Jay Oswald

Jay Oswald is an Associate Professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2011, advised by Professor Ted Belytschko. From 2005 to 2006, he worked at NASA Glenn Research Center, studying the mechanical and environmental behavior of docking seal materials for spaceflight applications.

Dr. Oswald’s research focuses on computational mechanics and advanced manufacturing, with an emphasis on developing physics-based and data-driven methods for modeling, monitoring, and automating manufacturing processes. His group combines solid mechanics, numerical methods, machine learning, computer vision, and geometric algorithms to address problems motivated by real manufacturing systems.

Current research includes computational modeling of laser welding and other joining processes; automated inspection and defect detection using machine learning and 3D sensing; geometric methods for robotic part identification, pose estimation, and handling; and advanced finite-element methods for problems involving complex material interfaces and electromagnetic systems. Much of this work is conducted in collaboration with industry, with the goal of translating new computational methods into practical tools for manufacturing and automation.

Students in Dr. Oswald’s group work at the intersection of mechanics, computation, AI, and manufacturing. Projects often combine fundamental method development with experimental or industrial data, giving students experience taking computational ideas from formulation and implementation through validation and practical application.