Dr. Robert "Drew" Fleming

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

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Education

• Ph.D., University of Arkansas (Mechanical Engineering)
• MSME, University of Arkansas
• BSME, University of Arkansas

Teaching Specialties

• Machine Design/Mechanical System Design
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Fluid Mechanics
• Thermodynamics
• Advanced Mechanics of Materials

Research Interests

• Surface Science and Engineering: Design of materials with enhanced surface properties, including: optical transmittance, surface wettability, reduced friction, mechanical hardness, etc.
• Computational Materials Science: Classical molecular dynamics (MD) investigations of dislocations in nanostructures and density functional theory (DFT) simulations of surface chemistry interactions

Affiliations

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE)

Curriculum Vitae

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Biography

Dr. Robert “Drew” Fleming joined A-State as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 2019.  He completed his PhD in engineering at the University of Arkansas in 2017, where he was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.  Prior to his appointment at A-State, he spent 5 years as a senior research engineer at WattGlass, an Arkansas-based high-tech startup specializing in optical coatings.  In this position, he led industry/National Lab collaborations with researchers at both the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

His research interests are currently focused on computational materials science, specifically on the mechanics and dynamics of dislocations and other material defects in confined geometries and in the presence of disordered interfaces.  He is also broadly interested in applications of surface engineering, which is the design of materials with unique surface properties that differ from those of the bulk material.  Both of these topics are motivated by the increasing relevance of advanced materials in a wide variety of industries, including the manufacturing, materials handling, and energy sectors.