2026.3.2 - 2026 3rd Monthly Group Meeting

Clockwise from the top left corner, PhD students Cordelia Manlilang Luo,  Fatemeh Sadat Mahdavi, Ian Doran, Jim Jaraczewski, Varunkumar Thippanna, Zhengfu Huang, Dr Chao Sui, Arunachalam Ramanathan, Kenan Song (invisible photographer), Dr. Libin Yang, M. Taylor Sobczak, Dhanush Patil (standing as cheerleader), Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli, Dr. Jessica Qixuan Xiang, Dr. Tiantian Li,  Dr. Xiao Sun, & Taylor Theobald.

2025.12.12 The last group meeting in 2025! We are grateful for the fruitful year and a lot of achievements and memories! Many thanks to our postdocs and graduate students! 

20251212 Congrats to Dhanush Patil and Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli on passing the comprehensive exams! Another milestone!

202511-12 Conferences of MRS, AIChE, IMECHE, SES, CB2, among others when students and postdocs are making friends with some prestigious scholars!

20251125 Another thanksgiving - all thanks to the students and postocs who are smart and working hard! 

2025.08.25 Capstone project focusing on heart 3d printing based on the collaborations with Prof Wenzhan Song.

Whose birthday is this? The PI did not get his piece of cake 😡

We have four postdocs, Dr. Qixuan Xiang, Dr. Libin Yang, Dr. Chao Sui, and Dr. Xiao Sun, waiting for our 5th postdoc from UConn (Dr. Tiantian Li) to join us in Aug. 2025!

Led by our Ph.D. students, such as the NSF GRFP awardee M. Taylor Sobczak, we have hosted 30+ undergrads from UGA, local schools, and other national colleges! 😆 

Thanks to the collaboration between Song Lab and Hyrel and Arunachalam Ramanathan's year long contribution to the MEW platform, we got this 3D printer in our lab now -new nanomanufactuirng capabilities!  

Our last group meeting in summer - congrats on the new journal articles in processing/under review/published from our Ph.D. students Dhanush Patil, Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli, Varunkumar Thippanna, and postdocs Dr. Libin Yang, Dr. Chao Sui, as well as new publications in the coming fall from Dr. Xiao Sun, Dr. Qixuan Xiang, & all Ph.D. students of Arunachalam Ramanathan,  Fatemeh Sadat Mahdavi, M. Taylor Sobczak,  Zhengfu Huang. Also, huge welcome to our new Ph.D. students @Jim Jaraczewski, @Md Shafikul Islam, & @Cordelia Luo.

We have grown to a group of 12 Ph.D.s and 5 Postdoctoral Researchers. More postdoctoral fellows will be welcomed in the following year, 2025-2026.

Congrats to Varunkumar Thippanna on the best poster award! 

Led by our Ph.D. students, such as the NSF GRFP awardee M. Taylor Sobczak, we have hosted 30+ undergrads from UGA, local schools, and other national colleges! 😆 

The SONG lab, where caffeine is the secret ingredient and innovation is the main course! From left to right, we’ve got the engineers who can solve equations in their sleep, the ones who’ll outsmart you with a spreadsheet, and the fearless leaders who definitely know how to run a successful 3D printer (but might need a coffee refill every 5 minutes). Some of us are proudly repping UGA’s finest, and others might be wondering if the chairs are more comfortable than the lab equipment—but one thing’s for sure: We all know how to collaborate and innovate, one molecule at a time!

You can just tell that the guy sitting on the chair is the future PI—probably already drafting grant proposals in his head while pretending to relax! 😆 

Joined a lunch meeting where our chemistry and engineering students were geeking out over 3D printing and polymer chemistry with the brilliant Prof. Advincular from UTK/ORNL. It’s like science, but with snacks!

Dr. Chao Sui is back at it—defending his hypothesis like he is doing his Ph.D. thesis the 2nd time! This time, he's pitching his idea of using external fields on his inkjet 3D printing system to the group, and they’re throwing some seriously tough questions his way. You can practically see the sweat beads forming... but hey, it's all part of the process!

Our group meetings are improving so much that even I’m surprised—it’s like I’m not even attending! I’m so proud of how amazing my colleagues have become, despite me being the living, breathing example of "what not to do!" 😄 Everyone will take a 2-week-long break before we return on campus!

A great year of productivity during our ASU-UGA transition! 😄

We welcomed CEO Ernesto Borrego and CTO Dannis Smith from Hand Technologies visiting our group.

Clockwise are Churan Yu, Arunachalam Ramanathan,  Dhanush Patil, Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli, Lindsay B. Chambers, Varunkumar Thippanna, M. Taylor Sobczak, Chao Sui and Kenan Song.

We welcome Prof Jorge Pinxeno from Laboratoire PIMM (CNRS, Arts et Métiers, Cnam, Paris), our invited speaker, to a dinner with students after an excellent talk on forced assembly and rheology studies — courtesy of the professional photographer Kenan Song lol

We welcome our invited speaker Prof Dhruv Bhate from Arizona State University, to a dinner with students (clockwise: M. Taylor Sobczak, Chao Sui, Prof Bhate, Arunachalam Ramanathan,  Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli, invisible Libin Yang with the coat on his seat, Lindsay B. Chambers, Churan Yu, Varunkumar Thippanna, Taylor G. Theobald, Dhanush Patil, and Kenan Song), one night before an excellent talk on biomimicking structures and the inspiration to manufacturing and general science.

The Song Lab Ph.D. student Dhanush Patil gave an excellent talk on 3D pirntable liquid metals and elastomer foams for varying applications.

We invited Mr. Karsten Smith, an alumnus from UGA Mechanical Engineering, from Seoyon E-Hwa Manufacturing Savannah to give a talk on how manufacturing influence the automobile industry. 

We successfully organized the IIPA micro-symposium with the agenda posted here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Xl_wYbB7Txn7G0fpHZ4B0hTFsGNm6LrR5PrxGzLThY/edit

Our Ph.D. student Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli did an excellent job hosting the invited speakers and poster presentaters from the engineering & agriculture colleges. 

Our Ph.D. students Lindsay B. Chambers and Varunkumar Thippanna demonstrated the identification/collection of microplastics via marine robotics, as well as the role of manufacturing in both recycling and soft robotics.

Congrats on Dharneedar Ravichandran's Ph.D. defense and he is the 5th doctoral student among many to follow in the AMAML pipeline! Left to right are Prof Brent Vernon, Yuxiang Zhu, Prof. Cindy X. Li, and Prof Shenghan Guo! Prof Dhruv Bhate and Kenan Song were on Zoom.

Congrats on Dharneedar Ravichandran's Ph.D. defense and he is the 4th doctoral student among many to follow in the AMAML pipeline! Left to Right of the thesis committee members of Prof. Matthew Green, Prof. Kailong Jin, Dr. DR, Kenan Song, Prof. Dhruv Bhate, and Prof. Eric Q. Nian!

Kenan Song joined Savannah River National Laboratory researchers and staff for a student poster session, a panel discussion with SRNL researchers, and laboratory tours.

The MANUFACTURING DAY Open House has featured technology demonstrations that showcase an advanced manufacturing assembly line using additive manufacturing, data analytics and dashboarding, advanced sensor technology, AI object detection, AR/VR, and robotics. This event will spotlight Advanced Manufacturing at UGA. 

We are ready to host the transfer and new Ph.D. students at STEM-II, Driftmier engineering center, and other engineering college buildings!

Grand Opening of the ~2500ft2 Song Lab!

Left to right/clockwise are Zhahong Xiu (Ph.D.), Allan Sun Allen Sun (B.S. for NSF REU program), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.),  hams Hanse (master student for DHS project in summer 2023), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Kenan Song, Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Barath Sundaravadivelan (MS in ME), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Xiangfan Chen, Tushar Vishwanath (MS in Mechanical Engineering), Abhishek Saji Kumar (Master student for SURI project in summer 2023), Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D.), and Sayli Jambhulkar (past Ph.D. student).

As I glance at the whiteboard in my office, which has remained untouched since our move out of the renovating Tech Center, I am reminded of the ambitious plans I envisioned as a junior faculty member in 2017. It is both humbling and inspiring to reflect upon the remarkable progress and achievements our team has accomplished since then. Our journey thus far has been transformative and full of unexpected turns, underscoring the dynamic nature of our work and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead!

Behind me are Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), and Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME for a master thesis in summer 2023) working at midnight to meet the deadline

Left to right of Barath's friends are Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME for a master thesis in summer 2023), Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D.), Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Abhishek Saji Kumar (master student for SURI project in summer 2023), and a few students joining zoom (i.e., Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.)).

Congrats to Dharneedar Ravichandran for winning FIRST PLACE at the ASME International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC 2023) Doctoral Symposium! Super impressive! 

Left to right/Back to front are Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Sumi Ramachandran (M.S. in Materials Science), Abhishek Saji Kumar (Master student for SURI project in summer 2023), Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D.), Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME for a master thesis in summer 2023), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.),  Allen Sun (B.S. for NSF REU program), and Shams Hanse (master student for DHS project in summer 2023).

Summer begins - Table clockwise sitting are Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), Shams Hanse (master student for DHS project in summer 2023), Abhishek Saji Kumar (Master student for SURI project in summer 2023), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Prof AM Kannan, Prof Kenan Song, Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME for a master thesis in summer 2023), and Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D.)

Summer is around the corner - research is in full swing, Sun Devils! We welcome Anna Dmochowska from ENSAM, Paris, France for the international exchange experience in summer 2023! Table clockwise sitting are Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME for a master thesis in summer 2023), Abhishek Saji Kumar (Master student for SURI project in summer 2023), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Anna Dmochowska (Ph.D.), andYuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.)

Congrats to Dharneedar Ravichandran on his 2023 Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research award from 2023 ACS (Indianapolis, IN)!

Some of the 1st year Ph.D. students Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), and Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.) attend the DSOFT and DPOLY sessions with senior students Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.) & Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.) in Las Vegas. We had fun!

Congrats on Sayli Jambhulkar's Ph.D. defense, and she is the 3rd doctoral student and one of the most productive scholars among many to follow in the AMAML pipeline! From left to right are Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Abhishek Saji Kumar (master student for SURI project in summer 2023), Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME for a master thesis in summer 2023), Prof Kenan Song, Prof AM Kannan, Dr. Sayli Jambhulkar, Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), Prof Bruno Azeredo, Baw Mohammad, Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), and Mofe Fagade (master student doing thesis 2022-2023)

A lot of journal publications are to come thanks to the great work of the best Ph.D. candidates! Table clockwise are Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), Mofe Fagade (master student doing thesis 2022-2023), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Abhishek Saji Kumar (master student for SURI project in summer 2023), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), ri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), and Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME for a master thesis in summer 2023)

Clockwise from Prof Bruno Azeredo, Kenan Song, Abhishek Saji Kumar, Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D.), Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), and Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.)

Prof Guillaume MIQUELARD GARNIER and Prof Mohammad Hassan visiting our lab during the AIChE conference

Our lab has the advanced diffusivity meter from TA instruments thanks to the support from AFOSR DURIP program

Yuxiang Zhu giving a poster presentation about the ASU-Mayo claborations for 3D printable tissue scaffolds

BASIS MESA high school student Shayzan Siddiqi working as an intern during 2022 Summer.

Nathan Fonseca has participated in ASU FURI and SURI  programs before receiving the NSF GFRP award (2022-2024).

Karla spent 3 months at ASU as part of her Ph.D. studies as required with international exchanging experience, cuídate @ University of Sonora (Mexico). From left-right clockwise are Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.), Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), Mohammad Baw (Ph.D.), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Karla Garcia (Ph.D.), and Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.)

Table clockwise sitting are Shayzan Siddiqi (high school intern), Arunachalam Ramanathan (current MS in MSE), Varun Kumar (Ph.D.), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Max Goldstein (undergraduate intern), Mofetoluwa Fagade (current MS in MAE), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), Mohammad Baw (Ph.D.), Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D.), Barath Sundaravadivelan (current MS in ME), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.)  & Kenan Song (AP in Manufacturing)

As part of the NSF EFRI team, Varun visted the public works at the city of Phoenix to learn and tour the solid waste processing facilities and techniques!

Huge welcome to our new director of the new school, MSN at ASU. Enjoy the summer heat, folks!

Max Goldstein from the Barrett School at ASU is interested in understanding how manufacturing innovation and composite engineering help aerospace and general defense applications.

Lab intern Ajeeb F Alam (BASIS Chandler) doing projects on polymer solution rheology studies, following his old brother, Areeb, working in our lab in 2021 and now a student at UPenn.

Celebrating 20 Years of Women and Philanthropy and the project starting with Mayo Clinic collaborations!

Congrats on Weiheng Xu's Ph.D. defense and he is the 1st doctoral student among many to follow in the AMAML pipeline! Left to Right of Keann Song, Weiheng Xu, Xiangfan Chen, and Bruno Azeredo.

Congrats to Nate Fonseca' FURI project on 3D printable polymer materials for sustainability and energy applications! Nate will continue his Ph.D. studies at AMAML!

Huge congrats to Sayli Jambhulkar for being nominated and the semi-finalist of the FWA Distinguished Graduate Student!

Kenan Song group and Bruno Azeredo team, together with Prof Jay Park, are having fun at a Sushi restaurant! Clock-wise students are Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), Mohammad Baw (Ph.D.), Karla Garcia (Ph.D. from U Mexico), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Bruno Azeredo (AP at ASU), Kenan Song (AP at ASU), Jay Park (AP at UMass, Lowell), Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.), and Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.)

Congrats to Sayli Jambhulkar on his 2022 Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research award from 2022 ACS (San Diego, CA)! 

Prof Yuval Golan visit to the AMAML and presentation reports regarding textile engineering, 3D printing, hybrid manufacturing, tissue engineering, and collaborations opportunities in semiconductor nanomanufacturing with students back to front, left to right of Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D.), Nathan Fonseca (Ph.D.), Yoval Golan (Prof. from BGU), Kenan Song (AP from ASU), Dhanush Patil (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.) & Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.)

Visit from Mayo Clinic Dr. Jeff Cornella (Professor Emeritus, Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mayo Clinic), Dr. Johnny Yi (Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology), Dr. Jessica Lancaster (Assistant Professor of Immunology), Dr. Yourka Tchoukalova (Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology), Dr. Michael McPhail, Dr. Shannon Medovich, Dr. Dina Gadalla (Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology & of Regenerative Medicine), with ASU teams of Kenan Song, Shenghan Guo, and Xiangfan Chen

The WP Foundation Finalist presentation highlighting the academia-industry-clinical collaborations with Mayo Clinic and MECHnano

The group Farewell to our excellent MORE student Mounika Kakarla, who is starting a new career at Intel clock-wise students are Mohammad Barath (Ph.D.), Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.), Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D.), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Mounika Kakarla (M.S.), and Kenan Song (AP from ASU)

https://furi.engineering.asu.edu/participant/kakarla-mounika-chowdary/

2021.020.5 Thanks to Mounika Kakarla for making us this wonderful virtual lab tour for high school interns, undergraduates, masters and fresh Ph.D.s - you can see all future leaders in our field!

A one-week long online lecturing and lab demonstration of 3D printing techniques for middle and high school students

Lab intern Areeb F Alam (BASIS Chandler) doing projects on textile engineering and its application in wearable sensors, topic "Fabrication and Characterization of Hollow PVA Fibers for Biomedical Applications", 1st Place of AZ Science Fair awards & NSTI Scholar

Left to right: Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.), Yuxiang  Zhu (Ph.D.), Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), and Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.)

Lab training of composites manufacturing on middle-high school students from East Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (EVHCC)  (e.g., 7 females, 6 Hispanic)

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) middle-high school students taking classroom lectures of advanced manufacturing 

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) middle-high school students taking lab sessions of advanced manufacturing  (e.g., 2 African Americans, 14 females)

BASIS Chandler high school students visiting lab for internships and scientific projects  (e.g., 2 Hispanic, 3 females)

Left to right: Avadhoot Kuchibhatla (M.S.), Aditya Shah (M.S.), Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Rahul Franklin (M.S.), Kenan Song, Namrata Kanth (M.S.), and Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), 

Kenan Song hosted by Guillaume Miquelard

Newly developed course MFG 598 lab session (e.g., by average 3-5 females, 2-5 Hispanic, 1-3 African Americans among 20-30 enrollments)

We invited the entrepreneur CEO and ASU Alumnus Justin Hillsten for a seminar on  the undergraduate class 218.

Left to right: Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Amm Hasib (Ph.D.), Kenan Song, Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.), Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), and Natalie Turner (B.S.) 

Thank you Weiheng Xu (Ph.D.), Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D.), Rahul Franklin (M.S.), Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), Avadhoot Kuchibhatla (M.S.), Namrata Kanth (M.S.), and Rushik Tank (M.S.) for the surprise party!

Left to right: Kenan Song, Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D.), Rushik Tank (M.S.), Rahul Franklin (M.S.), and Aditya Shah (M.S.)