Akhlesh Lakhtakia, distinguished professor of engineering science and mechanics, delivered an invited lecture entitled "Emerging Directions in Sculptured-Thin-Film Research" at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the German Physical Society and the 21st General Conference of of the Condensed Matter Division of the European Physical Society at Dresden, Germany, March 27-31.

Ms. Parul Walia (M.S., E MCH) will present a paper titled "Development of Self-Lubricationg Coatings for Ti-6A1-4V Dovetails using a High-Velocity-Particle Consolidation (HVPC) Process" at the International Thermal Spray Conference 2006 which will be held May 14 - 17, 2006 in Seattle, Washington. Ms. Walia's research is supervised by Dr. Al Segall.

Several changes to the Engineering Science (E SC) major go into effect in Summer 2006. The changes came about due to assessment of the program by the ESM faculty based on feedback from students, instructors, and the ESM Industrial and Professional Advisory Committee as part of the E SC program assessment required by the accreditation board (ABET). The highlights of the changes include:

a reduction in overall program credits from 137 to 131;

the replacement of PHYS 237 and NUC E 307 with E SC 312; and,

an opportunity for students with interests in medicine, bioengineering, biotechnology, and chemistry to select foundational biology and chemistry courses.

Current students are encouraged to contact either Dr. Masters (cbm100@psu.edu) or Dr. Lissenden (lissenden@psu.edu) for additional.

The ESM Department held its annual Industrial and Professional Advisory Council (IPAC) meeting on March 20 - 21, 2006, at University Park. This year's meeting focused on Nanotechnology and Bionanotechnology and Health Monitoring and Mechanics research opportunities and initiatives. Members also met with Graduate and Undergraduate Council Officers, and discussed career paths with engineering science seniors.

IPAC provides a direct link and communication between the department and the engineering profession and provide guidance on current trends and future directions in engineering.

Shown from left to right are Barry Farmer (Wright-Patterson Air Force Research Laboratory); Alan Wilks (The Wilks Group and founder of SmartSignal Corporation); Howard Witham (ST Microelectronics); Walter Miller (Winhall Capital); Hance Huston (IBM); Charles Dages, II (Warner Brothers); William Skullney (Applied Physics Laboratory); and Mike Erdman (Lockheed Martin-KAPL, Inc.).

Dr. Barbara A. Shaw, Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Corrosion Short Course Director, has announced the lecture and laboratory topics for the 2006 Corrosion Short Course (see below). Co-sponsored by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the Penn State Corrosion Center, Gamry Instruments, and Molecular Imaging, this course features morning lectures on the fundamentals of corrosion and afternoon, hands-on laboratory sessions that highlight the most commonly used experiments to assess corrosion. Course instructors include Dr. Gerald Frankel, associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Ohio State University and director of the Fontana Corrosion Center; Dr. Rudolph Buchheit, professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Ohio State University; Dr. Howard Pickering, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State University; and Dr. Barbara A. Shaw.

The 2006 lecture topics follow below.

Sandra Watson, ESM budget assistant, and Kelly Owens, ESM accounting assistant, have completed the Pre-Award Certificate semester of the Administrative Committee on Research (ACOR) Certification and Education Series (ACES) program. The ACES is a two-year; four-semester certification program. The 80 classroom hours learning experience is a combination of workshops, online education, mentoring, and competency assessment -- all leading to certification.

Congratulations to both.

Barbara Shaw, professor of engineering science and mechanics, has been approved for a University sabbatical leave of absence Spring Semester 2007. She will conduct final phase (after four years of exposure) in-situ measurements in the field at the LaQue Center in Kure Beach, NC, and damage assessment and analysis at the laboratories of Concurrent Technologies in Largo, FL. The work will be conducted in collaboration with her research partners at the U.S. Army. Leaves of absence are granted for purposes of intensive study or research that will increase the quality of the individual's future contribution to the University

Distinguished Professor Akhlesh Lakhtakia has just returned from an extensive lecture tour in India where he delivered talks at the Banaras Hindu University, the Indian Institute of Technology, and Rai University. A listing of the talks can be found below.

Engineering Science seniors are wrapping up their research and putting the final touches on their presentations in preparation for this spring's Comprehensive Oral Exams which will be presented March 24 - 31, 2006, in 216 EES.

During the senior year, all students select a focus area of study, complete a capstone project, and write a thesis that integrates the scientific principles of research, design, and analysis and applies them to engineering. Each student works with a thesis reserch supervisor as well as their departmental honors advisor.

The presentations are open to the public. A listing of the students and their thesis titles follows below.

Nicholas J. Salamon, professor of engineering science and mechanics (ESM), has retired from the College of Engineering after 20 years of service. Dr. Salamon received his doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University in 1971. He earned his master's and bachelor's degrees, respectively, from Iowa (Engineering Mechanics, 1969) and Drexel University (Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 1965). Prior to joining Penn State Dr. Salamon was an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin and Associate Professor at West Virginia University. He joined Penn State as Professor of ESM in 1985.

Congratulations to Engineering Science senior Elizabeth Blickley and junior Sarah Klinetob upon their selection as participants in the International Institute of Women in Engineering (IIWE) "Women Engineers: Pushing for Sustainability" seminar scheduled for June 30 - July 21, 2006, in Paris, France.

The focus of the 2006 seminar is on sustainability. Women engineers will have the opportunity to work collaboratively on IIWE's own multidisciplinary activity: The Nile Countries Hydro-management Project (NCHP) aims at transforming the role of women in the ten Nile basin countries from the water carriers to the water managers.

Support for their participation in this seminar is being provided, in part, by Penn State's Women in Engineering program and the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics.

Dr. Ivi Smid, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, presented two papers at the 2006 Interenational Conference on Tungsten, Refractory and Hardmetals VI, February 7-8, 2006, in Orlando, Florida. The conference included fourteen technical sessions dealing with aspects of refractory including novel processing such as microwave sintering, behavior/deformation, W & WC composites (to name a few).

Dr. Smid's presentations were on the "Manufacturing and Machining Performance of Tough Coated Hard Particles and Products thereof" and a "Novel Approach for Processing of Pure Niobium". If you would like more information about Dr. Smid's research, please contact him by e-mail at smid@psu.edu

Thomas Walker (junior E SC) has been awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship with the National Institute of Standards (NIST) and Technology for summer 2006. His three-tired assignment will include working directly with an NIST employee on the theory and operation of an atomic force microscope and a Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscope; investigating the theory of semiconductor and metal surfaces, and performing basic semiconductor cleaning processes. The Fellowship carries a stipend and living allowance.

Congratulations on your success!

Engineering Science and Mechanics doctor student Shyamala Subramanian will present a paper titled “Molecular ruler lithography processes and their application to sub 50nm MOS Devices” in the Division of Polymer Chemistry, Polymers for Enabling Nanoscale Pattering session at the 231st ACS National Meeting, in Atlanta, GA, March 26-30, 2006. Her paper will be presented in March 28, 2006.

Ms. Subramania’s doctoral advisor is Dr. Jeffrey Catchmark. In additional to travel support provided by Dr. Catchmark, She has received travel grants for this travel from the Women in Engineering Program and the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics.

ESM Today, a graduate student research showcase for graduate students in the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department (ESM), was held earlier this month at the University Park Campus. The Symposium, which is organized by the Engineering Science and Mechanics Graduate Student Council, included twelve paper presentations and seven poster presentations.

The 2006 paper presentation winners are:

Ying Shan, Flexible Matrix Composite Actuators and Structures, First Place.
Matt Kelly, Quantitative Microstructural analysis of Thermal Barrier Coatings Produced by Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition, Second Place.
Michael Pedrick, Ultrasonic NDE in Thin Walled Concrete for Flaw Detection, Third Place.

The 2006 poster competition winners are:

Eric Hauck, Novel Methods for Crack Detection in Green and Sintered Parts, First Place.
Jing Mu, Defect Sizing in Pipe Using an Ultrasonic Guided Wave Focusing Technique, Second Place.
Lance Haney, Microwave Characterization of Thin Film Titanium Dioxide, Third Place.

First, second and third place winners received, respectively, $500; $300; and $200 Breneman Travel Grants.

The ESM Today Symposium is held annually each February. Each year, the symposium honors an ESM faculty member. This year's honoree was Department Head Emeritus Richard P. McNitt