Bijaya Bikram Samal

Bijaya Bikram Samal is a Senior Ph.D. Research Scholar at the Direct Digital Manufacturing Lab, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, W.B., India, under the joint supervision of Prof. C. S. Kumar (Mechanical Engg) & Prof. S. K. Varshney (Electronics and Electrical Communication Engg). He completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Biju Patnaik University of Technology, India, and earned his M.Tech in Production Engineering with specialization in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, India, where he was awarded the University Gold Medal for securing the highest GPA among all Post-graduates.

Bijay has been doing research in the area of 4D printing for past 6 years and is recognized as the first person in India to have initiated research in this area. In 2018, he created the world's strongest 4D printed part, making him the first person in the world to achieve this feat. His research works on 4D printing and related topics are published in reputed journals, books, and conference proceedings.

He was invited to deliver a keynote lecture on his research at the "9th Annual National Conference on Advanced Technologies and Research in Understanding Medicine" at Sastra Deemed University, India and the "International Conference on 4D Printing and Meta Materials", Netherlands. He was invited by National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NIT-T), as a Chief Guest to deliver a lecture on his recent research explorations of 4D printing technology. He was also invited by Academic International School (CBSE), Odisha as a Guest of Honor for motivating school students to pursue research on the ocassion of National Science Day. 

In addition to his research contributions, he is a series editor of the book series "Advances in Additive Manufacturing Technologies" at John Wiley & Sons, and Scrivener Publishing LLC and is also the lead editor of the upcoming book "4D Printing Technology: Principles, Materials and Application" (John Wiley & Sons, and Scrivener Publishing LLC) expected to publish online in 2024. He has participated as a reviewer for around seven articles across different SCI/ Scopus indexed journals in the field of Additive Manufacturing.

He is a life member of the International Association of Engineers and the Institute for Engineering Research and Publication. He is a senior member of the Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors. He is a graduate and executive member of the IEEE Young Professional (YPAG), Kharagpur section and a student member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Smart Structures and Systems (ISSS) and National Society of Professional Engineers.

He is skilled in various additive manufacturing processes (FDM, DMLS, DIW, TPP, DLP etc.), material characterization methods, such as SEM, FTIR, XRD, Nanoindentation, UTM, AFM, and statistical methods, such as the Design of Experiments (DoE) and Optimization tools. He has also completed professional courses on CAD (CATIA V5R19), CAM (MasterCAM X3), Injection moulding, FEA (Ansys 16) from reputed organizations like CTTC, Bhubaneswar and CIPET, Bhubaneswar.

  Some of his innovative work has garnered numerous awards, including the Best Research Paper award at the International Conference on Futuristic Research in Engineering Smart Materials, hosted by the CMR Institute of Technology, India and Gyeongsang National University, South Korea. He was also recognized by the Honourable Chief Minister of Odisha, India, for his innovation in 2018, which led to him receiving start-up incubation and a grant (NIDHI-PRAYAS) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar.