ISSMO/Springer Prize for Weiming Wang

IDE’s researcher Dr Weiming Wang has been awarded the ISSMO/Springer Prize - the most prestigious award for a young researcher from the International Society for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (ISSMO).

The award is for his paper and presentation ‘Space-Time Topology Optimization for Additive Manufacturing: Concurrent Optimization of Structural Layout and Fabrication Sequence’, co-authored with Dirk Munro (3mE), Fred van Keulen (3mE), Charlie Wang and Jun Wu (IDE). The Executive Committee of ISSMO ‘felt the work was novel and strong, and deserving of this fantastic recognition’. 

The paper is about the design of optimal structures and the planning of (additive manufacturing) fabrication sequences. They have been considered typically as two separate tasks that are performed consecutively. In the light of recent advances in robot-assisted (wire-arc) additive manufacturing which enable addition of material along curved surfaces, Weiming presented a novel topology optimisation formulation which concurrently optimises the structure and the fabrication sequence.

^{Animation illustrating an optimised structural layout and optimised fabrication sequence..}

Weiming delivered his paper at the 13^th World Congress of Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization (WCSMO) In May 2019 in Beijing. The Prize will be formally awarded at the General Assembly of WCSMO-14 in 2021.

Weiming is a postdoc supported by the LEaDing fellowship programme. His project is a collaboration between the faculties of IDE and 3mE.

• About the project
• Paper