Category: Recent Activity

Recent Activity

Kouraytem receives promotion and tenure

MMM Lab alumna, Dr. Nadia Kouraytem, was recently awarded tenure with promotion to Associate Professor in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Utah State University (USU). Dr. Kouraytem conducted her postdoctoral research in the MMM Lab prior to assuming her faculty position at USU, where she directs the METAL 3D Structures Lab. Congratulations to Dr. Kouraytem on this well-deserved accomplishment!!! To learn more about Dr. Kouraytem and her research group, please visit: https://www.kouraytemlab.me/home...

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MMM Lab Members Receive Prestigious Awards

MMM Lab members recently received prestigious national awards to support their Ph.D. research. Olivia Draughn was awarded a 2026 Rickover Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and Laura Vietz was awarded a 2026 SMART Scholarship from the U.S. Department of War (DOW). Ph.D. student Nathan Searle has also been supported by the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Congratulations to all three lab members!         To learn more about these prestigious fellowships/scholarships, please visit the following: Rickover Fellowship Program in Nuclear Engineering https://www.smartscholarship.org/smart/en https://www.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/grfp  ...

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MMM Lab represents at TMS Specialty Congress

MMM Lab members presented their work at this year’s TMS Specialty Congress held in Anaheim, CA. The lineup of MMM Lab talks included: ************************************************************** Title: A High-Fidelity Fatigue-Life Modeling Framework Using Fast Fourier Transforms Track: 3DMS 2025 Speaker: Nathan Searle Co-authors: Krishna Logakannan, Laura Vietz, Benjamin Anglin (Naval Nuclear Lab), Ashley Spear ************************************************************** Title: An Interleaved Physics-Based Deep-Learning Framework as a New Cycle Jumping Approach for Microstructurally Small Fatigue Crack Growth Simulations Track: AIM 2025 Speaker: Ashley Spear Co-author: Vignesh Babu Rao ************************************************************** Title: Modeling the Hardening and Damage Evolution of Additively Manufactured Metal Matrix Composites Using an Elasto-Viscoplastic...

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Claire Ticknor wins student presentation competition at ICAM 2024

original story published at https://www.mech.utah.edu/me-student-wins-student-presentation-competition-at-icam/  Department of Mechanical Engineering PhD Student Claire Ticknor recently won a prestigious student presentation competition at the International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (ICAM) hosted by ASTM in Atlanta. The competition was judged by a select group of Scientific Organizing Committee members on the quality of the presentation and technical content presented. Students from institutions around the world participated. The ICAM conference is the annual flagship conference for ASTM and emphasizes standardization, qualification, and certification around additive manufacturing, with a particular focus on industry-specific requirements. In addition to the specific requirements of various industry sectors,...

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MMM Lab Represents at TMS Annual Meeting

MMM Lab members recently presented work at the TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. The following presentations included MMM Lab members: Predicting Microstructurally Sensitive Fatigue-crack Path in WE43 Magnesium Using High-fidelity Numerical Modeling and Three-dimensional Experimental Characterization: Brian Phung, Duncan Greeley (Univ. of Michigan), Mohammadreza Yaghoobi (Univ. of Michigan), John Allison (Univ. of Michigan), Ashley Spear Accelerating Microstructurally Small Crack Growth Predictions in Three-dimensional Microstructures Using Deep Learning: Vignesh Babu Rao, Brian Phung, Bjorn Johnsson, Ashley Spear Predicting Microstructure-sensitive Fracture Behavior in AM IN625 Using a Damage-enabled Elasto-viscoplastic FFT Framework: Ashley Spear, Carter Cocke, Brian Phung, Laura Ziegler,...

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Congratulations to Dr. Karen DeMille and Carter Cocke!

We are pleased to announce the graduation of MMM Lab members Karen DeMille and Carter Cocke. Karen DeMille successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation entitled Establishment of Representative Volume Elements for Microstructurally Small Cracks Using Numerical Simulation and Machine Learning.  In her dissertation, she explores the question: “What is the minimum volume of microstructure needed to accurately capture the fields around a microstructurally small crack?”.  Since graduating, she has been working as a Research Mechanical Engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).  Congratulations, Dr. DeMille!                   Carter Cocke successfully defended his M.S....

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MMM Lab Awarded 1st Place NIST AM-Bench Challenge

The MMM Lab received a first-place award in the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Test Series, a competition that enables teams to test their simulations against additive manufacturing benchmark test data. The team included graduate students Carter Cocke, Brian Phung, Laura Ziegler, Elliott Marsden, and Vignesh Babu Rao. In the team’s specific challenge, titled “Subcontinuum Mesoscale Tensile Test,” all the competing teams were given a set of materials characterization data for a small sample of 3D-printed Inconel 625, a type of nickel alloy. They were then asked to make blind predictions of the mechanical (stress-strain)...

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Work with Michigan Tech featured in Materials Today!

Our recent paper published in Composites Science and Technology was featured in Materials Today! The work is a collaboration with researchers from Michigan Tech and demonstrates the use of machine learning to accelerate failure predictions of carbon nanotube-polymer interfaces using training data from molecular dynamics simulations. The research is supported by the NASA Space Technology Research Institute US-COMP. Click here to read the news article....

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ML+MD to predict strength of CNT-polymer interface

Abstract Modern aerospace applications require lightweight materials with exceptionally high strength and stiffness. Carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced composites have great potential in addressing these requirements. However, one critical factor limiting the potential of CNT-reinforced composites is the limited load transfer capability between CNTs through a polymer matrix, which arises due to low CNT-polymer interfacial shear strength at a molecular scale. While molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can be employed to investigate the CNT-polymer interface, such simulations are computationally expensive. It is thus intractable to explore a sufficiently large design space for interface modifications and optimization using MD simulations alone, motivating the...

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MMM Lab represents at TMS annual meeting

MMM Lab members recently presented work at the TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. The following presentations included MMM Lab members: Determination of Representative Volume Elements for Small Cracks in Heterogeneous Domains via Convolutional Neural Networks: Karen DeMille, Ashley Spear Predicting Crack Location Using a Radial Distribution Function as a Unique Descriptor of Pore Networks: John Erickson, Aowabin Rahman, Ashley Spear Characterization of Fatigue Short Crack Growth in Rare-earth Magnesium Alloy WE43 using High Energy X-ray Diffraction Microscopy: Duncan Greeley (Univ. of Michigan), Jacob Adams (Univ. of Michigan), Peter Kenesei (Argonne National Laboratory), Ashley Spear, John Allison (Univ. of...

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