Project Grant 2229245

The National Science Foundation awarded North Carolina State University a two-year $400,000 Project Grant under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering federal grant program (CFDA 47.070) to develop process monitoring methods for improving product quality in electron beam powder bed fusion additive manufacturing. The university will research an in-situ quality control framework using real-time sensing data to monitor product quality during manufacturing and adaptively adjust process control parameters as needed. Key activities include developing a computationally efficient run-time defect detection method using statistical learning models with electron-based data, as well as a privacy-preserving federated model for engaging the manufacturing community on root-cause defect diagnostics through a new regularization-based statistical learning approach focused on electron beam powder bed fusion. Experimental validation of the models is also part of the project deliverables. The award period runs from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2024.