A professor at the NC State University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering participated in “High Temperature Electromagnetic Materials: A Meeting of Experts”, hosted at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) in Washington D.C. earlier this month.
Dr. Cheryl Xu, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), was invited by the Defense Materials, Manufacturing and Infrastructure (DMMI) Standing committee of NASEM to deliver her seminar, titled “Characterization of Material’s Electromagnetic (EM) and infrared (IR) Properties at High Temperature and Metamaterial Design Enabling Transparency,” on March 2.
The meeting aimed to discuss the design of high temperature optical materials for future aerospace and planetary exploration along with other applications like the study of internal combustion.
The group of experts sought to identify areas where higher temperature optical material performance offers transformative enhancement of optical systems, expanding opportunities for research within terrestrial aerospace and space environments, as well as commercial applications such as heat engine development.
Xu does a variety of research in her group at NC State, including several research projects in advanced manufacturing of multifunctional ceramic materials focusing on the electromagnetic (EM) property and how to manufacture such materials for high temperature applications. Additionally, her group works on multiple projects in high temperature wireless sensing technology and artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) techniques.
Each of these research areas inspires Xu’s contribution to the meeting of experts, which took aim at identifying shortcomings with electromagnetic materials in high temperature environments and extreme circumstances, while also discussing possible solutions for these apparent issues.