Chapter Activities in 2004
May 24, 2004-Galileo Project Ō 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 school 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 other in a competition to
design and build a project, which was a boat this year.
May 10, 2004-Neal Magdefrau and Sofia 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 answered 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 School to
give students interested in engineering an opportunity to talk to
professionals in the field. Juan Villegas, Fred Massicotte and professor Mei
Wei captivated the attention of large groups of students delighted with our
road show.
May 1, 2004-Connecticut Invention Convention Ō This is an educational
organization that promotes creative, out-of-the-box thinking among school
children in Connecticut. The School of Engineering 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
about materials science and engineering.
April 2004-Our DepartmentĖs Newsletter revived thanks to the tireless
efforts and leadership of Chandrasekhar Kothapalli, member at large of the
student chapterĖs executive committee, active member of the student chapter
and editor in chief of the newsletter. Congratulations for a job very well
done, Chandrasekhar!
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 schoolĖs programs and opportunities for
those who want to go the extra mile and get a college degree, particularly
one in Engineering. Juan Villegas performed a number of demonstrations of
materials properties and talked to them about materials science and
engineering to give them a clearer idea of our field.
April 19, 2004-Awards Banquet Ō The School of Engineering at the
University of Connecticut presented outstanding engineering students with
several scholarships during its important 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
Scholarship.
Neal Magdefrau (Junior): ASM International
Southern Connecticut Chapter Arthur R. Geary Material Science Award.
Kelly Michaelis (Freshman): Harold P. Farrington
Engineering Scholarship.
Rachana Prasad (Soph.): Pratt & Whitney
Engineering Diversity Program Scholarship.
Our sincere congratulations to all of them!
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 competition.
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
Song, Robin Bright, Amol Jadhav, Sofia Iddir, Haoyan Wei, Xiaotong Wang,
Benjamin Laroux, Andrew Ruminsky, Chandrasekhar Kothapalli, Juan Villegas,
Jason Tresback and faculty members 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, held at the University of
Connecticut, Storrs, CT, and both posters were among 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 departmentĖs
logo embroidered on them and sold them at this fund-raiser event.
April 7, 2004-BurĄ 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,
from defense applications to consumer products. Mike Pasquariello,
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
Throughput Analysis of Multicomponent, Multiphase Diffusion Data at NISTĖs
Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science, in Gaithersburg,
MD.
March 18, 2004-Juan Villegas was selected by the ASM Materials
Education Foundation Board of Trustees and the AET LeaderShape Selection
Committee as one of the six students sponsored by the ASM Foundation 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 Bodycote
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 the TMS Annual Meeting in
Charlotte, 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 EngineersĖ
Week, featured at Wilbraham Middle School.
February 20, 2004-Talent show Ō 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 research 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
winners were:
First place:
Dafei Kang
Second place: Jessica Shen
Third place: Hong Luo
Thanks to all participants and congratulations to our winners.
Febrary 11 and 13, 2004-Outreach show at North Haven Middle School,
in North 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 about.
February 10, 2004-Dr. Reza Abbaschian, ASM trustee, Vladimir A.
Grodsky Professor and Department 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.