Please consider attending this seminar:
MATERIALS ENGINEERING
“Characterizing the Structure and the Mechanism of Constructing the
Apis Mellifera Honeycomb”
By
Rahul Franklin
Purdue MSE Preliminary Exam
Advisor: Professor Nikhilesh Chawla
ABSTRACT
The natural honeycomb with its repeating hexagonal lattice cells made out of wax are some of nature’s best engineered structures that has both fascinated and inspired human beings for millennia.
Even though the honeycomb has inspired several modern engineering structures, an understanding of how the bees build them is lacking. Further, all previous works on studying the structure of the honeycomb have been based on 2D microscopy techniques or by direct
visual observations. As a result, several seminal features of the comb which would have otherwise given us a fundamental understanding of how it is built have been overlooked and ignored. Looking at the honeycomb from a materials science and engineering perspective
would help us in elucidating this problem and could have several widespread implications in fields such as additive manufacturing, composite materials, synthetic materials, and entomology.
Date: December 16, Thursday, 2021
Time: 10:00 AM
Place:
Webex- https://purdue.webex.com/meet/nikc
Yuan-Yu Karen Morgan,Ph.D.
Academic Advisor-Graduate Program
School of Materials Engineering
Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, Room 2217
765-494-4103