portrait

Professor Nanya Li

Southeast University

Email: nanya.lee@gmail.com or nanya.li@seu.edu.cn
Research interests: Microwave-assisted 3D Printing, Fiber-reinforced Composite Materials, Robot-assisted Additive Manufacturing, Bio-inspired Design and Printing Path Planning.
[ResearchGate] [Google Scholar]
Dr. Nanya Li currently is a professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and he was awarded an NSFC Science Fund Program for Excellent Young Scholars (Overseas) program. As a pioneer, he utilized microwaves to open a new door for the 3D printing of lightweight and customized continuous carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRP) with high speed. With outstanding and innovative research achievement and leadership as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), in 2020, he was awarded the Young Investigator Group Preparation Program (YIG Prep Pro) funded fellowship after being ear-marked as a potential professor candidate at KIT. After reviewing by worldwide recognized researchers, he won the 1st prize of "NEULAND Innovation" at KIT and the “JEC Innovation Award Finalist” in 2020. With those achievements, he proposed a “Helmholtz Validation Funds” project with professors at KIT. As a research mentor, he has supervised master’s and bachelor’s students in material science and technology, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. For teaching tasks, a lecture in both English and Chinese languages on “Design and Manufacturing of Lightweight Structures” has been conducted for undergraduate students. He has been part of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP) community since 2021 and has been elected as the Chair of CIRP research affiliate in 2024.

News:
  • On the 19th of October 2025, with other colleagues, Mr. Guang Cheng presented the research paper on the 2025 CIRPe global conference and received the third prize for the best paper award. This paper trains a CGAN model on transcranial focused-ultrasound phased-array fields generated with k-Wave to rapidly predict 2D intracranial pressure maps from CT skull geometry and focusing/steering parameters, achieving near-simulation accuracy in seconds and enabling real-time phase correction.
  • On 13th September, Mr. Yuxin Zhang, who is a bachelor student has published a paper on Materials & Design named:” Data-driven Design for Additive Manufacturing of Energy Absorption Lattice Structures with Variable Density.”
  • On 16th- 24th August 2025, Prof. Nanya Li and Mr. Changkun Sun joined the CIRP General Assembly in Stockholm (KTH) and presented our paper: “Design optimization of graded cellular structures for additive manufacturing via differentiable Voronoi diagram.” Prof. Li also did a technical presentation on “STC Dn” on the topics of “DFA-LEGO: Design for Assembly of Complex Microwave Waveguides as LEGO Bricks for Satellite Application.”
  • On 16th- 18th July 2025, Mr. Hanlin Zheng has presented our paper entitled: “Parameter Optimization and Material Characteristics for Multi-axis Additive Manufacturing of CF/PEEK Composites” at the 19th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering (CIRP ICME’25) held in Naples, Italy, which was organized by Prof. Roberto Teti.
  • On the 18th of June 2025, Prof. Li met Prof. Frank Henning from Fraunhofer ICT and presented an invited speech at SAMPE 2025 International Conference.
  • On the 27th of May 2025, Mr. Cheng Guang and Ms. Yuxin Zhang have joined the ICCES 2025 International Conference and presented their research works.
  • On the 16th of May 2025, Prof. Li participated in the “中国微米纳米技术学会第十届青年科学家论坛” and presented an invited talk on “Design Method of Ultrasound Phase Array for tFUS.”
  • On 13th April 2025, Prof. Li has presented an invited speech at the Polyu-Wuxi Technology and Innovation Research Institute about “Ethics in Human-robot Collaboration for Additive Manufacturing.”
  • On the 12th of May, Prof. Yi Xiong came to NUAA and did an invited presentation for “Structure and Process Optimization Method for the Additive Manufacturing of Fiber-reinfroced Composites.”
  • On the 31st of March 2025, together with Prof. Cheng, Prof. Li joined the “全国生物电工与生物电磁高峰会议” at Shenzhen, China.
  • Mr. Hanlin Zheng has submitted a paper on the 2025 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM2025) and accpted.
  • Supervised by Prof. Li, Mr. Changkun Sun has published a CIRP Annal paper (Top in Mechanical Engineering) entitled:” Design Optimization of Graded Cellular Structures for Additive Manufacturing via Differentiable Voronoi Diagram”
  • Prof. Nanya Li has been invited to give a presentation at the South China University of Technology, “Microwave-assisted 3D Printing of Lightweight CFRP Structures: from raw materials to design, processing & sustainable manufacturing.”
  • With other colleagues, Mr. Changkun Sun has published an article in COMPOSITES PART B-ENGINEERING (IF: 11.1) for the fabrication of microchannel networks within continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) composites using a novel path planning method. The integration of GaInTi liquid metal within these microchannels has led to a notable 49 % enhancement in the thermal conductivity of CFRTP samples. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2025.112391 Congratulations!
  • Suported by Prof. Ong and Prof. Bartolo, Mr. Ting Wang has published a review article in the “International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing”. The title is: “Robot-assisted additive manufacturing for aerospace applications: recent trends and its future possibilities.” https://doi.org/10.1080/0951192X.2025.2478007 Congratulations!
  • Prof. Nanya Li has been invited to visit Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Fraunhofer ICT and TRUMPF on 24th to 25th February.
  • Mr. Changkun Sun has published a paper in  2024 IEEE Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC) entitled: ”Microwave-assisted High-speed Winding of Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites,” DOI: 10.1109/APMC60911.2024.10867728
  • Ms. Jianling Lu has published a paper entitled:”Continuous carbon fiber reinforced filaments manufactured by a cost-effective and two-step impregnation approach” on Procedia CIRP. DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2025.01.017
  • Prof. Nanya Li joined the CIRP Winter Meeting and managed the CIRP Research Affiliates Meeting. He also did technical presentations on “STC Dn” and “CWG Ethics in Manufacturing” on the topics of “Printing Path Planning for Fabricating Microchannel Networks inside CFRP” and “Ethics Surrounding the Application of Humanoid Robots for Future Manufacturing.”
  • Mr. Hanlin Zheng, Changkun Sun, Guang Cheng and other students joined the World Intelligent Manufacturing Exhibition at a booth of SiliconVision Technology from December 20th to 22nd, 2024 in Nanjing, China. They introduced our multi-axis robot printing system and CF fiber filament fabrication equipment to the visitors.
  • Dr. Li was invited to be a chair of a section of WE-F7 “Emerging Technologies and Applications” at the 2024 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC), November 17–20 2024, Bali, Indonesia.
  • Together with Dr. Guido Link from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Mr. Changkun Sun has submitted a paper "Microwave-assisted High-speed Winding of Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites" that was accepted by APMC, November 17-20 2024, Bali, Indonesia.
  • Mr. Hanlin Zheng, who graduated from the Mechatronics at KIT, has joined our group as a research assistant (PhD candidate).
  • Dr. Li was invited to give a presentation entitled: "3D Printing of Lightweight and Metalized Plastic Microwave Components" at the 5th Global Congress Microwave Energy Applications (5GCMEA 2024), July 22-25 2024, Fukuoka, Japan.
  • Dr. Li has given a keynote presentation “Microwave-assisted 3D Printing Technology of CFRPs” at the 4th Guangdong Graduate Academic Forum “Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics”, 2-3 November 2024, Shenzhen, China.
  • Dr. Li was invited to give a presentation “Microwave-assisted 3D Printing of Lightweight CFRP Structures: from raw materials to design, processing & sustainable manufacturing”, at the Research seminar at HKUST(GZ), 31 November 2024, Guangzhou, China.
  • Dr. Li was invited to give a speech at the 4th International Conference on Research Advances in Additive Manufacturing (RAAM), “Model-driven Predictive Modelling for Microwave-assisted 3D Printing Process”, 28-30 June 2024, Nanjing, China.
  • Dr. Li has received an NSFC research funding for young researchers for the research project " Research on the Uniform Temperature Field Control and Key Mechanisms of Microwave-assisted Additive Manufacturing of CFRPs”, 2025-2027, China.
  • Dr. Li was invited to give a keynote speech at the Leverage of IT in Engineering and Science International Conference, “Predictive Modelling for Microwave assisted Additive Manufacturing of Composite Materials”, 30-31 October 2023, İstanbul, Türkiye.