What's New at ESM?

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.

Lei Fang (ESM Ph.D. student) was named a finalist in the Society of Engineering Science 2008 student paper competition.

Fang's abstract, "An electrical technique to measure in-situ contact area during instrumented indentation and its application of characterizing materials that pile-up," was selected as one of the top 16 abstracts out of 160 submitted to the SES 2008 student paper competition.

Congratulations to Ashutosh Tewari who has accepted a position with United Technology Research Center (East Hartford, Connecticut) as a Senior Research Scientist/Engineer with the Systems Dynamics and Optimization Division.

Hongyan Yuan, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Sulin Zhang, attended a one-week summer school on Biomechanics at the California Institute of Technology from July 20 - 26, 2008 in Pasadena, California.

Sean Pursel, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, under the advising of Dr. Mark Horn, will be presenting a paper titled “Growth Characterization of Magnesium and Magnesium Alloy Sculptured Thin Films,” at the SPIE Optics and Photonics Nanostructured Thin Films meeting on August 10 - 15, 2008 in San Diego, California. To read more about the meeting, please visit their website.

Jonathan Pitt, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics, under the advising of Professor Fancesco Costanzo, presented a paper on “Theory and Simulation of Brittle Damage Model in Thermelastodynamics.” The paper was presented at the 8th World Congress on Computational Mechanics on June 29 - July 5, 2008 in Venice, Italy.

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

Michael Motyka, graduate researcher in engineering science and mechanics, under the advising of Professor Akhlesh Lakhtakia, is to present a paper at the SPIE conference on nanostructured thin films on August 8 - 15, 2008, in San Diego, CA.

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

Niranjan Malvadkar, doctoral student in engineering science and mechanics, under the advising of Professor Melik Demirel, gave an oral presentation on “Chemically Functional Nanostructure Anti-fouling Coatings,” at the 14th International Congress on Marine Corrosion and Fouling in Kobe, Japan July 27-31, 2008.

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