From June 17 to 22, 2024, the SME North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC 52) was successfully held at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. This leading conference is recognized as North America’s preeminent and longest-running international forum for applied research and industrial applications in manufacturing and design. It features presentations and publications of original, basic, and applied research in advanced manufacturing.

Professor Xun Xu, the director of the Laboratory for Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing Systems (LISMS), was elected as the Chair of the NAMRI | SME Scientific Committee for a two-year term.

The LISMS team made substantial contributions to NAMRC 52, presenting three impressive papers:

  • Dr. Simon Chan“Developing a Hybrid-Built Pre-Hardened Alloy Steel for Injection Moulding Tools Using the Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process”

  • Wanqing Xia – “Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Proactive Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance for Safe Human-Robot Collaboration”

  • Huiyue Huang – “An Adaptable Digital Twin Model for Manufacturing”

NAMRC 52 was a great opportunity for the LISMS group to demonstrate their contribution to smart manufacturing. Their research provides valuable solutions and insights for the manufacturing industry.