CAM-STAR Management Plan

Steering Committee

All the UDC team members will support research, education, outreach, and management responsibilities and will serve on a steering committee that will meet every month. It will oversee the execution of the evaluation plan mentioned in the following section. One technician and one administrative staff will assist in accomplishing day to day activities. Center personnel will participate in convocations of NASA activities and annual meetings. Each proposed research project utilizes at least faculty to accomplish a broad range of interdisciplinary tasks of each project

Dr. Jiajun Xu

is the PI for this NASA-MIRO funded center. Starting his faculty career with NSF-grant (Award# HRD-1601156) and Department of Defense grant (W911NF-16-1-0546). Dr. Xu established UDC’s Multiscale Thermal Transport and Energy Conversion Laboratory (MT²EC) and Additive Manufacturing Laboratory which houses the state-of-the-art DMLS system (EOS M280) that will support the 1^st and 2^nd research projects. As the PI, he will provide leadership for integrating AM in education at all levels to broaden the scope of CAM-STAR research. Dr. Xu brings 12 years of experience in thermal management and AM to assist in the 1^st subproject focusing on AM-enabled heat exchanger, and the 2^nd project on smart coatings on AM produced parts. Furthermore, Dr. Xu has 3 years of experience in working with the Department of Energy (DOE) funded HBCU universities and industry consortium focusing on five mission-oriented research projects on AM research. With that experience, he has gained credentials to manage the proposed center at UDC. Dr. Xu has also initiated and co-supervised the University team to attend NASA Mars Human Rover Exploration and the NASA-RASCAL competitions. He will continue to support the minority student recruitment and training to support NASA-MIRO missions. To make his work manageable, he will delegate the tasks to co-PIs and staff as applicable.

Dr. Pawan Tyagi

is a lead researcher of the 2^rd subproject in smart coating on AM produced part. Dr. Tyagi will manage (i) UDC’s nanotechnology laboratory, (ii) facilitate the proposed educational initiatives as the graduate program director and curriculum coordinator, (iii) conduct student competitions, and (iv) arrange students’ research exposure.

Dr. Kate Klein

brings a wealth of knowledge in materials science and skills in microscopy and microanalysis to the MIRO center and will assist with the 2^nd project. Dr. Klein, a continuing guest researcher at NIST since last 10 years, will also strengthen the collaboration with NIST on the AM research project. Along with serving on the 2^nd project, she will lead the center’s educational and outreach components that will focus on recruiting, retaining, and graduating students from underserved minority populations. She will oversee student training in various NIST divisions via different pathways.

Dr. Lei Wang

is a faculty in the Civil Engineering. Dr. Wang will lead the 3^rd project and the effort of outreaching to local high schools, operation of the high school Ambassador program, and support to NASA summer internship application. He has an extensive teaching, research and practical experience in civil engineering. He has published over 40 refereed journal and conference papers in the fields of geotechnical engineering. He received the NSF grant (1818649) and Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) grant to integrate e-Learning Modules for entrepreneurially minded learning into civil engineering courses.

Dr. Sasan Haghani

is an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UDC. He will serve as the main POC for DC Space Grant Consortium, Trinity College, Gallaudet University, Community Colleges for the proposed educational activities. Dr. Dr. Haghani will also co-supervise the on-going NASA Mars Human Rover Exploration and RASCAL competition. Dr. Haghani is PI/Co-PI of two NSF grants and is the PI of a NASA grant where he is co-supervising, together with the PI, Dr. Xu.

Dr. Devdas Shetty

Dean of SEAS, will support the subproject-2. He has written a textbook in advanced manufacturing and holds several patents in surface meteorology- a main focus of the proposed research. Dr. Shetty will also be lead instructor of the graduate-level advanced manufacturing course. He will interface with the university administration to smoothly conduct the proposed CAM-STAR research and ensure its long-term operation and sustainability. Dr. Shetty will also assist implementing AM education at all levels of education in SEAS.

Dr. Pradeep Behera

is the Department Chair of Civil Engineering. He will provide administrative support to the proposed educational and outreach activities along with the Dean, Dr. Shetty to ensure the smooth conduct of this project and its long-term operation and sustainability.

CAM-STAR Staff

CAM-STAR will engage an AM technician to manage the associated CAM-STAR labs and support courses by assisting the investigators and students in conducting hands-on experiments. To manage the expenditures from the award, we will hire a dedicated administrative staff to keep accurate details of spending in line with the spending plan for the CAM-STAR. This staff will also be instrumental in supporting communication-related to center’s activities and organizing meetings. Administrative staff will also oversee timely student and faculty payments.