Justin Pierce

AI GPU Cold Plates: Design, NPI, Hyperscale

AI-datacenter liquid cooling at hyperscale: yield 60→90% across thousands of production prints.

GPU Cold-Plate Design -> Production Software

slicer → process compiler → print controller (brains) + in-situ monitor. Running the AI GPU cold-plate factory of the future.

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Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM)

Employee #13 at Fabric8Labs. $400M exit

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Monolithic axial-flow jet engine

World first monolithic axial-flow jet engine. Click to see it in action.

heat PDE ∂T/∂t = α∇²T → 2D finite difference Ti,j n+1 = Ti,j n + αΔt∇²hTi,j n → custom physics loss function — no labelled training data ℒ = ‖∂tT̂ − α∇²T̂‖²

AI Research: Physics-Informed Neural Networks

Pioneer in PINN (Physics Informed Neural Networks) — DAC 2021 (first author), JCISE 2023 (second author).

rs-licer — a FOSS blazing-fast Rust slicer

Open-source ray-tracing slicer in Rust — try the live slicing demo below.

more project details & career timeline below ↓

CAREER WATERFALL · 2016 → PRESENT

click any band for details

1. Fabric8Labs

   ECAM startup: 13 → 150+ → 3+ technology nodes -> $400M exit

   Process Engineer May 2021 — Dec 2022

   Core-technology R&D across 4+ display nodes. Discovered and defined the electrochemical process windows every production print still runs on today.

   Senior Software Engineer Dec 2022 — Jun 2024

   Architected the print controller and the proprietary print scripting language that powers every ECAM machine in the field. Made pre and post llm coding tools.

   Senior NPI Engineer Jun 2024 — present

   NPI lead for the company's highest-volume programs — AI datacenter cold-plate hyperscaler. Owned the core parts-manufacturing process, ran 7 figure technology node qualification, Cpk, yield, PFMEA drawdown from NPI to mass production. Tech lead for a team of process engineers.

2. THRED Group — Penn State / CMU

   Design research collective

   ML Researcher (PINNs) May 2020 — May 2022

   Early researcher on physics-informed neural networks as surrogate models for thermal simulation in metal AM. First-author DAC 2021 paper; journal paper in JCISE 2023.

3. CIMP-3D — Penn State

   Additive manufacturing research center

   Undergraduate Researcher May 2019 — May 2020

   LPBF cost modeling, design research, and metrology for semiconductor and construction customers. Ran Xact Metal LPBF machines.

4. GE Aerospace

   Jet engine manufacturing

   Engineering Intern May 2018 — Aug 2018

   Developed and manufactured stator-blade vibration-isolation fixtures for CNC rework.

5. Personal — Jet Engine Project

   Started in high school

   World-first 3D-printed axial jet engine Jun 2016 — Jun 2020

   6-stage axial compressor designed in MATLAB (LUAX-C), printed in 420SS with an Inconel 625 turbine. Runs on propane. ~10k views on the test fire.

6. Penn State

   B.S. Engineering Science (Honors)

   B.S. Engineering Science (Honors) Aug 2017 — May 2021

   The Pennsylvania State University, 2017–2021.

7. ExOne

   Metal binder jetting

   Manufacturing May 2017 — Sep 2017

   ISO 9001 work instructions for the 420 stainless steel plant; ran binder-jetting machines.