Courses

  • Course #1 - Undergraduate Level: MEMS1042 Mechanical Measurements II 

Builds on the foundation of mechanical measurements provided in MEMS 1041 to provide students with the ability to properly design and perform an experiment on a complex mechanical system in order to determine specific characteristics or performance of that system. Specific material includes extended knowledge of statistics and error analysis, computer-based data acquisition, and technical communications.

Sample Project: Effectiveness of Different Colored Curtains (Credit to Dr. Zhao's MEMS1042 Fall 2019 Class Project Group: Chris Belleci, Hervé Nyemeck, Alina Limpert, Cole Werley, https://www.zipam.pitt.edu/gallery/education-and-outreach)

  • Course #2 - Undergraduate Level: MEMS0040 Materials and Manufacturing 

This course introduces the methods used to shape materials, enhance their properties, and join them together.  The role of structure-property relationships in manufacturing of materials will be emphasized.  The connection between design and manufacturing will also be emphasized. These basic topics will be addressed for metals and alloys, polymers, and composites. 

  • Course #3 - Graduate Level (New class created by Dr. Zhao, since 01/2020): ME2088 Advanced Manufacturing Metrology and Process Control

Course Description
To provide students with an understanding of the status, challenges and trends in manufacturing, and to prepare them for the potential opportunities of Industry 4.0, this course covers a broad range of topics centered on manufacturing-related measurement and control systems, which are aimed to improve manufacturing accuracy and precision, thereby maturing a manufacturing technology for demanding applications. These topics include a variety of advanced manufacturing methods, metrology systems, measurement science and technologies, data acquisition and analysis, machine learning, and process control systems. Class projects are offered to gain students substantial experience on manufacturing, materials, measurement, modeling and control. Students are required to develop a measurement and control system for a representative advanced manufacturing process such as an additive manufacturing process in a Pitt lab, and obtain valuable experience for end-to-end digital integration and implementation of manufacturing processes with metrology- and or model-based control systems.

Learning Objectives

  1. Become familiar with advanced manufacturing processes including additive manufacturing
  2. Understand theoretical and practical principles in manufacturing metrology and process control
  3. Learn about existing measurement and control systems for advanced manufacturing
  4. Design scientific metrology and instrumentation systems for advanced manufacturing
  5. Develop advanced control technologies for manufacturing processes with measurement feedback
  6. Apply machine learning to analyze manufacturing-related data for materials-process-parts relations
  7. Perform systematic research. Enhance teamwork ability, technical writing, and communication skills.

  • Course #4 - Mixed Level as both UG Technical Elective and Graduate Class ((New class created by Dr. Zhao, since 08/2020): MEMS1081/ME2081 Smart Manufacturing - Key to Innovations

    Course Description
    ​​This course covers a range of topics centered on “smart manufacturing”, which is a key to provide novel products and solutions for critical industries and special situations. It introduces a crosscutting area of smart manufacturing, which could rapidly and robustly respond to various changes in factory floor (machines, processes, etc.), customer demand, and supply chain. Smart Manufacturing will enable innovations to address various challenges and issues in modern and future society. This course covers essential elements of smart manufacturing, including digital manufacturing, additive manufacturing/3D Printing, 4D Printing, manufacturing metrology, process control, data analytics (e.g., machine learning), supply chain, and cybersecurity. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding about the science, technology, and practice of the state-of-art manufacturing processes and operations. Manufacturing platforms and equipment will be used to offer students substantial hands-on experience through class projects on novel design and smart manufacturing.

    Learning Objectives

    1. Apply the basic tenets of smart manufacturing with a broad view and understanding of the relationship between manufacturing processes and systems.
    2. Develop process knowledge for digital and additive manufacturing.
    3. Explain physical causes of quality issues and metrics for manufacturing processes and parts.
    4. Implement manufacturing measurement methods and control strategies.
    5. Design a cyber-physical manufacturing system with cloud design and cybersecurity.
    6. Perform manufacturing data analytics and machine learning.
    7. Explore how smart manufacturing principles have a real impact on some special situations such as a global crisis by working through a design and manufacturing project.