Report summary

The 2015-2017 picture for Northwestern University Department of Mechanical Engineering is a 38-PI network with 34 internal PI collaborations. The main research signal is Engineering as the leading field (47% of slots across 32 PIs; 32 labels), Mechanical Engineering as the leading subfield (15% of slots across 15 PIs; 15 labels), and Composite Material Mechanics as the leading topic (4% of slots across 4 PIs; 4 labels). This is a solid, readable collaboration map: group-level fit matters more than a single department-wide label. The leading PI names are Jian Cao (24.8 weighted works; Metal Forming Simulation Techniques, Laser and Thermal Forming Techniques). The clearest collaboration lines are Jian Cao and Kornel F. Ehmann (23 shared works, weight 12.2). The leading breakdown groups are group 1 with 9 PIs, 10 internal connections, weight 25.9, around Mechanical Engineering, Computational Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials, led by Jian Cao, Sinan Keten, Wing Kam Liu.