What's New at ESM?

Selina Roman-White, a 7th grade student at the Indian Valley Middle School in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, along with her teammates, competed in the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) held on the Michigan State University campus summer 2008. Selina's team placed 2nd out of 68 teams internationally in the written booklet portion of the program and 4th in the skit portion of the program.

During a break in the competion, the students participated in a momento exchange including ESM memorabilia and Penn State Paterno masks, shown here.

Dr. Judith A. Todd, Engineering Science and Mechanics Department Head, is pleased to announce that fifty-one Engineering Science students achieved Dean's List status for fall semester 2006. Congratulations to the following students:

David Klodowski, Kathryn Barber, Miranda Hitchcock, Hitesh Basantani, Brennan DeCesar, Rukan Shao, Minna Ranjeva, Adam Ostrich, Abdalla Nassar, Keith Stern, Paul Sauter, Arwen Kandt, Nghia Nguyen, Benjamin Russo, Scott Kozlowski, Sean Stokes, Justin Hammond, Michael Anderson, Stephen Koytek, Kevin Howorth, Matt Lanagan, Windsor Bisbee, Zackary Stratton, Matthew Verlinich, Scott Jacobs, Shane Lani, Timothy Byrne, Brendan Purcell, Jillian Woolridge, Benjamin Koch, Aimee Tu, Tristan Helms, Christopher Winter, Brian Bontempo, Michael Ulizio, Kevin Graves, Marc McNeill, Jessica Bogniak, Stanton Sollenberger, Nicholas Bugos, and Ravendra Nohar.

The ESM Department is very pleased to have you honor our department with your outstanding academic achievement.

Daniel Ahmed, Graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, with advisory, Dr. Tony Huang, James Henderson Assistant Professor in Engineering Science and Mechanic, will be presenting a research paper on “Ultrafast Mixing” at the 2008 MicroTAS conference in San Diego, California on October 12 - 16, 2008. To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Guneet Sethi's paper titled "An overview of dynamic compaction in powder metallurgy" will be published in an upcoming issue of the International Materials Reviews (IMR). Sethi, an Engineering Science and Mechanics doctoral candidate, co-authored the paper with Randall M. German. Look for the article in volume 53, issue number 4, pp. 219-234.

Congratulations Guneet on your success.

Michael Motyka, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, won a Research Excellence Award at the SPIE Optics and Photonics Meeting, August 2008 in San Diego, CA. Congratulations Michael on your accomplishment!

Chandrasekaran Venkatasubramanian, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, presented a paper at the 2008 Ion Beam Modification of Materials (IBMM) meeting in Dresden, Germany. The paper was titled “Ion implantation studies on VOx films prepared by pulsed dc reactive sputtering.” Co-authors of the paper were Professors S. Ashok and Mark Horn. To learn more about the meeting, please visit their web site.

James Moses, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, received The American Society of Mechanical Engineer’s (ASME) Melvin R. Green Scholarship for the 2008-09 academic year. The scholarship is based on his excellent academic record and potential contribution to the field of engineering. Congratulations James!

Ambuj Sharma, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Charles E. Bakis, is to present a paper on “Electronically Modified Nanocomposites,” at the 23rd Technical Conference - American Society for Composites on September 8 - 11, 2008 in Memphis, TN. To read more about the conference, please visit their website.

Corey Cochrane, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics under the advising of Professor Patrick Lenahan will be presenting a talk on Silicaon Carbides at the at the European Conference on Silicon in Barcelona, Spain. The conference will be taking place from September 7 - 11, 2008.

To learn more about the conference, please visit their website.

Abdalla Nassar (M.S., E SC) has been awarded a National Science Foundation Grant to attend the 27th International Congress on the Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics (ICALEO®) Conference, October 20-23, 2008, in Temecula, CA. The Congress is an opportunity for "researchers and end-users to review the state-of-the-art in laser materials processing" and also predict future laser materials processing needs. Mr. Nassar will present a poster titled "Generation and Sustainment of Argon Laser-Sustained Plasmas Under Various Flow Conditions".

To learn more about the Congress visit the ICALEO® website.

Congratulations to Nassar on both accomplishments.