Dr. Xiaoming Mu is an assistant professor for the mechanical engineering department.

Mu earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering mechanics at Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China.

When he moved to the United States, Mu earned his master’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and in July he received his PhD for Mechanical Engineering from the same school.

Mu became interested in mechanical engineering because of the influence of his hometown in China as well as his mother’s influence as she herself was a mechanical design engineer of automobiles. He became immersed in automobiles because his hometown in China was home to the first automobile factory, but he later switched gears to mechanical engineering during his undergraduate years.

One of the biggest reasons Mu became interested in teaching at Wilkes was because of 3-D printing and the additive manufacturing lab on campus. He focused on additive manufacturing during his PhD.

“It’s my expertise and it’s why I am here,” said Mu, “I am here to get involved and offering new courses.”

Mu has published papers from his research with additive manufacturing and photo-mechanics of materials where he used light to deform the shape of different materials and developed a new way to print porous materials using salt and light for biomedical applications.

Mu teached CADD lab, Statics, Strength of Materials, Solid Mechanics in his first year at Wilkes.

“There’s a lot of stuff for me to learn in my new role as a faculty member,” said Mu.

“I think being a new faculty member gives me the advantage because I care about students a lot,” said Mu, “I was a student half a year ago so I know what students are thinking, what they want, and what they are expecting to get from the lecture.”

In the near future Mu hopes to utilize his interests in 3D printing and material study to create a new lab for undergraduates to assist him in.

Mu had his first teaching experience at Georgia Institute of Technology as a graduate teaching assistant where he helped grade homework and, to his surprise, even had the opportunity to be the instructor of the lab.

“It was really a new experience for me and it started to be extraordinarily interesting and I started to think what if I took on this role as an instructor,” said Mu.

Mu was able to expand his background in teaching as he was a substitute teacher for his advisor when he went to conferences.

“I enjoyed it a lot,” said Mu, “I decided why not find a job that I can both focus on research and teaching at the same time.”

Wilkes’ focus on education and on the students is also what attracted Mu here. He liked the opportunity Wilkes gave him to use his knowledge of research in the classroom.

“I know research and I can combine them together when I teach the students about any classes,” said Mu. “I can not only tell them the concept but also I can tell them what will help them in the real life.”

Mu also liked the intimacy of the small class sizes that Wilkes is known for.

“I am glad I am here,” said Mu.