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By Heidi Coryell Williams<\/b> Srikanth Pilla works closely with automotive suppliers, helping them get more mileage from, secure safer rides\u00a0for and enhance the sustainability of the products they put on the road.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Srikanth Pilla spends his days collaborating with some of the world’s most well-known car companies. FIRST STEPS<\/i><\/b> IDEA TO REALITY<\/i><\/b> CENTERED ON STUDENTS<\/i><\/b> INNATE CUROSITY<\/i><\/b> Made in South Carolina for the U.S. Army<\/strong><\/span> \u201cClemson has assembled an interdisciplinary team of top talent and partnered with 3D Systems, a world-class company. All the pieces are in place for transformative, translational research.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Clemson faculty also involved in the project include Fadi Abdeljawad, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Gang Li, professor of mechanical engineering and associate director of the Clemson Composites Center; Shunyu Liu, assistant professor of automotive engineering; and Rahul Rai, Dean\u2019s Distinguished Professor of automotive engineering. Several postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduates will participate in the research, providing them with experience on the cutting edge of 3D printing technology.
\nPhotography by Craig Mahaffey \u201998<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\nBut the prolific researcher and automotive engineering professor didn\u2019t actually drive until he was 21 years old \u2014 shortly after he\u2019d left India and moved to the U.S. to pursue his master\u2019s degree (and then his Ph.D.) in mechanical engineering. The young grad student secured his driver\u2019s license, then his first automobile: a Honda Accord with 160,000 miles on it, which he drove until the odometer hit 220,000 miles.
\nDecades (and many cars) later, Pilla now works closely with Honda \u2014 along with dozens of other automotive suppliers, helping them get more mileage from, secure safer rides for and enhance the sustainability of the products they put on the road.
\nLike many of his Clemson colleagues and collaborators, the Jenkins Endowed Professor of Automotive Engineering devotes himself to developing the kind of big, relevant innovations that bring about global change. He does so somewhat uniquely, though, by working at the intersection of academia and industry, collaborating with experts and young engineers alike.
\nPilla\u2019s ideas \u2014 as well as the ones he\u2019s instilling in emerging engineers \u2014 promise to change the landscape of the automotive industry forever.
\n\u201cDeveloping new talent and new concepts: that has been my dream,\u201d Pilla says. \u201cI am living my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\nWhen Pilla first arrived at the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences at Clemson, the idea for a Clemson Composites Center \u2014 a one-stop-shop for academic research, design development and real-world manufacturing solutions \u2014 was already in his mind\u2019s eye. He envisioned a place where he and his fellow researchers could create real-world applications of academic research designed to net huge gains for the industry.
\nBut bringing that vision to life, like so many novel ideas, would require years of perseverance, outreach and collaboration.
\nToday, Pilla is a 40-year-old father of three children, ages 1 to 10. His new Composites Center is already doing the work of streamlining vehicle-component manufacturing, such as car doors and center consoles in high-end vehicles.
\nBut when Pilla first proposed the idea of a composites center, he was a young, 30-something automotive engineering professor just starting at Clemson. At the time, there was nothing regionally and very little nationally, or even internationally, to hold up as a model of success for such a center.
\n\u201cI said, \u2018We know that it\u2019s a high risk. But we\u2019re willing to take that risk,\u2019\u201d Pilla recalls of his early conversations with various leaders in academics. Even now, Pilla says his research group is one of only a couple in the world approaching composites manufacturing in this way.
\nHe took his first steps forward in 2013 by presenting the Composites Center concept to his department chair. He received encouragement but persisted with caution, leading to a larger college-level meeting with faculty from cross-disciplinary areas. Although it was \u201cfruitful\u201d to assemble such a large gathering of eminent scholars, he recalls, the idea didn\u2019t progress \u2014 at least not right away.
\nThere were starts and stops, opportunities and challenges, but advancing his vision \u2014 and the chance for success he knew it would provide for young engineering students and industry alike \u2014 never left Pilla\u2019s horizon. Then, in 2015, there was a breakthrough: a $5.81 million award from the Department of Energy to fund his research on creating fuel-saving, ultralightweight doors.
\nWhen the grant was submitted, even though it was not for the Composites Center specifically, it boosted his confidence in the idea of such a place. Clemson was the only university to receive the DOE award at the time, which, he explains, was \u201ca big deal.\u201d
\n\u201cUniversities are known for the fundamental research, not the technology,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut with the DOE grant, people started trusting the vision; then they started believing that this is something that can actually be done at Clemson.\u201d
\nNext, Pilla worked through the University\u2019s Office of Corporate Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives to reach out to industry stakeholders and solicit their input on exactly how they would use the technology his group was advancing. He connected with people in business to talk to them about creating products that everyday people could use.
\nRelationship by relationship, contact by contact, he rallied support behind his ideas. By 2017, University leadership, the South Carolina legislature and the general supply chain were behind him, academically and financially. In 2018, the University broke ground on the Clemson Composites Center. Construction wrapped up in late 2019, and the center came fully online in late 2020.
\n\u201cThe unique infrastructure for composites,\u201d Pilla says, \u201cwas created.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\nStarting with the DOE grant, every partnership and every collaboration that Pilla built moved him one step closer to the Composites Center idea he had long envisioned.
\nPilla and his team of researchers fabricated a driver\u2019s-side front-door assembly for a large original equipment manufacturer (OEM) using carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites. They were able to reduce the door\u2019s weight by more than 40 percent, innovating a way for automakers to improve fuel efficiency in their cars.
\nBut the lightweighting advantages of multi-material components is something that Pilla knew would be attractive to many industries, from transportation to home appliances. The manufacturing challenge of mixing materials needed to be widely addressed.
\nWhy? Because it requires multiple processes and multistep joining techniques, both of which drive up costs significantly.
\n\u201cOftentimes, you see a lot of work purely focusing on expanding fundamental research but not scaling them up to meet industry demand,\u201d Pilla says. \u201cThat has been my single-point selling mantra: going out and saying we should target impacting industries.\u201d
\nWith that in mind, Pilla and a graduate student invented a solution to the mixed-materials problem. Their innovation eliminates the time and cost of multiple machines doing the work of stamping out metals on one machine, polymers and composites on another, and then bonding them together in a third process.
\nCalled hybrid single-shot manufacturing, the creation and blending of components is all done on one machine. Not only are they mistake-free, they fit snugly together and, as important, the technology can be incorporated into existing equipment. That means industry doesn\u2019t have to make huge, up-front capital investments to enjoy the long-term economic benefits of the technology.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not just about two things happening on one machine,\u201d Pilla says. \u201cIt\u2019s about the cost-saving aspect of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\nTargeting the needs of industry creates opportunities for emerging engineers, and Saeed Farahani is one of them.
\nThe motivated grad student relocated to Greenville from Tehran Polytechnic in Iran so that he could work under Pilla as a Ph.D. student at CU-ICAR. Together, they developed the hybrid single-shot manufacturing technology.
\n\u201cMy academic background is in metal forming, but my experience is mostly on composites and plastic tool design. So, with this subject, I can combine these two together,\u201d Farahani says.
\nFarahani secured his doctorate in automotive engineering under Pilla\u2019s mentorship, and he is now continuing this work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Clemson Composites Center to further refine a concept design tool as well as \u201cdigital twin\u201d technology, both of which are taking composites research to the next level.
\nBy using artificial intelligence to refine the manufacturing process, researchers and industry leaders are able to learn about and adjust the machine\u2019s capabilities without the expense of costly experiments. Instead, they do this through physics-based models that help the machine understand its limitations.
\nNext steps coming out of the Clemson Composites Center are for researchers to continue testing the new hybrid single-shot technology and other innovations like it.
\nThe end goal is simple, even if the technology is not: making real components that industry can use and consumers can benefit from.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\nGrowing up in India, young Srikanth would be the first in his immediate family to attend college. But he had an extended family that included several mathematicians. He recalls knowing from an early age that his mindset was less mathematical and more engineering oriented.
\n\u201cI was in fourth or fifth grade, and I remember our TV was broken. My dad called a technician to come and fix it, but when he arrived, my parents weren\u2019t home,\u201d Pilla recalls. \u201cHe opened the back side of it and pressed a small button, and our television started working. He said the cost was $10. In the 1980s, that was a lot of money in India.\u201d
\nHe didn\u2019t have the money to pay him on hand, so the technician turned the TV back off and said he would come back later if his parents still wanted it fixed.
\n\u201cOnce he went away, I took a screwdriver and opened up everything,\u201d Pilla recalls. \u201cI stood the same way he did, in the exact same position. I know he did something. I thought, \u2018There is some button that has to be pressable.\u2019 And then it clicked. I figured it out, turned on the television and it started again.\u201d
\nWhen his parents came home from work, they asked how much the repair was going to be. \u201cI said, \u2018Zero dollars,\u2019\u201d says Pilla, grinning at the memory: \u201cThat was the first thing I fixed in my home.\u201d
\nDecades later, he still encourages innate curiosity and bold work ethic in his engineering students, saying he\u2019s more excited to promote a young researcher\u2019s accomplishments than he is to announce a million-dollar grant.
\n\u201cI always wanted to be in academia because working with students and developing students to create new technology is my passion,\u201d Pilla says. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s exciting. If someone offers a million-dollar research award, then I am happy, but if they offer my student a job, then I am excited. And excitement is a bigger emotion than happiness. Students do the real work, and working with them has been a big motivation.\u201d
\nHe recalls one young undergrad who started out with him as a volunteer researcher just out of high school and who then went on to spend four years in his lab, ultimately publishing with Pilla on more than one occasion.
\n\u201cThe kind of experience he got in my lab impacted him positively,\u201d Pilla recalls. \u201cIt made his career path. When he left, he called me and said, \u2018Dr. Pilla, I didn\u2019t know where to go, what to do four years ago, but your lab helped me see the next 30 to 40 years in composites and plastics.\u2019
\n\u201cHe\u2019s 21 or 22 years old, and he\u2019s going to spend his life doing something that he learned in my lab.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\nIn March, the University announced yet another collaboration for the Composites Center. The aim is creating technology that will speed up development of new 3D-printed components for ground vehicles, an innovation with broad implications for military preparedness. The two-year project is based at the Composites Center with Pilla as principal investigator. 3D Systems Corporation of Rock Hill, South Carolina, is collaborating. An $11 million cooperative agreement was established with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory. First-phase funding equals $6.3 million, which supports and advances the research enterprise at the Clemson Composites Center.
\nResearchers say that they will create a \u201cdigital lifecycle platform\u201d augmented with artificial intelligence as part of the project. The platform will help production engineers more quickly and inexpensively design, analyze and fabricate a wide range of large components, such as vehicle closures and interiors. Once fully developed, the platform would allow engineers to design and test new components without physically building them.
\nDaniel L. Noneaker, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, says the project will help advance the field of 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing. \u201cClemson has assembled an interdisciplinary team of top talent and partnered with 3D Systems, a world-class company. All the pieces are in place for transformative, translational research.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nPart of the challenge in 3D printing new components is using the right feedstock \u2014 the material fed into the 3D printer to print the component. Researchers need to understand the combination of materials and what amounts will create the desired properties, such as strength or stiffness.
\n\u201cAs part of the new project, we will develop a database of raw materials, including metals, plastics and composite materials, that could then be used to train artificial intelligence and create digital models of potential new feedstock materials,\u201d says Pilla.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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