Student Night 2019, an annual event celebrating student research, was held on October 24th. The event was co-sponsored by the Oak Ridge Chapter of ASM (ORCASM), University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) Center for Materials Processing (CMP), and the Southeast section of the American Association for Crystal Growth (AACG-SE). Posters were contributed by six undergraduate students and thirty-two graduate students from a variety of academic units including Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering (MABE), and Nuclear Engineering (NE). Eight judges from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee spoke with the students at their posters to learn about the details and select first, second, and third place recognitions in both the graduate and undergraduate categories. The AACG-SE had an additional two judges for evaluating posters that included crystal growth topics.
Both experimental and computational studies were presented on materials including syntactic foams, high entropy alloys, metals, ceramics, perovskite solar cells materials, and materials found in nature such as gas hydrates and lignin. Some research focused on processing techniques including deformation-induced phase-transformations, additive manufacturing techniques, and pin-less friction stir spot welding while other research focused on characterization techniques including in-situ STEM, atom probe tomography, neutron diffraction, small angle neutron scattering (SANS), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, optical and electron microscopy, and mechanical properties. Potential applications for materials studied include lithium- and sodium-ion batteries, aerospace and automotive industries, and radiation detectors for medical and national security imaging.
In the undergraduate category UTK MSE students swept the awards with Logan White (junior) being recognized as the third-place winner, Samantha Maness (junior) as the second-place winner, and Sara Wonner (senior) as the first-place winner. In the graduate category Yajie Zhao was the third-place winner, Lauren Nuckols was the second-place winner, and Mohmad Mohsin Thakur (CEE) was recognized as the first-place winner. Students recognized by the AACG-SE were Brianna Musico (3rd place), Xuesong Fan (2nd place), and Daniel Rutstrom (1st place). The Oak Ridge Chapter of ASM recognizes the winners with cash prizes and the CMP matches their awards with travel support to take their research to external professional society meetings.
Sara Wonner, 1st place undergraduate winner with her poster.
Prof. Mariya Zhuravleva, AACG President, presents graduate student Daniel Rutstrom with the 1st place AACG-SE award
Dr. Jake McMurray, Chairperson of ORCASM, presents Mohmad Mohsin Thakur with the 1st place graduate student award.