Meet the people who make up STEM Faculty.
Rongshan is a Professor in Advanced Materials Engineering at The Open University, where he has worked since 2015. Before this, he was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London. He holds a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has worked at Brunel University, the University of Cambridge, Daresbury Laboratory, and POSTECH.
Rongshan's research focuses on advanced materials processing. This includes developing new methods to fabricate materials, improving existing processes for better production, and introducing new ways to control materials processing.
Electromagnetic fields influence phase equilibrium, heat transfer, and mass transfer, providing alternative methods to fabricate materials. These effects can be either beneficial or detrimental. Rongshan’s research involves creating thermodynamic theories and databases to predict these effects, studying transition kinetics and mass transfer in electromagnetic environments, and designing equipment and parameters to achieve desirable outcomes in practice.
Many transformations in materials processing occur in complex, opaque, and high-temperature environments that are difficult to study experimentally. To address this, Rongshan’s team uses computational tools and simulation methods, including computational thermodynamics, phase-field methods, smoothed particle hydrodynamics, dissipative particle dynamics, lattice Boltzmann equations, cellular automata, and information computing.
Rongshan also explores the use of sensors to monitor internal behaviors during materials processing, such as electromagnetic imaging. These sensors generate large datasets, which are used to create virtual visualizations of processes. Artificial intelligence methods are applied to extract key information from the data and provide feedback for optimizing production.
Followings are part of courses that I have taught recently for engineering students. Previously I also taught quantum mechanics and atomic physics for undergraduates in department of physics.
1.T460 MEng Individual Project
I have chaired this module presentation 2021-2024.
2. T885 MEng Team Project
I have been the directot of T885 residential weekends since 2023.
3.T367 Structural Integrity: Design Against Failure
I have been in module team for critical reading the module materials since 2019.
4.T357: Structural Integrity: Designing against Failure
BLOCK 1: Stress Analysis
BLOCK 2: Fracture Mechanics
This is a major distant learning course for engineering students. I have been involved in teaching this course since August 2015.
5.T176 Engineering: An Active Introduction
This is an introductory engineering course at Open University Residential School to hold in each summer. I have been involved in teaching this course since July 2015.
6.T276 Engineering in Action
This is a practical engineering course at Open University Residential School to hold in each summer. I have been involved in teaching this course since July 2015.
7.MSE 307: Engineering Alloys – Steels (8 lectures, lecturer)
This is a part of MSE307 course that I introduced in 2009 at Imperial College London. I have lectured 4 times to the 3rd year undergraduates and MSc students between 2010 and 2014.
The course introduces ironmaking and steelmaking principles, microstructure of steel, steel strengthening mechanism, TRIP and TWIP automotive steels, nanostructured steels, modern special steels and principles to design novel steels.
8.MSE 206: Process Principles (24 lectures, lecturer)
I gave 24 lectures on heat and mass transfer. This covers fluid mechanics, heat transfer and thermomechanical processing of materials. The course has been delivered 3 times to 2nd year undergraduates between 2011 and 2014.
9.MSE 106: Communication for Engineers (3 lectures and 3 coursework, course leader)
I developed this new course and worked with the Chief Technician in the Departmental Workshop between 2011 and 2014.
10.MSM: Materials Simulation Methods – Phase field method (2 lectures and 3 practical sessions)
This course is for MSc students in Doctoral Training Centre at Imperial College London. The lectures provide a thorough introduction to phase field method.
11.Metal Deformation Laboratory
I was in charge of this undergraduate laboratory from 2012 to 2014 at Imperial College London. The aim is to demonstrate the rolling and annealing of metals for improving the mechanical property of metallic materials.
12.GIFT 702: Solidification Processing (25 lectures, lecturer)
I designed the course for postgraduates and lectured it at Pohang University of Science and Technology in 2007-2009. The course materials including PDF lecture notes and 25 recorded videos were uploaded online and received significant downloads.
13.Fundaments of Solidification (4 lectures, lecturer)
I taught this course for 2nd year undergraduates at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology.
I am a member of NASC consortium and UKCOMES consortium, member of the Royal Society’s Newton International Fellowships Committee (Physical) from 1 January 2022 until 31 December 2024 and extended from 1 January 2024 until 31 December 2027, member of the Royal Society’s Newton Advanced Fellowship Panel (01/2020-12/2022,), member of EPSRC college (2013-), member of editorial board for cScience (2024-), Scientific Reports (2015-), Materials Science and Technology (2014-), Bulletin of Magnitogorsk State Technical University (2016-) and Metals (2021-). I am an IAAM Medal 2019 award recipient, and received three times prize award from Scripta Materialia for reviewing (2006, 2007 and 2016). I have been consistently ranked among the world’s top 2% of scientists by Stanford University since 2022.
