Starly's research builds core competencies in advanced manufacturing processes, cybermanufacturing and operations engineering, digital factories, and robotics and automation at ASU. He works on technologies that merge the digital and the physical world towards advancing both discrete and continuous manufacturing through digital design and fabrication, cyber-physical systems in manufacturing, additive manufacturing and biofabrication processes. Starly's areas of research interest include industrial AI, smart manufacturing, the digital supply chain, digital twins, metaverse in manufacturing, and robotics in manufacturing.