Before his return to China, Xu led a team at the California-based manufacturing start-up Atomic Semi, developing 3D printing techniques aimed at making chip production faster and cheaper than conventional methods that used bulky, multimillion-dollar machines.
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While pursuing his master’s degree in Florida in 2016, he co-founded a company that built and sold compact, high-resolution 3D printers using liquid plastic.
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Why are more Chinese scientists leaving the US to return to China?
Why are more Chinese scientists leaving the US to return to China?
At UCLA, Xu’s research included printing tiny robots that could respond to their surroundings without external controls, using metamaterials engineered to convert mechanical motion into electrical signals.
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