Prof. Wei Chen

Wei Chen
Wilson-Cook Professor in Engineering Design and Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Northwestern University

Data-Driven Adaptive Discovery and Design of Microstructural Material Systems

Design of advanced material systems imposes challenges in integrating knowledge and representation from multiple disciplines and domains such as materials, manufacturing, mechanics, and design optimization. Data-driven design fuses multi-modal data with machine learning and provides a seamless integration of information from different disciplines to enable the accelerated design and deployment of advanced materials systems. In this talk, we will introduce the challenges and the state-of-the-art data science methods for designing heterogeneous nano- and microstructural materials and metamaterial systems.  Research developments in design representation, design evaluation, and design synthesis will be introduced covering topics such as microstructure characterization and reconstruction, physics-informed machine learning and uncertainty quantification, and mixed-variable Bayesian optimization. We demonstrate that our newly developed mixed-variable Latent Variable Gaussian Process (LVGP) modeling approach offers a flexible framework for adaptive discovery and design of complex materials systems defined by both qualitative and quantitative variables.  Challenges and opportunities will be discussed.

BIO:Wei Chen is the Wilson-Cook Professor in Engineering Design and Chair of Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. Directing the Integrated DEsign Automation Laboratory (IDEAL), her current research involves issues such as simulation-based design under uncertainty; model validation and uncertainty quantification; data science in design and advanced manufacturing; stochastic multiscale analysis and materials design; design of metamaterials; multidisciplinary design optimization; consumer choice modeling and decision-based design.  Dr. Chen is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and currently serving as the Editor-in-chief of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and the President of the International Society of Structural and Multidisciplinary Design (ISSMO). In the past, she served as the Chair of the ASME Design Engineering Division (DED). Dr. Chen is the recipient of the 2022 Engineering Science Medal from the Society of Engineering Science  (SES), ASME Pi Tau Sigma Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award (2021), ASME Design Automation Award (2015), Intelligent Optimal Design Prize (2005), ASME Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal achievement award (1998), and the NSF Faculty Career Award (1996).  She received her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1995.