for the creation of new types of shapes and structures not possible with traditional manufacturing approaches. That means the design space is much larger, and 3D printers can utilize different types of materials with different properties. Can the technology improve DfAM (Design for Additive Manufacturing) in the same way as it does for traditional design? Can AI give existing DfAM algorithms a boost in failure detection and geometry generation? The keynote panel will explore what’s possible, what’s in the near future, and what the risks and uncertainties are.

Digital Engineering has lined up stellar panel of experts for the keynote, including:

Dr. Yaoyao Fiona Zhao, Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University. Dr. Zhao’s lab – the Additive Design and Manufacturing Laboratory (ADML) – is one of the leading research laboratories in additive manufacturing. Her research advances the knowledge in design for additive manufacturing field with the exploration of new design methods, adaptation of machine learning and AI to support decision-making, as well as developing efficient numerical simulation methods for additive manufacturing processes. Her research also explores the sustainability dimension of additive manufacturing technology. 

Matthew Shomper, Founder of LatticeRobot. Shomper is an engineering thought leader with expertise in the computational design of advanced 3D-printed medical implants and an expert in biomimicry. He has spearheaded multiple public initiatives to synthesize biological structures as computational models for use in engineered products. He also pioneered the idea of a “biologically advantageous implant,” and leads various areas of research on reducing an implant’s footprint inside of the body. 

Chris McComb, Faculty Member at Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. McComb's lab, the Design Research Collective, advances interdisciplinary design research by merging perspectives from engineering, manufacturing, psychology, and computer science. He also serves as the Director of the Human+AI Design Initiative, an interdisciplinary and international group of researchers focused on application of human-AI collaboration to design. His research interests include human social systems in design and engineering; machine learning for engineering design; human-AI collaboration and teaming; computation for advanced manufacturing; and STEM education; with funding from NSF, DARPA, and private corporations.

DE Senior Editor Kenneth Wong will moderate the panel, which will be streamed live at 1 pm Eastern on Oct. 26. Attendees will be able to participate in a Q&A after the presentation.

You can register for the keynote here, and learn more about the Design & Simulation Summit on the event website.