It is the constitutional duty of the U.S. Government to fix the standards of weights and measures. As such, it accomplishes this task by providing measurements of the all the physical units that are traceable to universal constants. These efforts are done with the intent of promoting American innovation and industrial competitiveness.

Ultrasound tomography has potential across many areas of NDE, including corrosion mapping and materials characterisation. Traditional methods have transplanted ideas from radiographic CT into ultrasound, missing refraction and diffraction present and hence heavily restricting the quality of the resulting image. This talk will highlight the importance of correctly capturing the physics in order to generate high resolution, accurate images.

Dr Peter Huthwaite completed his PhD on Breast Ultrasound Tomography in the NDT group at Imperial College London in 2012 and subsequently joined the group as an academic in 2015, being promoted to Senior Lecturer, then Reader in 2021. Dr Huthwaite leads imaging research within the group, developing solutions for high resolution guided wave tomography and other inversion schemes with both bulk and guided ultrasonic waves. He has secured over £2M of funding for his research. He has also developed the FE package Pogo for simulating ultrasound, which is now in worldwide use, selling over £250k of licenses.

Tsuchin “Philip” Chu is Professor of the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Materials Engineering at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC).  He is also the director of the Engineering Science Ph.D. program at SIUC.   Chu has conducted research for over 30 years in areas such as non-destructive evaluation (NDE), additive manufacturing, biomedical engineering, experimental mechanics, computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE), sensors and instrumentation, and composite materials.  He is a pioneer in the area of digital image correlation (DIC) and at the cutting edge of research in NDE and additive manufacturing.  

As the cost of mobile robotic solutions decreases, so the opportunities for their widespread use in NDE applications grows. However, this opportunity comes with challenges as the complexity of NDE processes and the flow of data must be matched to the capabilities of the robots. This talk discusses these emerging possibilities and presents examples of low-cost ultrasonic sensing strategies for the inspection of buried pipes. 

Professor Bruce Drinkwater obtained B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from Imperial College, London, UK, in 1991 and 1995 respectively. Bruce then joined the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, where he has been involved in a diverse range of engineering topics including NDE, condition monitoring as well as metamaterials, ultrasonic levitation, and haptics. He has worked on ultrasonic arrays for 20 years and this is a common theme that links together many of his research interests. The ultrasonic imaging methods, and algorithms he helped develop, known as Full Matrix Capture (FMC) and the Total Focusing Method (TFM), are now in widespread use by industry where they have improved the safety of aircraft, power stations and other complex engineering structures. He is Head of the UNDT research group at the University of Bristol, Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Innovation in NDE and Editor-in-Chief at NDT&E International. 

Caroline Bull is the Director of the UK Research Centre in Nondestructive Evaluation, an industry-academia collaboration. Caroline studied Physics and Maths at the University of Reading under UKAEA sponsorship, and has worked in industry for over 35 years. She is a Past President of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), as well as a member of the NDT Technical Committee, NDE 4.0 Working Group, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group and the Engineering Council Working Group. She is also a member of the newly formed UK NDT Leadership Forum Executive and of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT) Women in NDT Council supporting equality, diversity and inclusion. Caroline joined RCNDE in January 2022, and as Director has oversight of all Centre activities, technical programs and industrial liaison.  

This presentation highlights new opportunities to enhance the measurement of defects and microstructure using nondestructive characterization methods via correlation with high pedigree “ground truth” data of the material state.  This presentation will provide an overview of research by the author and colleagues at AFRL over the past two decades to develop new automated experimental microscopy systems and data analysis software to provide quantitative 3D data of both defects and microstructure thru serial sectioning protocols.   

In this presentation, we will discuss some of the major challenges and concerns regarding the use of deep learning in NDE. We will also highlight potential ways in which some of these challenges and concerns might be alleviated considering the broader ongoing artificial intelligence research and development. In addition, we will consider potential ways in which growing use of artificial intelligence in NDE may elicit changes in the field of NDE itself, as well as what changes might be necessary in the NDE community to facilitate widespread use of artificial intelligence. Finally, we will discuss what the future of NDE may hold, and whether deep learning artificial intelligence will have any part of it.

Dr. Ryan Scott is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Diagnostic Imaging Research at the University of  Windsor and Artificial Intelligence Manager at Tessonics in Windsor, Canada. Ryan's current work involves the research and development of artificial intelligence solutions for ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation. Ryan is the technical leader of several projects developing AI systems for the real-time characterization of ultrasonic signatures from resistance spot welding, for both quality control as well as adaptive welding applications. Ryan has also been involved in the development of AI solutions for other applications such as polyethylene pipe and laser braze NDE, as well as ultrasonic evaluation of traumatic brain injuries.