Just wrapped up an incredible CIRP - The International Academy for Production Engineering Research Affiliates (RA) Workshop 2026 across Nanjing, Suzhou, and Shanghai with Marvin May and CIRP Fellow Prof. Soh Khim ONG. We dove deep into the future of manufacturing in 6 days with visits to:
✅ Southeast University (State Key Millimetre-wave Lab)
✅ BestLink (HUAWEI Golden Supplier)
✅ BYD Super Factory (Hefei)
✅ BOZHON Precision Industry Technology Co.,Ltd
✅ GAMI (KIT China Branch)
✅ National Innovation Center par Excellence (NICE) Headquarter
✅ JAKA Robotics
The delegation's enthusiasm was phenomenal, and the networking during our social events made this a truly memorable trip. Thank you to everyone who participated! I hope you enjoyed China as much as we enjoyed hosting you.
It's a great experience to have a joint booth with SiliconVision at the Humanoid Robot Exhibition in Hangzhou. We attracted lots of world-wide customers and collaborators for the 3D printing of PEEK components.
We have participated in the 11th CIRP Conference on Assembly Technologies and Systems (CIRP CATS 2026) at PolyU this week! 🇭🇰 The theme—"Human-Machine Symbiotic Assembly and Disassembly"—couldn't be more timely as we rethink the future of AI-enabled manufacturing and human-robot collaboration (HRC). I'm delighted to share that our joint paper with Prof. Lihui Wang (co-chair of CATS) and Prof. Soh Khim ONG was successfully presented, sparking insightful discussions on how the graph rewriting method can benefit the design for assembly of 3D printed microwave waveguide components. I also had the privilege of serving as Session Chair for "Robotic Disassembly and Remanufacturing System", a critical area for circular economy transitions. On the last day, I had the great honor to present the Best Paper Award alongside Prof. Jörg Krüger to the well-deserved winners!
Great time at CIRP Design Conference 2026 in Tokyo (March 16–18)! I presented our paper titled "Mapping-based Path Planning on Large-Curvature Surface for Multi-axis 3D Printing" and had the honor to chair the session "Design for Additive Manufacturing 1" on the 17th of March.
Thrilled to have participated in the CIRP - The International Academy for Production Engineering Winter Meeting 2026 in Paris and presented my work at STC-E! By collaborating with Dr. Weiguang Wang, I shared our latest research presentation titled: Parameter Optimization for Robot-assisted Multi-axis Additive Manufacturing of CF/PEEK Composites.
November 11th, 2025, on CIRP enables global collaboration and the establishment of partnerships. Under such a great framework, Dr. Marvin M., a CIRP Research Affiliate (RA) from Nanyang Technological University Singapore, recently visited Nanya Li (RA) at Southeast University (SEU) to advance the RA Collaborative Working Group (CWG) on the topic "Industrial AI - Challenges in Manufacturing and Tribology."
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, Ms. 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.
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.
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 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.
