Computer-Aided Manufacturing Group
We are based in the Institute for Manufacturing under the Department of Engineering at University of Cambridge. We develop manufacturing systems that learn how to make things better, then use these to make better medical devices.
If you are interested in either a Ph.D. or postdoctoral position please get in touch!
Research
LEARNING MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS
Developing AI-based approaches to improve manufacturing
Image: Nature Commun. 13, 4654
DIGITALLY TAILORED MEDICAL DEVICES
Additively manufacturing wearable and implantable medical devices that better mimic and integrate with patients/wearers.
Image: Felice Frankel
Automation of Scientific Research
Developing software and hardware to enable autonomous research
People
Sebastian Pattinson
Associate Professor
Sebastian Pattinson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. There, he leads the Computer-Aided Manufacturing group in the Institute for Manufacturing. He is also co-founder of Matta, a spin-out developing AI-based software for the manufacturing industry. He was a postdoc in Mechanical Engineering at MIT and received Ph.D. and Masters degrees in Materials Science from Cambridge. His awards include a UK Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard award; US National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship and a Google X Moonshot Fellowship.
Lefan Wang
Postdoc
Lefan received her PhD degree in Engineering at the Cardiff University in 2018, with her research on the development of wearable sensors for hand motion monitoring. Then she worked as a Postdoc Research Fellow in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds, where she mainly focused on the design of sensing system for the prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. Tri-axis inductive force sensors were explored and optimised using 3D finite element modelling. A sensing insole with an integration of 64 tri-axis force sensors was designed to measure plantar pressure and shear stress simultaneously. Her awards include International travel grants, Innovative Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Research Development Fellowship, and International Doctoral Scholarship.
Ifwat Ghazali
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Postdoc
Ifwat Ghazali earned his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Universiti Malaya in Malaysia, where he researched gel polymer electrolytes. Following this, he was awarded a Fellowship by Malaysia's Ministry of Higher Education to continue his academic pursuits. He then went on to Michigan State University in the United States to complete his Master's and Ph.D. degrees, both in Electrical Engineering. His doctoral dissertation concentrated on Additive Manufacturing for Electronics Systems (AMES), with a particular emphasis on fabricating RF devices through additive manufacturing technology. Upon completing his doctorate, Ifwat returned to Malaysia to take up a position as a Senior Lecturer in Applied Physics and Healthcare Industrial Technology. His current research interests include developing materials for additive manufacturing applications, as well as exploring sensors and RF technologies through additive manufacturing fabrication.
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Xiaohan Li
Postdoc
Xiaohan earned her PhD in Engineering from the University of Edinburgh in 2023, where her work focuses on designing surrogate models for heat transfer simulation in laser powder bed fusion. These models are time-efficient compared with the finite element method and reach different trade-offs between accuracy, time cost, robustness, and offline preparation. Before commencing her PhD program, she obtained BEng in railway traffic signalling and control at Southwest Jiaotong University and MSc in control systems at Imperial College London. She was awarded by Principal's Career Development Scholarship, Edinburgh Global Research Scholarship, and Santander Master's Scholarship.
Zehao Ji
PhD Student
Zehao graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 and continued his studies with an MRes in Ultra Precision Manufacturing at Cambridge in October 2018. During the MRes year, Zehao did his mini-project in Online optical in-situ characterization of the FDM process.
Daiki Ikeuchi
PhD Student
Daiki completed his B.Eng. and M.Phil. at the University of Sydney where he worked on one of Future Science Platform projects (FSP AIM) with the Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, as a research affiliate. His work was focused on the interface between additive manufacturing and machine learning to facilitate greater quality control for the commercial integration of deposition-based additive manufacturing technologies. His awards include Peterhouse Graduate Studentship, Research Training Program (International) scholarship, AIM Openness Award and CSIRO Research Supplementary Funds.
Haihui Yan
PhD Student
Haihui graduated with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh in 2020. During her studies, she completed an internship at Bosch Rexroth in the Application Engineering Department, where she worked upon radial piston motors for hydraulic machinery including agricultural and forestry applications. She also completed her MEng project with Bosch Rexroth focusing on the modelling of a hydraulic valve. Following this, she joined the AgriFoRwArdS CDT to pursue a PhD in Agri-food robotics.
Miaomiao Zou
PhD Student
Miaomiao completed her B.Eng. study of Material Engineering at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) in 2018. As an exchange student, she did her bachelor thesis on dental regenerative materials at NMI, Germany. In 2021, she received her master's degree from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) where she focused on DLP 3D printing of biomimetic structures for functional devices.
Christos Margadji
PhD Student
I did my MSc in Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London as well as a BEng in Mechanical Engineering at University of Birmingham. I previously worked for the Security Division of IBM, London and spent a summer with the Material Science Division of LLNL, California. Past research includes applying physics-informed machine learning to simulate metal additive manufacturing processes and characterising the nanoparticle emissions released from fused deposition modeling. My current aim is to develop 'intelligent machinofacturers', autonomous manufacturing systems with the capacity to grasp the notion of the underlying process principles, engage in reasoning and self-improvement to produce better and stronger parts.
Andi Kuswoyo
PhD Student
Andi completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in 2017. During his studies, he worked on the analysis and design of composite panels utilising a genetic algorithm for optimisation purposes. Prior to his PhD study, he did his research on the low-cost manufacturing of composite parts and was involved in experiments for material properties evaluation. Following this, he joined the group to pursue a PhD in the topic of data-driven manufacturing processes.
Publications
Alumni
Cassi Henderson
Postdoc
Cassi completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge as a joint student of the Analytical Biotechnology group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturing group, under the supervision of Dr Lisa Hall and Dr Ronan Daly. Her work focused on the integration of functional materials, assay development and manufacturing design to enable biosensors to be produced for affordable, rapid, and point-of-care detection of diseases. Prior to starting her PhD, Cassi received her BSE in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a Masters in Bioscience Enterprise at the University of Cambridge, focusing on the commercialization of early stage medical technologies.
Xijin Hua
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr Xijin Hua obtained his PhD degree from the Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (iMBE) at University of Leeds, where he worked on the stratified design, development and biomechanical analysis of orthopaedic hip implants. He was then working as a research fellow in iMBE, focusing on the biomechanical analysis of articular cartilage in natural hip joint through imaging technique, finite element analysis and parameterised modelling. Before joining the Department, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow in the Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zurich, working on the multiscale computational biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system, soft tissue and hip joint through coupling a multibody dynamics model of the human body, a finite element model of hip joint and articular cartilage, and a finite element model of the fluid flow within hip joint. His awards include a Fully-funded International Research Scholarship, an European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, and an Imaged-based Biomedical Modelling Fellowship.
Kerr Samson
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Postdoc
Prior to joining the Department, Kerr was a postdoctoral research associate at the Institute of Biophysics, Biochemistry, and Bioengineering (IB3) at Heriot-Watt University, where he had previously completed his PhD in biomedical engineering (2020). His work focuses on the development of novel drug delivery systems, and 3D printable materials for biomedical purposes. Kerr has additional industrial experience regarding the research and manufacturing of biomedical devices. He obtained his BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology (2014), and MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (2015) from The University of Strathclyde. During his PhD, he was awarded a John Moyes Lessells travel scholarship from The Royal Society of Edinburgh, which enabled him to collaborate with Dr. Tim Dargaville at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane.
Douglas Brion
PhD Student
I studied Electronic and Information Engineering at Imperial College London where I developed an optical-based, automatic error detection system for FDM 3D printers. Subsequently, I have been working on software and tooling for 3D printers, recently developing a cloud-based platform for remote control, monitoring and data acquisition.