MONDAY MEMO, December 10, 2007
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1. Announcements
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1.1: The Birck Center Holiday Schedule has been posted around the building and has been inserted here for your reference. If you have any questions, please contact John Weaver.
1.2: MaryJo Totten will be on vacation the week of December 24 and will return on
January 2. if you need keys, please plan on seeing MaryJo before December 21.
All mail and and packages will be handled as usual during the holiday break.
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2. Seminars
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2.1: Monday, December 10, 2:30PM, POTR 234 – Fu Room: “Introduction to the Object Oriented Finite Element Modeling of Material Microstructures,” by R. Edwin Garcia.
ABSTRACT: The determination of macroscopic properties of a material in terms of the underlying mesoscopic characteristics is of fundamental importance to Materials Science. Moreover, the engineering of the shape, size, spatial distribution, and local interactions of the phases and shapes that conform a material or device component is of paramount interest for the advancement and improvement of technology. In this context, an introduction to the Finite Element Method is presented, and practical rules of thumb are introduced in order to develop high-quality numerical representation of materials. An overview of a recently added nanoHUB application is presented: the Object Oriented Finite Element analysis (OOF), which starts from an image of the microstructure and ends with results from finite element calculations. The program reads an image (or sequence of images) and assigns material properties to microscopic features. Upon creating a mesh, the topological complexity of the microstructure is resolved by using automated mesh adapting and refining tools. With the resultant mesh, virtual tests are preformed to deduce macrscopic behavior, filed localization, etc. OOF is designed for materials scientists with little or no computational background. It can solve for a wide range of physicals. Example applications include rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, thermoelectric generators, ferroelectric materials, just to mention a few.
BIO: R. Edwin García is an Assistant Professor in Materials Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana (2005-present). He earned the Physics degree at the National University of Mexico in 1996. He obtained his Masters in Materials Science (in 2000) and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003. Edwin García held a postdoctoral appointment at the Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, before being appointed to his current position. His research includes the theoretical and numerical modeling of materials of complex microstructural features, such as ferroelectric films for actuators and random access memory applications, as well as materials and devices for alternative energy and power sources, such as rechargeable lithium battery electrode materials, solid oxide fuel cells, nanodots, nanowires, and polycrystalline thermoelectric oxides for thermal energy recovery, and computational analysis and design of semiconducting alloys for Solid-State based Light Emitting Devices.
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3. Birck Visitors
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3.1: Monday and Tuesday, December 10 and 11, Tim Fisher’s ThermalHub meeting w/meals held in the Atrium
3.2: Tuesday, December 11, 9:25-9:45AM: PU Office of the Dean of Students
3.3: Tuesday, December 11, 2:00PM: Prof. Steve Abel, Pharmacy Practice, IUPUI
3.4: Tuesday, December 11, 3:30PM: Project Lead the Way
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4. Funding Opportunities
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4.1: This message is being sent to the Discovery Park e-list at the request of Cris King, Director, Research Development Services in the Office of the Vice President for Research.
Discovery Park has initiated a competition for seed grant proposals with a total of $300,000 allocated to fund seed grants of up to $50,000 each for proposals that catalyze new high impact activities at Purdue. This program is not meant to fund complete projects, but rather to provide the necessary support to start new efforts that will be supported longer term by other funding sources. Each proposal must include a letter from the Discovery Park center(s) from which the project will receive support. All funded project teams are expected subsequently to submit a proposal to an external funding agency through Discovery Park, or to receive support from an outside organization (e.g., company) for continuation of the project effort.
For this competition, the deadlines are as follows:
Letters of Intent (required) are due Wednesday, January 2.
Proposals are due Tuesday, January 15.
The guidelines and application process for this competition may be found at http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/dpseedgrants.shtml <http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/dpseedgrants.shtml> <http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/dpseedgrants.shtml <http://www.purdue.edu/research/vpr/funding/dpseedgrants.shtml> > .
4.2: Discovery NSF Fellowship Callout for STEM Ph.D. Students: January 9, 2008; BRNG 1245; 4:30—5:30pm. The Discovery Learning Center in Discovery Park offers opportunity for doctoral students in the STEM disciplines Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to apply for a one-year fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation and Purdue University. Fellows serve as “visiting scientists” in a program designed to instill the excitement of learning science into middle school classrooms. Teamed with 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science teachers, a diverse group of fellows will develop and teach inquiry-based lessons geared toward the science of everyday NSF requires applicants to be U.S. citizens.
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5. Life on the Outside
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5.1: Wellness Presentation: “Relaxation Techniques,” Tuesday, December 11, 12–1:00, MRGN 121. Stressful situations can cause emotional and physical harm, but certain relaxation techniques may help ease the pain. Identify your stressors, learn ways to prevent them, and practice techniques for complete relaxation. Bring your own lunch and enjoy this presentation by Amber Simons — just in time for shopping, working, preparing, partying, and all the other fun and stressful events this season can bring.
Deborah S. Starewich
Administrative Assistant to Timothy D. Sands, Director
Birck Nanotechnology Center
Purdue University
765-494-3509
dstarewi@ecn.purdue.edu
http://www.nano.purdue.edu/