Dr. Cheng received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Columbia University in 2002. He received the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 2007 and the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2006. He received Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineer (SME) in 2007. Dr. Cheng served as an associate Editor for Journal of Manufacturing Process. He also organized and chaired technical conferences and workshops of ASME, SME and other societies.