Speakers

Dr Manoj Gupta was a former Head of Materials Division of the Mechanical Engineering Department and Director designate of Materials Science and Engineering Initiative at NUS, Singapore. He did his Ph.D. from University of California, Irvine, USA (1992), and postdoctoral research at University of Alberta, Canada (1992). He is currently among top 0.6% researchers as per Stanford’ List, among Top 1% Scientist of the World Position by The Universal Scientific Education and Research Network and among 1% among scientists as per ResearchGate. His international rank among Materials Researchers in World is currently at 1305.  To his credit are: (i) Disintegrated Melt Deposition technique and (ii) Hybrid Microwave Sintering technique, an energy efficient solid-state processing method to synthesize alloys/micro/nano-composites. He has published over 650 peer reviewed journal papers and owns two US patents and two Trade Secrets.  His current h-index is 79, citations greater than 21500 and reads greater than 100,000 (Research Gate). He has also co-authored eight books, published by John Wiley, Springer and MRF - USA. He is Editor-in-chief/Editor of twelve international peer reviewed journals. A multiple award winner, he actively collaborate/visit Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China, USA and India as a visiting researcher, professor and chair professor.

Speech title: To be updated.

Prof. Yajun Liu was born on September 20, 1974 in Jiangxi, China. Native speaker of Chinese, fluent in English. His Education and Academic Research Experiences is as follows:

December, 2016- Now Professor in South China University of Technology School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering.

December, 2009- December, 2010. Visiting Professor in Fluid Power Research Center (FPRC) Purdue University at West Lafayette, USA.

Feb, 2005 – July, 2016. Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Tokheim JV company in China.

June, 2002 Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering. South China University of Technology, Guangzhou,China.

His research interests include Digital signal processing technology and its application in mechanical systems (such as hydraulic System for Energy Saving.); Intelligence control and Manufacturing Engineering. Moreover, Prof. Yajun Liu has published more than 250+ papers in Journals and proceedings of international conferences. 35+ patents on Mechanical System design and manufacturing.

Speech title: To be updated.

Peng Zhou is currently an associate professor of the department of Mechanics in Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He obtained both his B.S. and M.S. degree in MSE from Tsinghua University, PRC and his Ph.D. degree in Engineering Physics from UVA, USA. He was once a visiting assistant professor at the Math department of UC, Irvine, USA. His major research interest is in the field of computational mechanics and materials science. Of particular interests are simulations of piezoelectric MEMS sensors and energy harvesters, and phase transformations at the interfaces of interconnects and solders under the influence of electromigration, thermomigration and elastic stresses. His important research work include the analysis of the coupling effects between elastic and electromagnetic fields from the perspective of conservation of energy; discussion on the mechanism of electromigration from the perspective of electromagnetism; and analysis of the growth behaviors of intermediate phases under the Influence of electromigration at the interfaces of solder joints in electronic circuits.

Speech title: To be updated.

Zhao Zhang, born in 1979, is currently a Professor of Process Mechanics at Dalian University of Technology, China. He received his PhD from Dalian University of Technology in 2007 and was promoted to full professor in 2014. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles. He twice won the Most Cited Article Award of Journal of Materials Processing Technology in 2011 (for the years 2009 and 2005–2010). In 2020, he received the Outstanding Paper Award from the China Association for Science and Technology. In 2026, he obtained Excellent Article Award from Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters). He was honored with the Best Reviewer Award from the Journal of Central South University consecutively in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He was awarded the support of the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University by the Ministry of Education in 2012, recognized as a Dalian High-Level Talent by Dalian Municipal People's Government in 2019, and selected as a Dalian Leading Talent in 2025. At present, he serves as the Chief Scientist of a national key research and development program of China.

Speech title: Integrated Laser Engraving and Chemical Milling Manufacturing: Experiments and Numerical Simulation.