For his senior project, "Exploring Ways to Quantitatively Evaluate the Process Defects and Investigating Their Effects on the Fatigue Performance of Additive Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V," senior Jack Bian was able to find a faster way to quantify defects rather than the existing method that was "fully manual and extremely time-consuming." Utilizing WEKA's trainable segmentation tool, a plugin for ImageJ, Bian was able to collect data and quantify the defects. Finally, he was able to see the relationship between the defect characteristics and printing parameters, as well as the fatigue performance of his Ti-6AL-4V samples.

Working with Ph.D. students Austin Ngo and David Scannapieco, Bian is most proud of figuring out image adjustment issues. Due to the high strength, low density and great corrosion resistance of Ti-6Al-4V, it plays an important role in aerospace applications and other similar fields. Recently, additive manufacturing technology developments allow Ti-6Al-4V to process in much more complex shapes. However, process defects that form inside the sample during the printing process may lead to failure in the future. Bian used his project to estimate the fatigue stress limits of the samples.

After Bian graduates from Case Western Reserve University in January with his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, he hopes to start his M.S. in the same field in Fall 2023. After he completes his graduate studies, he hopes to become an engineer in the energy storage industry.

"I want to thank all the professors in the department who helped me learn a lot during my undergraduate career,” said Bian. “I really appreciate their kindness and excellence.”