Austin Ngo was selected for the Callahan Fellowship, which is awarded annually to “the most promising and academically qualified PhD applicants to the Case School of Engineering."
Originally from Cleveland, Tennessee, Ngo first became interested in materials science and engineering during his time as an undergraduate student at University of Tennessee. He began his undergraduate studies as a general engineering major, but general education courses with materials professors really drew him in. He was recruited for graduate studies at CWRU by his advisor, Professor John Lewandowski, and Lewandowski’s research group.
For most of his undergraduate and graduate career, Ngo’s research has focused on additive manufacturing of metals. He completed his MS in May 2020, defending a thesis focused on Fracture and Fatigue of Additively Manufactured AlSi10Mg that Lewandowski praised as “excellent.” Ngo considers his thesis project his biggest accomplishment during his time at CWRU. “Doing that independent research project for two years was new territory,” he said of his study of the mechanical behavior of additive manufactured aluminum alloys.
During his studies his MS at CWRU, Ngo was also active in the America Makes sponsored project involving many universities and companies studying in the mechanical reliability of additively manufactured aluminum alloys for aerospace applications. For this project, Ngo conducted tension, high cycle fatigue, fatigue crack growth, and fracture toughness experiments on samples. Different samples he performed experiments on were manufactured with different process variables, allowing systematic investigation of the impact of defects and contamination on the materials’ mechanical performances. Ngo typically presented his research to the whole team at monthly webinars.
Ngo plans to focus more on mechanical behavior of additive manufactured metals during his PhD studies. He expects to tie in his research from his MS research and the data he collected, as well as examine more broadly the development of technology, how it can be improved and how industries can gain a better understanding and control of new technology. He intends to examine the effects of intentional and unintentional process-induced defects on the mechanical reliability of additively manufactured metals and approach that problem from a variety of methods.
Ngo praised Lewandowski as a mentor for both academic advising and finding opportunities to develop research abilities. “All the professors (in the MSE department) provide great guidance,” said Ngo. He appreciates the department’s dynamic and how it is “professional, but fun,” praising Department Chair Frank Ernst for “building up the student community."
As an undergraduate student, Ngo spent time at two national laboratories. He did an internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he did corrosion studies on additive manufactured nickel based alloys. He also did undergraduate research at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, where he performed tomography experiments on additive manufactured stainless steel and conducted several X-ray tomography and X-ray diffraction experiments using Argonne’s APS facility. He likes the idea of working at a national laboratory after he graduates, pointing out his admiration of the “cutting edge facilities” and “state of the art materials characterization technology” at Oak Ridge and Argonne.
Ngo is secretary of the Graduate Materials Society at CWRU and is active in Lewandowski’s research group. He frequently conducts experiments in the Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Reliability Center at CWRU and is also mentoring a BS/MS student that has recently joined Lewandowski’s research group.
"Austin is an excellent student and has many options for his future,” said Lewandowski.
