Faculty
Dr. Yongsheng Ma has joined Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China since July, 2021 as a full professor. Before that, Dr. Ma had been a full professor with the University of Alberta (UA) since 2007. He was an associate professor with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore during 2000-2007. Dr. Ma started his career as a polytechnic lecturer in Singapore (1993-1996); and then a research fellow, senior research fellow and group manager (1996-2000) at Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology.
Dr. Ma received his B.Eng. from Tsinghua University, Beijing (1986), both M.Sc. (1990) and Ph.D. (1994) from UMIST, UK. Dr. Ma has had an established research profile with many research projects from different sources, and published more than 200 papers internationally in recognized top journals, conferences, and book chapters. Dr. Ma had served as an Editorial Board Member of Advanced Engineering Informatics (ADVEI, Elsevier) since 2012, and became an associate editor since 2020. Concurrently, he also serves as an associate editor for ASME Journal of Computer Information Science and Engineering (JCISE), and an Editorial Member of Scientific Reports (Springer Nature). Dr. Ma had also been an associate editor of IEEE Transaction of Automation Science and Engineering (2009-2013). Dr. Ma is a member of ASEE, SME, SPE, ASME, CSME and a Canada (Alberta) registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) since 2009. In 2012, he won the prestigious ASTech award sponsored by The Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation together with Drader Manufacturing Ltd. Dr. Ma had also served as a senator of UA during 2014-2016.
Research Areas ：
Engineering informatics for design and manufacturing, CADCAM, and product lifecycle management. He has been teaching a number of courses including mechanical engineering design, manufacturing systems, engineering informatics, and engineering management.
Research Profile：
Dr. Ma’s application research interest falls in the areas of CAx interoperability, CAD/CAE integration, collaborative and concurrent engineering in MRP/ERP/CRM, and product life cycle management. His specialty is in feature-based intelligent product and engineering process informatics. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Ma led a team in Singapore (SIMTech) and developed several industrial software tools. One of them was for plastic mold design, i.e. ‘QuickMould’. This tool had been successfully commercialized, and was purchased by UGS Inc (now under SIEMENS) in 1999, and converted into new a product known as “Moldwizard”. Another toolkit was SMCAD for intelligent sheet metal stepping die design. The technical merits of these tools are that they have significantly improved the productivity of related complex engineering practices.
Theoretically, since 1999, Dr. Ma has proposed Unified and Associative Feature Theory, which suggested an advanced modeling method that supports engineering feature objects consistently across iterative engineering phases of a system from cradle to grave. With the support of that advanced informatics theory, a generic feature definition scheme has been developed which can accommodate the complexity of engineering semantic entities by mapping their properties into a generic data structure in a flexible manner as well as incorporating intelligent evaluation and functional methods to maintain the associated constraints. Such a conceptual breakthrough was further enhanced with the development of a feature-based fine-grain, and neutral-format database repository. As a natural evolution of this research, an ambitious research program to develop a unified and web-based collaborative engineering system has been established.
Dr. Ma’s another major research direction has been synergized to build an inter-disciplinary complex physical phenomena lifecycle engineering informatics modeling foundation, integrating CAD/CAE/CFD functions with dynamic interfacing features. One of the major projects was the industrial study on Steam Assisted Gravity Draining (SAGD) oil extraction process working conditions targeting for the complex underground tooling system design, analysis and optimization for oilsands engineering in Canada (Alberta). The research contents include oil well drilling and refinery production modeling that is expected to enable enterprises to capture and reuse their existing engineering expertise in the form of a computer repository system and to implement smart and reliable engineering management.
Since 2012, Dr. Ma had embarked a research effort focusing on non-uniform feature-based engineering material topological optimization area focusing on future generation multi-scale material model-based design, functional feature modeling, and manufacturing methods applied in advanced product design, evaluation, and mechanics analysis.
So far, Dr. Ma has completed 43 research projects sponsored by government institutions and industrial companies; published over 200 journal and international conference papers and 2 specialty books. He has also supervised 17 PhD graduate students and many MSc, MEng and undergraduate students.
Teaching Profile：
Current course offered
◆ Innovative Design Theory and Practice (SUSTech)
Courses taught before
• Senior Design Projects
• Manufacturing Processes
• Financial Management for Engineers
• Computer-Aided Product Modeling and Production Engineering (graduate course)
• Manufacturing Systems and Engineering
• Innovative Design Theory and Practice
• Network-oriented Collaborative Engineering
• Overview of Intelligent Manufacturing
• Advanced Design
• Collaborative Product Development
Appointments：
Academic
◆ Full Professor, July 14, 2021 – present
Dr. Ma received his B.Eng. from Tsinghua University, Beijing (1986), both M.Sc. (1990) and Ph.D. (1994) from UMIST, UK. Dr. Ma has had an established research profile with many research projects from different sources, and published more than 200 papers internationally in recognized top journals, conferences, and book chapters. Dr. Ma had served as an Editorial Board Member of Advanced Engineering Informatics (ADVEI, Elsevier) since 2012, and became an associate editor since 2020. Concurrently, he also serves as an associate editor for ASME Journal of Computer Information Science and Engineering (JCISE), and an Editorial Member of Scientific Reports (Springer Nature). Dr. Ma had also been an associate editor of IEEE Transaction of Automation Science and Engineering (2009-2013). Dr. Ma is a member of ASEE, SME, SPE, ASME, CSME and a Canada (Alberta) registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) since 2009. In 2012, he won the prestigious ASTech award sponsored by The Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation together with Drader Manufacturing Ltd. Dr. Ma had also served as a senator of UA during 2014-2016.
Research Areas ：
Engineering informatics for design and manufacturing, CADCAM, and product lifecycle management. He has been teaching a number of courses including mechanical engineering design, manufacturing systems, engineering informatics, and engineering management.
Research Profile：
Dr. Ma’s application research interest falls in the areas of CAx interoperability, CAD/CAE integration, collaborative and concurrent engineering in MRP/ERP/CRM, and product life cycle management. His specialty is in feature-based intelligent product and engineering process informatics. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Ma led a team in Singapore (SIMTech) and developed several industrial software tools. One of them was for plastic mold design, i.e. ‘QuickMould’. This tool had been successfully commercialized, and was purchased by UGS Inc (now under SIEMENS) in 1999, and converted into new a product known as “Moldwizard”. Another toolkit was SMCAD for intelligent sheet metal stepping die design. The technical merits of these tools are that they have significantly improved the productivity of related complex engineering practices.
Theoretically, since 1999, Dr. Ma has proposed Unified and Associative Feature Theory, which suggested an advanced modeling method that supports engineering feature objects consistently across iterative engineering phases of a system from cradle to grave. With the support of that advanced informatics theory, a generic feature definition scheme has been developed which can accommodate the complexity of engineering semantic entities by mapping their properties into a generic data structure in a flexible manner as well as incorporating intelligent evaluation and functional methods to maintain the associated constraints. Such a conceptual breakthrough was further enhanced with the development of a feature-based fine-grain, and neutral-format database repository. As a natural evolution of this research, an ambitious research program to develop a unified and web-based collaborative engineering system has been established.
Dr. Ma’s another major research direction has been synergized to build an inter-disciplinary complex physical phenomena lifecycle engineering informatics modeling foundation, integrating CAD/CAE/CFD functions with dynamic interfacing features. One of the major projects was the industrial study on Steam Assisted Gravity Draining (SAGD) oil extraction process working conditions targeting for the complex underground tooling system design, analysis and optimization for oilsands engineering in Canada (Alberta). The research contents include oil well drilling and refinery production modeling that is expected to enable enterprises to capture and reuse their existing engineering expertise in the form of a computer repository system and to implement smart and reliable engineering management.
Since 2012, Dr. Ma had embarked a research effort focusing on non-uniform feature-based engineering material topological optimization area focusing on future generation multi-scale material model-based design, functional feature modeling, and manufacturing methods applied in advanced product design, evaluation, and mechanics analysis.
So far, Dr. Ma has completed 43 research projects sponsored by government institutions and industrial companies; published over 200 journal and international conference papers and 2 specialty books. He has also supervised 17 PhD graduate students and many MSc, MEng and undergraduate students.
Teaching Profile：
Current course offered
◆ Innovative Design Theory and Practice (SUSTech)
Courses taught before
• Senior Design Projects
• Manufacturing Processes
• Financial Management for Engineers
• Computer-Aided Product Modeling and Production Engineering (graduate course)
• Manufacturing Systems and Engineering
• Innovative Design Theory and Practice
• Network-oriented Collaborative Engineering
• Overview of Intelligent Manufacturing
• Advanced Design
• Collaborative Product Development
Appointments：
Academic
◆ Full Professor, July 14, 2021 – present
Dept. of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Engineering, Shenzhen, P.R. China
◆ Full Professor, July 1, 2013 – July 13, 2021 (retired)
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
◆ Visiting Professor, September 1, 2019 - August 30, 2020 (during sabbatical leave)
Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
◆ Associate Professor (Tenured), September 1, 2007 – June 30, 2013
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
◆ Associate Professor, September 1, 2000 – August 30, 2007
◆ School of Mech. & Prod. Eng, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Lecturer, July 1, 1993 – October 30, 1996
◆ Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore
Industry
◆1999 - 2000, Manager, Computer Aided Product Technology Group, and Senior Research Fellow, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech).
◆ Full Professor, July 1, 2013 – July 13, 2021 (retired)
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
◆ Visiting Professor, September 1, 2019 - August 30, 2020 (during sabbatical leave)
Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
◆ Associate Professor (Tenured), September 1, 2007 – June 30, 2013
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
◆ Associate Professor, September 1, 2000 – August 30, 2007
◆ School of Mech. & Prod. Eng, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Lecturer, July 1, 1993 – October 30, 1996
◆ Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore
Industry
◆1999 - 2000, Manager, Computer Aided Product Technology Group, and Senior Research Fellow, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech).
◆1998 – 1999, Project Leader, Senior Research Fellow, SIMTech.
◆1996 – 1998, Developer, Research Fellow, SIMTech.
Academic Awards and Recognitions
◆1986 Outstanding Graduate, Tsinghua University
◆1996 – 1998, Developer, Research Fellow, SIMTech.
Academic Awards and Recognitions
◆1986 Outstanding Graduate, Tsinghua University
◆1987 Sino-British Friendship Scholarship for study in UK for a 4-year graduate program
◆2008 Best paper award, “Research on PLM system interoperability with a feature-object-based approach”, Int. Conf. on Advances on Product Development and Reliability, Chengdu, China
◆2009-2009 Visiting Scholar, Chung Nam National University, Visiting Scholar Lecture Series (VSLS) Program, Daejeon, South Korea.
◆2009-present Editorial Board, Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier
◆2010 Visiting professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China.
◆2012 ASTech Award for Industrial Research Partnership jointly with Drader Manufacture Ltd, sponsored by Alberta Science and Technology Foundation
◆2014-2016 Senator, Honorable Degree Nominating Work Group, Senate, University of Alberta
◆2014-2017 Peng Cheng Scholar, Awarded by Shenzhen City; and visiting professor, Tsinghua University Shenzhen Graduate School, China
◆2017-2019 Adjunct professor, Beijing Institute of Technology, China
◆2019-2024 Adjunct professor, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China
◆2019-2020 Visiting Professor, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), ShenZhen, China
Education：
◆1994, Ph.D. in CADCAM, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK
◆2008 Best paper award, “Research on PLM system interoperability with a feature-object-based approach”, Int. Conf. on Advances on Product Development and Reliability, Chengdu, China
◆2009-2009 Visiting Scholar, Chung Nam National University, Visiting Scholar Lecture Series (VSLS) Program, Daejeon, South Korea.
◆2009-present Editorial Board, Journal of Advanced Engineering Informatics, Elsevier
◆2010 Visiting professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China.
◆2012 ASTech Award for Industrial Research Partnership jointly with Drader Manufacture Ltd, sponsored by Alberta Science and Technology Foundation
◆2014-2016 Senator, Honorable Degree Nominating Work Group, Senate, University of Alberta
◆2014-2017 Peng Cheng Scholar, Awarded by Shenzhen City; and visiting professor, Tsinghua University Shenzhen Graduate School, China
◆2017-2019 Adjunct professor, Beijing Institute of Technology, China
◆2019-2024 Adjunct professor, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China
◆2019-2020 Visiting Professor, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), ShenZhen, China
Education：
◆1994, Ph.D. in CADCAM, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK
◆1990, M.Sc. in Metal Cutting, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK
◆1986, B.Eng. in Mechanical Manufacturing and Equipment Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China
Selected Papers：
◆SZ XU, J Liu, J Huang, B Zou, Q Li, Y Ma, Stress constrained multi-material topology optimization with ordered SIMP method, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 373(1), 113453, Elsevier, 2021.
◆1986, B.Eng. in Mechanical Manufacturing and Equipment Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China
Selected Papers：
◆SZ XU, J Liu, J Huang, B Zou, Q Li, Y Ma, Stress constrained multi-material topology optimization with ordered SIMP method, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 373(1), 113453, Elsevier, 2021.
◆J REN, R Ahmad, G Zhang, Y Rong, Y Ma, A Parametric Simulation Model for HVOF Coating Thickness Control, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, online access, Springer，2021.
◆J REN, G Zhang, Y Rong, Y Ma. A Feature-based Model for Optimizing HVOF Process by Combining Numerical Simulation with Experimental Verification. SME Journal of Manufacturing Processes, Elsevier, Volume 64, April 2021, Pages 224-238.
◆D KURIAN, Y Ma, L Lefsrud, F Sattari, Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Using Machine Learning to Categorize and Analyze Incident Reports for Alberta Oil Sands Operators, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 64(2), 104069 (9 pp), Elsevier, 2020
◆J Fu, Y Ma，A method to predict early-ejected plastic part air-cooling behavior towards quality mold design and less molding cycle time，Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 56(4), 66-74 (Elsevier)，2019.
◆J LIU, Q Chen, Y Zheng, R Ahmad, J Tang, Y Ma, Level-set-based Heterogeneous Object Modeling and Optimization, Computer Aided Design, 110(5), 50-68, Elsevier, 2019.
◆ L LI, CF Lange, Z Xu, P Jiang, Y Ma, Feature-based intelligent system for steam simulation using computational fluid dynamics, Advanced Engineering Informatics, 38(10), 357-369, Elsevier, 2018.
◆ M LEITCH, Y YUSUF, Y Ma, Interdisciplinary Semantic Model for Managing the Design of a Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Tooling System, Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 5(1), 68-79, Elsevier, 2018.
◆ J LIU, Y Ma, A new multi-material level set topology optimization method with the length scale control capability, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 329(2), 444-463, Elsevier, 2018.
◆Z CHENG, Y Ma, A functional feature modeling method, Advanced Engineering Informatics, 33, 1-15, Elsevier, 2017.
◆J REN, G Zhang, Y Rong, Y Ma. A Feature-based Model for Optimizing HVOF Process by Combining Numerical Simulation with Experimental Verification. SME Journal of Manufacturing Processes, Elsevier, Volume 64, April 2021, Pages 224-238.
◆D KURIAN, Y Ma, L Lefsrud, F Sattari, Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Using Machine Learning to Categorize and Analyze Incident Reports for Alberta Oil Sands Operators, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 64(2), 104069 (9 pp), Elsevier, 2020
◆J Fu, Y Ma，A method to predict early-ejected plastic part air-cooling behavior towards quality mold design and less molding cycle time，Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 56(4), 66-74 (Elsevier)，2019.
◆J LIU, Q Chen, Y Zheng, R Ahmad, J Tang, Y Ma, Level-set-based Heterogeneous Object Modeling and Optimization, Computer Aided Design, 110(5), 50-68, Elsevier, 2019.
◆ L LI, CF Lange, Z Xu, P Jiang, Y Ma, Feature-based intelligent system for steam simulation using computational fluid dynamics, Advanced Engineering Informatics, 38(10), 357-369, Elsevier, 2018.
◆ M LEITCH, Y YUSUF, Y Ma, Interdisciplinary Semantic Model for Managing the Design of a Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Tooling System, Journal of Computational Design and Engineering, 5(1), 68-79, Elsevier, 2018.
◆ J LIU, Y Ma, A new multi-material level set topology optimization method with the length scale control capability, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 329(2), 444-463, Elsevier, 2018.
◆Z CHENG, Y Ma, A functional feature modeling method, Advanced Engineering Informatics, 33, 1-15, Elsevier, 2017.