Prof. Yang Xiaodong's Team Honored with JSPE Young Researcher Award

The 2025 Spring Conference of the Japan Society for Precision Engineering (JSPE) was recently held at Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan. At the conference, the paper titled “Achieving high replicability for electrochemical machining via the stamp flushing method in stationary electrolyte”, authored by Dr. Xiaoming Duan from the team of Prof. Xiaodong Yang, was honored with the 2024 JSPE Young Researcher Award. This prestigious recognition highlights the significant contributions of Duan’s work to the field of precision electrochemical machining.

During his doctoral studies, Dr. Xiaoming Duan was supported by the China Scholarship Council to pursue a one-year joint research program at The University of Tokyo beginning in April 2022. He was supervised by Prof. Masanori Kunieda, a famous scholars in the field of electrical machining. During this period, Dr. Xiaoming Duan focused on research in precision electrochemical machining.

Traditional high-speed electrolyte flow for removing bubbles and sludges from the inter-electrode gap during electrochemical machining usually results in the non-uniform distribution of temperature, bubbles, and sludges, thus deteriorating machining accuracy. The award-winning research utilizes the radial flow field generated by the high-speed stamping motion of the tool electrode to achieve efficient electrolyte renewal within the inter-electrode gap. Combined with the application of pulsed voltage, this approach enables stable electrochemical machining in static electrolyte under small inter-electrode gap conditions. As a result, high replicability was obtained uniformly over the working surface. This research provides technical support for the broader application of electrochemical machining in high-precision component manufacturing and was published in the Journal of the International Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology.

The JSPE Young Research Award is presented to young researchers under the age of 35 who have published original and outstanding papers. Established in 2004, the award is given annually, with recipients selected through a rigorous review process organized by the JSPE and approved by its Board of Directors. This year, only five researchers received the award, with Dr. Xiaoming Duan being the sole international recipient—and one of the few non-Japanese awardees in the history of the prize.

Dr. Xiaoming Duan (first from the right) was awarded the 2024 JSPE Young Research Award by the Japan Society for Precision Engineering.