PhD Eng. Krzysztof Mroczka, associate professor, is an employee at the Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Materials Engineering and Physics (WIMiF) of the Tadeusz Kościuszko Cracow University of Technology, Poland. His scientific career includes obtaining a doctor degree in technical sciences in the discipline of materials engineering at the Faculty of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, Poland in 2002, and then habilitated doctor degree in the same scientific field, awarded by the Scientific Council of the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow, Poland in 2015. The area of scientific interests concerns many topics. Welding of metallic materials, in particular Friction Stir Welding (FSW) technology. Application of a robotic welding system with TWIN, CMT, PMC, and Pulse technology in welding processes of steel and aluminum alloys. Manufacturing materials and composites using friction extrusion (FE) and friction stir processing (FSP) methods. High entropy materials. Functional coatings based on glasses. Changes in the microstructure and properties of bainitic steels subjected to welding thermal cycles. Application of laser technology to produce brazed joints. Studies using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of engineering materials, selected biological preparations, materials used in dentistry, and biological dental preparations. Preparation of samples for microscopic examinations with particular emphasis on SEM. Studies of the microstructure and mechanical properties of materials and joints of metallic materials. Application of IT tools, including machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), to analyze the microstructure of engineering materials. Application of numerical calculations based on Simufact Welding and Simufact Additive software to analyze the impact of welding processes and 3D-manufactured material.
Scientific activity is expressed by authorship and co-authorship of over 80 scientific papers, implementation of 8 scientific projects, co-authorship of 2 patents, and implementation of research commissioned by industry. It also includes supervision of 4 doctoral theses, reviews of scientific articles for international journals indexed in databases such as SCOPUS, preparation of reviews of 4 doctoral theses, and reviews and opinions for two habilitation proceedings, as well as management of the Welding and Metals Engineering team at WIMiF PK. It is also worth mentioning the participation in Polish scientific societies, i.e., the Polish Society of Materials Science and the Polish Society of Microscopy (member the boards at various levels).
An important part of academic activity is teaching for students of the Department of Materials Engineering WIMiF PK, the Doctoral School of PK, and Summer School for students from abroad. The subjects taught are related to materials engineering.
Plans for the future include launching a station for laser deposition of metallic layers, including composite ones, also in the direction of additive manufacturing, at the Department of Materials Engineering, as part of the work of the Jointing and Metals Engineering team, and increasing the intensity of cooperation with industry, especially in the scope of the participation of the Cracow University of Technology Poland in cooperation with Mostostal Krakow Poland in the project of building the first nuclear power plant in Poland.