Wenchao Zhou, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas, has been named a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors. He joins members from around the world who will be formally inducted into the academy, known as the NAI, at the 15th annual meeting to be held in June of 2026.
"I am deeply honored to join the National Academy of Inventors," Zhou said. "I want to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. David Hinton for the nomination, and to the University of Arkansas for providing the continued support and collaborative environment that makes our research and commercialization efforts possible."
Zhou has been with the U of A since 2014 and is the founding director of the Advanced Manufacturing, Modeling and Materials Lab. He is a national leader in additive manufacturing, specializing in autonomous robotic 3-D printing. His most significant invention is the Swarm Manufacturing platform, where teams of mobile robots work collaboratively to print and assemble large-scale structures, bypassing the size and speed limitations of traditional additive manufacturing, and paving a path toward general-purpose factories.
This technology has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing by enabling on-demand, automated and scalable production for defense, construction and aerospace.
"With a general-purpose factory," Zhou explains, "you can fundamentally decouple the factory life from the product life. You can replace old robots with new robots; you can update the software, but the factory will never disappear."
We're not there yet, but Zhou is doing his best to push the technology forward. He is the cofounder of AMBOTS, a startup company located in the Arkansas Research and Technology Park that is developing swarm manufacturing technology. He is the company's chief technology officer and the primary inventor of AMBOTS' underlying technology.
Zhou's work has been featured on CBS's Emmy-winning show The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation and by the Autodesk Technology Centers Spotlight Series. He was also named a "Tech20" leader in Arkansas by Arkansas Money and Politics (2024) and was featured in "Imagine What's Possible," the U of A's national TV spot broadcast on major TV networks and at Razorback games.
The commercial viability of Zhou's innovative work is validated by major federal contracts and grants, including a coveted NSF SBIR Phase II award (plus supplemental awards) and a multi-million-dollar subaward from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center via Applied Research Associates. AMBOTS has also secured multiple grants from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and has made sales to prominent institutions in additive manufacturing.
David Hinton, associate vice chancellor for research and innovation and executive director of Technology Ventures at the U of A, nominated Zhou, who joins professor of biomedical engineering, Kartik Balachandran, as a senior member in NAI 2026 class.
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Contacts
Wenchao Zhou, associate professor of mechanical engineering
Mechanical Engineering
479-575-7250, zhouw@uark.edu
Hardin Young, assistant director of research communications
University Relations
479-575-6850, hyoung@uark.edu