Narra’s impact on additive manufacturing earns national and international recognition

For mechanical engineering associate professor Sneha Prabha Narra, advancing additive manufacturing means moving beyond what the technology can do to ensure that it can consistently deliver high-performing results. Through their research, Narra’s research group is developing new approaches to make 3D printing metals more predictable. Her contributions to the field earned her three honors in 2026 recognizing her achievements and their impact on manufacturing. 

“One of the biggest challenges in metal additive manufacturing is establishing confidence in the component performance via consistent and predictable material properties,” Narra said.

To do that, her group is developing physics-based modeling and optimization approaches to better understand and control the complex interactions between AM processing conditions like heating and cooling during production, part geometry, and material microstructure. By making processes more systematic and less reliant on trial and error, her lab works to accelerate process development, reduce defects, control microstructure, and improve confidence that an additively manufactured part will perform as intended.

In recognition of her contributions, Narra received the 2026 John Agapiou Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineering Award from SME at the 54th North American Manufacturing Research Conference. This award honors engineers under 35 who have made exceptional contributions to manufacturing in their careers. 

This year, she also received the 2026 International Outstanding Young Researcher in Freedom and Manufacturing Award at the Solid Fabrication Symposium. This international award recognizes outstanding early-career researchers advancing the field of freeform and additive manufacturing. Her award citation states, “For significant and sustained contributions to integrating materials fundamentals of additive manufacturing with process design for defect mitigation and property control”.

Within Carnegie Mellon, Narra was named a Dean’s Early Career Fellow by the College of Engineering. This is an honor awarded to faculty members early in their academic career.

I would like our research to move additive manufacturing from a process where we demonstrate what is possible to one where we can systematically design, manufacture, and qualify components with predictable performance.

Sneha Prabha Narra, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

For Narra, these recognitions, including her recent promotion to Associate Professor, are a reflection of the collective efforts of her students, collaborators, and mentors who have shaped her journey.

“At this stage of my career, awards are encouraging because they reinforce the importance of the research questions we are pursuing. I am even more energized to continue taking on challenging problems, exploring new ideas, and creating opportunities for the next generation of researchers,” she said. Looking ahead, she hopes to build on this work to help advance practical adoption of additive manufacturing.

“I would like our research to move additive manufacturing from a process where we demonstrate what is possible to one where we can systematically design, manufacture, and qualify components with predictable performance.”