UCMA Events of 2004

UCMA Events of 2004

May 24, 2004- Galileo Project. Daniel = Goberman gave a 20 minute presentation on materials engineering, coupled with demonstrations on materials properties and the science behind ion implantation and ion sputtering technology, to high scho= ol students from a number of different schools from around the state that were= at the University of Connecticut for the Galileo Project. This is a chance for students to learn about engineering principles and compete against each oth= er in a competition to design and build a project, which was a boat this year.=

May 10, 2004- Neal Magdefrau and Sofi= a Iddir visited chemistry and physics classes at Ellington High School to talk to them about materials science and engineering. They did the demos of our road show, interacted with the students in a way that sparked their curiosity and answ= ered the questions that seniors had about the materials science and engineering program at the University= of Connecticut.

May 4, 2004- An engineering fair was held at = Cheshire High Schoo= l to give students interested in engineering an opportunity to talk to professionals in the field. Juan Villegas, Fred Massic= otte and professor Mei Wei captivated the attention of large groups of students delighted with our road show.

May 1, 2004- Connecticut Invention Convention. This is an educational organization that promo= tes creative, out-of-the-box thinking among school children in Connecticut. The School of Engineeri= ng took part in this event, and so student chapter members (Shan Zhong, Rachna Prasad and = Kun Dai) and faculty members were present at the booth in order to demonstrate our experiments to the students and their parents and answer their questions ab= out materials science and engineering.

April 2004-Our Department’s Newsletter revived thanks to the tireless efforts and leadership of Chandrasekhar Kothapalli, member at large of the student chapters executive committee, active mem= ber of the student chapter and editor in chief of the newsletter.

April 27, 2004-Top math and science high school students from = New Britain, CT, = visited the School of Engineering at UConn in order to familiarize themselves with the schools programs and opportunit= ies for those who want to go the extra mile and get a college degree, particula= rly one in Engineering. Juan Villegas performed a number of demonstrations of materials properties and talked to them about materials science and enginee= ring to give them a clearer idea of our field.

April 19, 2004-Awards Banquet. The School of Engineerin= g at the University of Connecticut pres= ented outstanding engineering students with several scholarships during its impor= tant event. A good number of our chapter members received awards and scholarships and we want to acknowledge their achievements:

    Brandon Berke (Junior): Hartford Chapter of ASM International Scholarship.
    Christopher Gatto (Senior= ): Engineering Outstanding Senior Award and Connecticut Innovations Technology Scholarship.
    Sofia Iddir (Junior):= Olin Corporation Charitable Trust Scholarship.
    Elizabeth Jordan (Junior): Pitney Bowes Scholarsh= ip.
    Neal Magdefrau (Junior): ASM International Southern Connecticut C= hapter Arthur R. Geary Material Science Award.
    Kelly Michaelis (Freshman): Harold P. Farrington Engineering Schola= rship.
    Rachana Prasad (Soph.): Pratt & Whitney Engineering Diversity Program Scholarship.

April 18-21, 2004-Xuezheng Wei, Xiaoping Wang, Mei Wen and Xiaotong Wang attended the American Ceramic Society (ACerS) Annual Meeting and Expo in Indianapolis, IN, both to give talks and to present posters about their research. Mei Wen won the First Prize in the Student Poster competi= tion. Over 40 posters from around the world were presented at the event. Congratulations Mei!

April 17, 2004-University Open House: High school students from in and out of state, found a wealth of information in this open house. Kai Son= g, Robin Bright, Amol Jadhav<= /span>, Sofia Iddir, Haoyan= Wei, Xiaotong Wang, Benjamin Laroux, Andrew Ruminsky, Chandrasekhar Kothapalli, Juan Villegas, Jason Tresback and faculty membe= rs answered questions, toured the facilities of our department with students interested in our field and performed demonstrations of materials properties and the instruments used in their study.

April 16-17, 2004-2004-Frontiers of Undergraduate Research Poster Exhibition: Chris Gatto and Neal Magdefrau presented a poster each about their research projects at this exhibition, h= eld at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, and both posters were a= mong the 8 posters that were awarded prizes out of nearly 80 works presented at = the event. Congratulations Chris and Neal!

April 14, 2004-Fund raiser: Under the leadership of Neal Magdefrau, the chapter ordered some very nice-looking= polo shirts with our department’s logo embroidered on them and sold them at this fund-raiser event.

April 7, 2004-Bur Misirlioglu gave a talk about his research at the Connecticut Microelectronics & Optoelectronics Consortium (CMOC) Symposium at the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, CT= .

April 1-2, 2004-XIII-Annual CPTV Family Science Expo: Geared toward elementary, middle and high school students, this was a great opportunity to raise awareness of how materials engineering is present in everyday life, f= rom defense applications to consumer products. Mike Pasqua= riello, Chandrasekhar Kothapalli, Kai Song, Xuezheng Wei, Yong Ma, Juan Villegas, Jian Fang and Fred Massicotte (staff member in our department) used the demonstrations of our road show to explain materials properties to the large crowds present in our booth at all times.

April 1-2, 2004-Yali Li attended one of the workshops on High Throug= hput Analysis of Multicomponent, Multiphase Diffusio= n Data at NIST’s Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science, in Gaithersburg, MD.

March 18, 2004-Juan Villegas was selected by the ASM Materials Educa= tion Foundation Board of Trustees and the AET LeaderShape Selection Committee as one of the six students sponsored by the ASM Foundat= ion to attend the LeaderShape Institute in Summer 2004. Congratulations Juan!

March 15, 2004-Swetha Sridharan won the = first prize in an International Graduate Student Paper Contest sponsored by Bodyc= ote Corporation, in Manchester, United Kingdom. Congratulations, Swetha!

March 14-18, 2004-Xuezheng Wei and Yali = Li attended and presented talks and posters about their research projects at t= he TMS Annual Meeting in Charlott= e, NC.

February 26, 2004-Outreach show at Wilbraham Middle School, in Wilbraham, MA. Mike Pasquariello and Juan Villegas used demonstrations of materials properties to explain what materials science and engineering is to over 100 students. This visit was held within the context= of National Engineers Week, featured at Wilbraham Middle School.

February 20, 2004-Talent show . Held at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church, in Storrs, CT, Chris Gatto and Juan Villegas took this opportunity to increase awareness of materials engineering in the local community by demonstrating materials properties to= a broad audience composed of students of all ages, parents and members of the community at large.
February 16-20, 2004, and March 9, 2004-Student Speaking Contest. Eight speakers gave a short presentation about their resear= ch topics to an audience composed of students, faculty and staff, who selected= the best three, which in turn competed for first, second and third places at the grand final, during an ASM Hartford Chapter meeting on March 9th. The winne= rs were:


        First place: Dafei Kang
         Second place: Jessica = Shen
         Third place: Hong Luo

Febrary 11 and 13, 2004-Outreach = show at North Haven Middle School, in No= rth Haven, CT. With various demonstrations of materials properties, Chris = Gatto, Chandrasekhar Kothapalli and Juan Villegas gave= over 180 middle school students a good idea of what materials engineering is abo= ut.

February 10, 2004-Dr. Reza Abbaschian, A= SM trustee, Vladimir A. Grodsky Professor and Depa= rtment of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida, discussed with some faculty and members of the student chapter strategies that could = be put in place in order to make our chapter more effective in areas such as student enrollment and community outreach.