Professor Schlarb currently holds the Chair of Composite Engineering (CCe) at the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (TUK), Germany. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Kaiserslautern, specializing in production engineering and company organization. After his graduation in 1984 he relocated to the University of Kassel, working as scientific assistant to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. e.h. Ehrenstein. He was awarded a doctorate in 1989 for his thesis on polymer processing. From 1988 until 1989 he was also head engineer at the university’s Institut fuer Werkstofftechnik. In the following 13 years Professor Schlarb held different positions in the industry, e.g. the polymer laboratory of BASF SE, Germany, as material scientist and project manager researching composites, last as Vice President and head of marketing, research and development with B. Braun Medical AG, Switzerland. In November 2002 Alois Schlarb was appointed to a full professorship for "Composite Materials" at the TUK and from 2002 to 2008 Chief Executive Officer of the Institut für Verbundwerkstoffe GmbH. Since 2018 Professor Schlarb also holds a visiting professorship at Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, PR China. Professor Schlarb served as Spokesman of the Scientific Alliance of Polymer Technology (WAK) from 2009 - 2015 and as President of the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Processing Engineering SAMPE Deutschland e.V. from 2003 - 2015. He is member of the editorial boards for the Journal of Composite Materials, and Strain - International Journal for Experimental Mechanics, SAMPE-Journal, and the Journal of Polymer Technology.
He has given more than 200 presentations, has authored or co-authored more than 100 journal papers, edited or authored or co-authored more than 50 book chapters or books, and is listed in more than 50 patent applications as inventor. The focus of his research activities is on process-structure-property-relations and tribology of polymer based hybrid materials.

Jumahat A is an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia. She has been giving lectures on Composite Materials, Finite Element Method, Mechanics of Materials, Manufacturing Processes, Engineering Design and Advanced Materials, which happens to be her areas of research interest, since 2001. She also currently serves as Director of Community of Research for Frontier Materials and Industrial Applications at the Deputy Vice Chancellor Office UiTM since 2016. She received her MSc degree (2002) and B.Eng. (Hons.) degree in Mechanical and Materials Engineering (1999) from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She received her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield United Kingdom in 2011. She has published more than 200 technical papers in journals, chapters in book and conference proceedings locally and internationally in materials and mechanical engineering research areas.

Prof. JAYAKUMAR JAYARAMAN Completed PhD from Annamalai University, Tamilnadu, India and graduations from University of Pune. Having 27 years of vast experience in teaching and research. Presently working as Principal in G.H.Raisoni College of Engineering, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India. He has completed many research projects, granted through AICTE, BCUD-SPPU. His area of research interest are Synthesis of Metal Matrix Nano Composites, Nano Materials, Ball milling, Vaccuum Stir Casting , Disintegrated melt deposition.
He has supervised about 60 undergraduate projects and 15 post graduate projects. Adding to his credit he has also examined 2UG and 2PG projects of Wits Watersrand University, Johannesberg, South Africa. He has published around 20 research papers in National and International journals and attended many conferences and delivered key note speeches in India as well at Bangkok, Thailand and Kualalumpur, Malaysia. He is a Life Member of Indian Society for Technical Education (LMISTE), Fellow Member of Institution of Engineers (FIE), Fellow member of Indian Society of Mechanical Engineers (FISME), Life Member of Powder Metallurgy Association of India (PMAI), Member of International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology (ISCSIT).

Professor Ji Wang has been a Qianjiang Fellow Professor of Zhejiang Province at Ningbo University since 2002. He also served as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate, School of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Ningbo University, from 2013 to 2019. Professor Ji Wang is the founding director of the Piezoelectric Device Laboratory, which is a designated Key Laboratory of City of Ningbo. Professor Ji Wang was employed at SaRonix, Menlo Park, CA, as a senior engineer from 2001 to 2002; NetFront Communications, Sunnyvale, CA, as senior engineer and manager from 1999 to 2001; Epson Palo Alto Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA, as Senior Member of Technical Staff from 1995 to 1999. Professor Ji Wang also held visiting positions at Chiba University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Argonne National Laboratory. He received his PhD and Master degrees from Princeton University in 1996 and 1993 and bachelor from Gansu University of Technology in 1983.
Professor Wang has been working on acoustic waves and high frequency vibrations of elastic and piezoelectric solids for resonator design and analysis with several US and Chinese patents, over 120 journal papers, and frequent invited, keynote, and plenary presentations in major conferences around world. He has been board members, advisors, and consultants to many leading companies in acoustic wave device industry. Professor Wang has been a member of many international conference committees and currently serving the IEEE UFFC Technical Program Committees of the Frequency Control and Ultrasonics Symposia, the IEEE MTT-S, and the IEC TC-49. He is also the funding chair of Committee on Mechanics of Electronic and Magnetic Devices, CSTAM, and the SPAWDA. From 2015, Profess Wang is the editor-in-chief of Structural Longevity and members of the editorial boards of several international journals.

Professor Katsuyuki Kida was born in 1968 in Osaka, where he studied mechanical engineering at Osaka University from 1988. Apart from course work, he studied rolling contact fatigue (RCF) occurring in TiC and TiN coated steels using both X-ray diffraction and scanning acoustic microscopy. After graduation he pursued his academic career and obtained a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics in 2000, investigating RCF problems of all-Si3N4 bearings. By observing cracking and flaking failure under RCF, he succeeded in explaining the material`s features from the viewpoint of fracture mechanics. From 2000 he focused his work on investigating the contact problems of several materials used in machine elements. He has also continued fundamental research on contact problems, for which he received ‘The Best Paper Prize (FFEMS PRIZE)’ from ‘Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures’ journal in 2005. The awarded papers reported establishing a crack growth mechanism under contact pressure, a problem previously unsolved for over 70 years since S. Way’s proposed theory. His research interests now include the development of three dimensional scanning Hall-probe microscope technologies, fatigue phenomena in polymer bearing, crack growth mechanism under contact stresses and refinement of high-carbon steels.　He holds and has held a number of prestigious leadership roles in academy-industry corroboration programs: refinement of steels, new joint system in humanoid robots and fatigue of polymer bearings in "Strategic Fundamental Technologies Strengthening Assistance Programs" (Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry, Japan, 2009-2013); scanning Hall-probe microscopy in "Fundamental Studies on Technologies for Steel Materials with Enhanced Strength and Functions" (Consortium of the JRCM, Japan, 2008-2012); and ceramic bearing elements in the project supported by "Japanese Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization" (NEDO, Japan, 2007-2011).” As a chairperson of department of mechanical engineering in University of Toyama, Professor Kida is heading education and research projects (2019-)..

Koshiro Mizobe is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toyama, Japan. He has published over 50 papers in various research fields including: evaluation of stress intensity factors, repeated heating, homology evaluation of microstructure, and polymer bearings. Koshiro studied mechanical engineering at Kyushu University, Japan, graduating in 2013. He studied the repeated quenching refinement method of high-carbon chromium steels in his PhD course. For this work he received the Research Fellowship for Young Scientists in 2013-2014 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science as well as Top Young Researcher Award in 2012 from Kyushu University. Since 2015 he has been an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toyama. He has won some best paper awards from international committees (ICMDME, CMPSE and ICMTM) and received some grants (25th ISIJ research promotion grant from the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan and research promotion grant from JKA). His current research topics with a brief explanation are as follows. Repeated heating method Martensitic high-carbon high-strength bearing steel is one of the main alloys used for rolling contact applications where high wear resistance is required. Refining the prior austenite grain size through repeated heating is a process commonly used to enhance the material’s strength. He studied the effect of repeated heating on the microstructure near inclusions through the rolling bending fatigue tests. Development of hybrid polymer bearings Koshiro is focusing on polymer bearings because it is suitable for the no lubricant situation and the corrosive situations. In particular, he focuses on PEEK which is a tough semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer and PTFE which has low friction coefficient. Now, he develops the combination of PEEK races-PTFE retainer bearings.

Takahiro Matsueda is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toyama, Japan. He has investigated evaluation of fatigue strength of steel, stress intensity factors of microcrack, nondestructive testing and evaluation of material strength such as solar cell, ceramics and polymer. Takahiro Matsueda graduated from mechanical engineering at Kyushu University, Japan, in 2014. He majored in evaluation method of fatigue strength with notched steel in a PhD course. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Tokyo Metropolitan University from 2015 to 2019. He has been an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toyama from 2020. He has also won awards for research from international committees (ICSMMS, ICMEMSCE and ICMTM).
Brief introductions of current research topics are as follows.
Nondestructive evaluation of materials using AE and LT techniques
Takahiro Matsueda’s research aims to reveal the mechanisms of microcrack initiation and accumulation, and their contribution to the electrical degradation during fatigue fracture. He detected and identified microcrack initiation using the acoustic emission (AE) and Lock-in thermography (LT) techniques. The electrical degradation of solar cell was evaluated by monitoring electrical power calculated from Current-Voltage (I-V) curve. Furthermore, microdamage contributing to the electrical degradation were identified by Lock-in thermography (LT). He proposed the method to evaluate microcrack initiation using the AE, LT and I-V curve.
Prediction method of fatigue limit in metal materials
Takahiro Matsueda is studying the new prediction method based on fracture mechanics for safely design. In particular, he focuses on improvement of the method to define the fatigue crack shape and propagating during fatigue test.