Prof. Hsu grew up in the machine shops and has been in the fields of Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science for the past 20 years. After working in the industry as a mechanical design engineer and manufacturing project lead, he returned to academia for advanced study in materials and manufacturing. He received his Ph.D in Mechanical Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, and has since then devoted his professional life to engineering research, mentoring and teaching engineers, as well as developing engineering products. He believes that asking meaningful scientific “why”, “how”, and “who cares” questions, sets the foundation of everything we do as engineering researchers. As a researcher, he seeks to bridge the gap between new scientific discoveries and their end-user applications by addressing the need for new manufacturing processes to bring theoretical materials and applications to reality. He believes the most effective way to advancing manufacturing is a science-based view of manufacturing research with an approach in which material-process interactions are understood and harnessed to create and perfect manufacturing techniques. He is the recipient of research funding from NSF, DOD, NASA, the industry, and a co-founder of a technology startup on a revolutionary ambient metal 3D printing process.