Congratulations to Elena Parial on Completing Purdue’s 4+1 B.S./M.S. Program
Congratulations to Elena S. Parial, who graduated from Purdue University in May 2025 with both her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering through Purdue’s combined 4+1 program. Elena began working with Prof. Michael Sealy as a junior in mechanical engineering and continued in the research group through both her undergraduate and graduate studies. Over nearly three years, her research focused on hybrid additive manufacturing of polymers, combining fused filament fabrication with interlayer shot peening to understand and control residual stress in polylactic acid (PLA).
Elena successfully defended her master’s thesis, “Residual Photoelasticity in Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of PLA,” in April 2025. Her work used photoelastic stress analysis and image-based methods to study how the thermal history from 3D printing and plastic deformation from shot peening influence polymer chain orientation and compressive residual stress. The results showed that both the number of peened layers and the number of subsequently printed layers can increase overall compressive residual stress in the material. Her thesis committee included Prof. Michael Sealy, Dr. Luz Sotelo, and Dr. Michael Titus. Her thesis is available through Purdue’s research repository: Residual Photoelasticity in Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of PLA.
During her time in the lab, Elena also developed experimental methods for cyclic interlayer shot peening and 3D printing, applied Bayesian optimization and Gaussian process regression to polymer transparency, supported corrosion research, and mentored undergraduate students conducting their own experiments. Following graduation, she joined Zimmer Biomet as a Quality Engineer, bringing her background in additive manufacturing, research, and mechanical engineering into the medical device industry. Her transition to Zimmer Biomet is especially fitting given her longstanding interest in combining engineering with biomedical applications.