The thesis by William Robert Blattman (link) studies generation of a parametric CAD model from topology optimization results. As I stated in many of my previous articles, interpretation of topology optimization is the weakest link in the design cycle at the moment. We have seen many topology optimizations gone wrong. A software to interpret the results is very much needed to utilize topology optimization in an efficient way. In one of our previous posts we had presented such an effort by another researcher, that detected planar regions of topology optimization results.
This thesis however works by adapting parametric geometries to the voids in the results. When all the voids are fitted, a nice parametric CAD geometry is obtained. Once we have a parametric geometry, it becomes very easy to optimize it further, or figure the way to manufacture it out. The method was in development stage at the time of the thesis (2008) and some steps were done by user instead of the software. The method has great potential, and we hope it will be (or is already) perfected soon.