MSE Seminar - Siamak Farhad

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“Physics-Guided and AI-Assisted Sustainable Manufacturing: From Experimental Discovery to Process Scale-Up”

Abstract: Sustainable manufacturing is increasingly shaped by advances in AI, computational modeling, experimental methods, and process automation. Integrating these capabilities provides new opportunities to improve material utilization, energy efficiency, process performance, and resource recovery. In particular, physics-guided and AI-assisted approaches can combine fundamental scientific understanding with experimental data to accelerate materials discovery, identify relationships among processing parameters and material behavior, and support process optimization and scale-up. This seminar will provide an overview of ongoing research in the Sustainable Manufacturing, Advanced Recycling, and Energy Technologies (SMART) Laboratory, including AI-enabled manufacturing, polymer processing, manufacturing energy optimization, and advanced materials recycling.

The seminar will then examine how physics-guided and AI-assisted methods can be integrated with experimental research to address complex materials-processing challenges. Using direct recycling of lithium-ion battery cathode manufacturing scrap as a case study, the presentation will discuss the development of a framework combining systematic experimental investigation, fundamental understanding of material interactions, data-driven analysis, and interpretable predictive modeling. Particular emphasis will be placed on accelerating experimental discovery, identifying underlying physical mechanisms, predicting process behavior, and translating laboratory findings into scalable manufacturing processes. Related research on electrolyte removal and battery recycling will further illustrate the broader applicability of these approaches. The overall objective is to demonstrate how the integration of physical principles, AI, and experimental validation can advance sustainable manufacturing and materials-processing research.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Siamak Farhad is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Director of the Sustainable Manufacturing, Advanced Recycling, and Energy Technologies (SMART) Laboratory. His research focuses on sustainable and AI-enabled manufacturing, materials processing, advanced recycling, lithium-ion batteries, and energy systems. His research group integrates experimental process development, materials characterization, physics-guided modeling, and artificial intelligence to advance manufacturing technologies. Before joining UT Knoxville in 2024, he was a faculty member at the University of Akron, where he founded and directed the Timken Foundation Center for Precision Manufacturing. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada.