Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory

This page is an archive of news about our faculty, students, and research. Note that some links to other sites may be broken. If you would like to learn more, please see the CIM Lab home page.

ISR has received a three-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation grant for Combined Research and Curriculum Development in Systems Engineering. The ISR faculty team includes Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR), Associate Professor Mark Austin (CEE/ISR), Professor Michael O. Ball (Robert H. Smith School of Business/ISR), Assistant Professor Jeffrey Herrmann (ME/ISR), and Assistant Professor Linda C. Schmidt (ME). Story

Assistant Professor Satyandra K. Gupta (ME/ISR) is one of nine 2001 recipients of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers' Robert W. Galvin Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. The international award recognizes Dr. Gupta's significant achievements and leadership in manufacturing engineering as a young engineer.

Also, Dr. Gupta has won a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards. The program fosters the career development of outstanding junior faculty, combining the support of research and education of the highest quality and in the broadest sense. Dr. Gupta's research is entitled "Automated Design of Multi-Piece Molds -- A Step towards Manufacturing of Geometrically Complex Heterogeneous Objects." The five-year award begins July 1 and is worth $375,000.

Dr. Satyandra K. Gupta and David Alan Bourne of Carnegie Mellon University were issued U.S. Patent 6,233,538 on May 15, 2001 for an Apparatus and Method for Multi-Purpose Setup Planning for Sheet Metal Bending Operations. This setup planning technique identifies a family of parts to be manufactured and determines setup constraints imposed by the various bending operations in the part family. For more information, see the ISR patents page

The CIM Lab Spring, 2001, Newsletter has been published. The newsletter includes information about faculty awards and grants, student news, projects with local industry, papers and other publications. You can view a copy online at http://www.isr.umd.edu/Labs/CIM/news/spring2001news.pdf.

On Monday, December 17, 2001, Jun Huang has sucessfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation. His dissertation title was "ACCESSIBILITY-DRIVEN SPATIAL PARTITIO NING: A STEP TOWARDS AUTOMATED DESIGN OF MULTI-PIECE MOLDS". He is joining Unigr aphics in LA. The dissertation was directed by Dr. Satyandra K. Gupta.

Sashi Bellam has completed his MS Thesis. His thesis titile was "GEOMETRIC REASONING ALGORITHMS FOR AUTOMATED EXTRACTION AND EMULATION FOR MEMS DEVICES". He is joining Epic Systems in Madison, WI. The thesis w as directed by Dr. Satyandra K. Gupta.

On Tuesday, December 11, 2001, Sean Gahagan presented a paper at the 2001 Winter Simulation Conference in Arlington, Virginia. The paper, by Sean M. Gahagan and Jeffrey W. Herrmann, is entitled Improving simulation model adaptability with a production control framework.

The CIM Lab Fall, 2001, Newsletter is online at http://www.isr.umd.edu/Labs/CIM/news/fall2001news.pdf.

Sara Hewitt and her research were featured in a recent article in the Maryland Research magazine published by the University of Maryland. The article describes her research on improving the usability of discrete event simulation for engineers and students. Sara, an ISR Fellow, is working on a master of science degree in mechanical engineering. Her advisor is Dr. Jeffrey W. Herrmann.

On April 26, 2002, 18 students and their instructor from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces visited the CIM Lab and other facilities at the University of Maryland. Please see the full story for more information.

The Spring, 2002, Research Review Day included many posters about CIM Lab research. Please see the poster list to see the titles, authors, and the posters.

The CIM Lab Spring, 2002, Newsletter is now available online. The newsletter includes information about faculty awards and grants, student news, projects with local industry, and publications.

Assistant Professor Satyandra K. Gupta has won a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers who are in the early stages of establishing their independent research careers.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Herrmann, Associate Professor Linda Schmidt, and Associate Professor Peter Sandborn are the principal investigators for a new NSF Product Realization and Environmental Manufacturing Innovative Systems (PREMISE) grant, Applying Decision Production Systems to Improve Environmentally Responsible Product Development. For more information, see the project web page and the story.

The Fall 2002 issue of the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory newsletter is now available in both PDF and online versions.

The following students have passed significant milestones in the last few months:

• Zhiyang Yao defended his Ph.D dissertation, entitled Geometric Algorithms for Operation Planning of Geometrically Complex Milling Features. Please see the research summary for more information. The thesis was directed by Dr. Satyandra K. Gupta and Dr. Dana S. Nau.
• Mandar Chincholkar defended his Ph.D dissertation, entitled Design for production: using manufacturing cycle time information to improve product development. Dr. Chincholkar is now working at Intel in Portland, Oregon. Please see the Design for Production project for more information about the research, including his online dissertation. The research was directed by Dr. Jeffrey W. Herrmann.
• Guruprasad Pundoor defended his M.S. thesis, Supply chain simulation models for evaluating the impact of rescheduling frequencies. The thesis was directed by Dr. Jeffrey W. Herrmann. Mr. Pundoor is now working towards his Ph.D.
• Rohit Kumar defended his M.S. thesis, Simulation optimization for manufacturing system design. This research was funded as part of the Integrating Product Dynamics and Process Models (IPDPM) into Operational Methods project funded by SRC and NSF. The thesis was directed by Dr. Jeffrey W. Herrmann.
• Sara Hewitt defended her M.S. thesis, Comparing Analytical and Discrete-Event Simulation Models of Manufacturing Systems. An article in the Maryland Research magazine describes her research on improving the usability of discrete event simulation for engineers and students. Ms. Hewitt is now working at TRW in Rosslyn, Virginia. The thesis was directed by Dr. Jeffrey W. Herrmann
• Sean Gahagan presented his Ph.D. proposal. The dissertation title is Simulation and optimization of production control for lean manufacturing transition. Mr. Gahagan works at Northrop Grumman Advanced Micro Electronics Center in Linthicum, Md., as a manufacturing process engineer. The research is directed by Dr. Jeffrey W. Herrmann The proposal abstract is available online.

Xuejun Li has completed his Ph.D. dissertation, entitled "Geometric Algorithms for Automated Design of Multi-Stage Molds for Manufacturing Multi-Material Objects." This research was directed by Dr. S.K. Gupta. He has joined Prime Manufacturing Technology in Columbia as a Process Development Engineer.

Mukul Karnik has completed his M.S. thesis, "Geometric Containment Analysis System for Rotational Parts." This research was directed by Dr. S.K. Gupta and Dr. Edward Magrab. He will be joining Iktara and Associates in Bethesda as a Principal Software Developer.

Alok Priyadarshi has completed his M.S. thesis, "Geometric Algorithms for Automated Design of Multi-Piece Permanent Molds." This research was directed by Dr. S.K. Gupta. He is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering.

Dr. Zhiyang Yao, a CIM Lab alumnus, will be joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong as an assistant professor. Dr. Yao completed his dissertation under the supervision of two CIM Lab faculty, Dr. S.K. Gupta and Dr. Dana S. Nau.

Two CIM Lab graduate students, Rohit Kumar (left) and Alok Priyadarshi (right) and their start-up company, Terplicators Inc., won first prize and $20,000 in the University of Maryland's Hinman CEOs Business Plan Competition on May 9, 2003, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

The idea for Terplicators, Inc. is to develop software modules that will enable mold manufacturers (with applications such as plastic parts for consumer goods, toys and prosthetics) to easily design molds from Computer Aided Design (CAD) data and 3D scanned data at the click of a button. Research on the algorithms was conducted in the CIM Lab. For more details, see their software demo.

Alok is a graduate student working with Associate Professor S.K. Gupta (ME/ISR), who is also a part of the start-up company. Alok was one of the first place winners out of 116 competitors in Graduate Research Interaction Day (GRID). Rohit, who is a graduate student working with Associate Professor Jeffrey Herrmann (ME/ISR), performed the market research for this business idea.

The Spring, 2003, Research Review Day included many posters about CIM Lab research. Please see the poster list to see the titles, authors, and the posters.