Dr. Huachao Mao is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering Technology at 鶹Ʒ, where he directs the Additive & Intelligent Materials (AIM) Lab. His research focuses on precision additive manufacturing as a platform for encoding function directly into matter, spanning printed optics, architected polymers, microfluidic systems, and structural composites.
Dr. Mao's work advances additive manufacturing beyond shape fabrication toward functional physical computation, where geometry, material composition, and transport phenomena are deliberately engineered to perform optical, mechanical, and sensing functions. His contributions bridge nanoscale precision with complex three-dimensional architectures through innovations such as adaptive and curved-layer slicing, mask and dose optimization, defocused projection, refractive-index engineering, and precision post-processing techniques.
This research has enabled new capabilities in volumetric optics, embedded microfluidics, and architected materials for biomedical and robotic applications, including 3D-printed optical AI processors and tactile robotic skins. Dr. Mao's work has been recognized with three best-paper awards, nine U.S. patents, and numerous invited talks. He serves as a reviewer for leading journals and federal agencies, contributes to editorial boards in manufacturing and microsystems, and leads multiple NSF-funded research programs. Purdue has recognized his contributions with the 2024 Departmental Achievement Award and the 2025 Outstanding Faculty in Discovery at Purdue Polytechnic.
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