PI:
Kenan Song, Ph.D., Email: kenan.song@uga.edu
Kenan Song did his Postdoc at MIT (Cambridge, MA) between 2015 and 2017 in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering & Department of Chemical Engineering (Advisers: Prof. Michael F. Rubner & Prof. Robert E. Cohen). He focused on coating technologies with a UAE-funded project on "Multifunctional Composite Coatings: Mechanical Robustness, Wear-resistance, Self-healing, Self-cleaning, Anti-static, and Anti-reflection." Before that, Kenan obtained his Ph.D. from Northeastern University (Boston, MA) in May 2015 in Mechanical Engineering (Advisor: Professor Marilyn L. Minus). His Ph.D. thesis focused on textile engineering was titled “Customizing Fiber Spinning Approaches for Polymer/Nano-carbon Composites” (http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20128371). Kenan received his B.S. from Northeastern University (July 2010) with training in the area of Engineering Mechanics (Advisor: Professor Jun Liu). His capstone project ended with the thesis of “Numerical Simulation of Rubber Composite Interfacial Debonding Damage." Awards Kenan Song has received include the following.
FY25 Provost International Travel Funds and Partnership Development Funding from the Office of Global Engagement, UGA (2025)
2024 cohort of NSF-CMMI’s Game Changer Academies for Advancing Research Innovation
EETI Travel Fellowship with travel support to attend the 2024 Frontiers in Education Conference in Washington, DC (2024)
UGA Faculty Fellow Award (2024)
Humboldt Research Fellowship (2023)
DHS New Investigator Award (NIA) (2023)
SME 2023 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award (2023)
NSF Travel Award for the US-Japan Symposium on Composite Materials (June 14-15, 2023)
VDRI Travel Award for the TechConnect World Innovation Conference & Expo (June 19-21, 2023)
NSF Travel Award for the DOE REMADE Tech Summit and Conference (March 20-21, 2023)
SAMPE North America Young Professionals Emerging Leadership Award (YPELA) and 2022 Young Professional of the Year Award (2022)
Emerging Researcher Award at the 2nd International Conference on Materials & Manufacturing (2022)
ACS PRF NDI Award (2021)
Resilience Fellow of ASU’s Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (2021)
Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care— Faculty Summer Residency Award (2021)
Faculty Fellowship (2018)
Keen Professorship (2018)
Journal Recognition/Highlight:
ACS Applied Nano Materials special issue of "Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials and their Assembled Structures and Interfaces for Energy Applications", ACS Publishing (2024)
SMALL special issue of "Advanced 3D and 4D Printing of Functional Materials"
Journal of Polymer Science (JPS) special issue of "Polymeric Materials for Additive Manufacturing", Wiley Journal (2023)
Materials Advances special collection "Early Stage Investigator Honorees of the ACS Polymeric Materials Science & Engineering Division", RSC journal (2023)
Polymer International (Wiley Journal) Excellence in Early Career Research (2022)
JMCC Emerging Investigator, RSC Journal (2022)
Relevant UGA affiliations -
UGA School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural, and Mechanical Engineering (ECAM), 2023-
UGA Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture (IIPA), 2023-
UGA Regenerative Bisciecne Center (RBC), 2023-
UGA Engineering Education and Transformation Insitute (EETI), 2023-
Ph.D. Candidates and Graduates:
Postodc. Associates:
@UGA
Libing Yang (Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Syracuse University in 2024; B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University)
Chao Sui (Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Arkansas in 2024; )
Ph.D. Candidates:
@UGA
(Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024fall-; )
(Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024fall-; ), co-supervised with Prof. Xianqiao Wang from UGA
(Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024fall-; BS in Polymer Engineering @Tsinghua University and MS in Chemical Engineering @University of Rochester), co-supervised with Prof Yang Liu from UGA
(Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024fall-; BS in Pharmaceutical Engineering @Dalian University of Technology)
(Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024spring-; BS in Plastics and Polymer Engineering @ Islamic Azad University and MS in Polymer/Plastics Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology)
Lindsay Bick Chambers (Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024summer-; BS in Chemistry from Georgia University)
Talyor Martin Sobczak (Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024spring-; BS in Mechanical Engineering from UGA)
Arunachalam Ramanathan (Ph.D. Manufacturing Engineering, 2022fall-2024spring; M.S., Materials Science & Engineering, ASU; transferred to Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering @UGA, 2024spring), co-supervised with Prof. Sui Yang from ASU
Sri Vaishnavi Thummalapalli (Ph.D. Manufacturing Engineering, 2022fall-2024spring; M.S., Chemical Engineering, ASU; transferred to Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering @UGA, 2024spring), co-supervised with Prof. Arunachala Mada Kannan
Varunkumar Thippanna (Ph.D. Manufacturing Engineering, 2022fall-; M.S., Materials Science & Engineering ASU; transferred to Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering @UGA, 2024summer)
Dhanush Patil (Ph.D. System Engineering, 2022spring-; MS Mechanical Engineering, ASU; transferred to Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering @UGA, 2024fall)
Ph.D. Graduates/Alumni:
Hongji Zhang (Ph.D. Manufacturing Engineering, 2023fall-; M.S., Engineering and Computer Science, California State University, Northridge), co-supervised with Prof. Chao Ma in 2023-2024
Abhishek Saji Kumar (Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2022fall-; M.S., Materials Science & Engineering, ASU), co-supervised with Prof. Sui Yang in 2023-2024
Yuxiang Zhu (Ph.D. System Engineering, 2020spring-2024spring; BS Beihang University; MS Columbia University)
Dharneedar Ravichandran (Ph.D. System Engineering, 2019fall-2024spring; MS Mechanical Engineering ASU); joined University of California, Berkeley (UCB) as a Postdoc
Sayli Jambhulkar (Ph.D. System Engineering, 2019spring-2023spring; MS IIT); joined Intel upon graduation
Weiheng Xu (Ph.D. System Engineering, 2018fall-2022summer; BS UC San Diego; MS Columbia University); joined Intel upon graduation
Amm Hasib (Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, 2016spring-2022summer; BS Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology; MS University of North Texas;), co-supervised with Prof Bruno Azeredo; joined Intel upon graduation
Ph.D. Exchanging Students:
Anna Dmochowska (Ph.D. in Polymer Science from ENSAM, France, 2023 summer)
Karla Garcia (Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from University of Sonora, Mexico, 2022 summer)
B.S./M.S. Alumni (thesis/project-based B.S. and M.S. students; thesis posted in links):
M.S. Alumni
Shams Hassan (M.S., Manufacturing Engineering, ASU, 2022-2023)
Megan Murphy (M.S., Biomedical Engineering, ASU 2021-2023)
Abhishek Saji Kumar (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2022-2024)
Barath Sundaravadivelan (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2022-2024) with the MS thesis
Mofe Fagade (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2021-2023) upon graduation a Ph.D. student at the University of Calgary in Canada, with the MS thesis
Prem Nawab (M.S., Aerospace Engineering, ASU 2021-2023)
Andrew Walsh (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2022-2024)
Jaden Diji-Vaughan (M.S., Manufacturing Engineering, ASU 2021-2022)
Mounika Kakarla (M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, ASU, 2020-2021)
Dru Keister (M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, ASU, 2020-2021)
Darius Hampton-Ross (M.S., Aerospace Engineering, ASU 2019-2022)
Bhushan Ahire (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2019-2021)
Rahul Franklin (M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, ASU, 2018-2020) upon graduation a Ph.D. student at Purdue University with the MS thesis
Namrata Kanth (M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, ASU, 2019-2020) with the MS thesis
Aditya Shah (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2017-2019)
Rushik Tank (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2017-2019)
Avadhoot Kuchibhatla (M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, ASU 2018-2019)
Rahul Verma (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, ASU 2017-2018) with the MS thesis
B.S. Alumni:
Sean Lee (B.S., REU student from Mechanical Engineering, UGA, 2024-2025)
Alaina Sacco (B.S., Biological Engineering, UGA, 2024-2025)
Alan Sun (B.S., REM student from Chemistry of Stony Brook University, 2023 summer)
Joel Haug (B.S., Biomedical Engineering, ASU 2019-2023)
Max Goldstein (B.S., Aerospace Engineering, ASU 2021-2022)
Dean Spyres (B.S., Mechanical Engineering Systems, ASU, 2019-2020)
Natalie Turner (B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, ASU, 2019-2020)