Materials science grad students will lead demonstrations at the Virginia Discovery Museum on Saturday, January 22 from 10 AM to 5 PM as part of the Making Stuff outreach coalition. Students will lead the construction of a balloon model of a carbon nanotube across the Downtown Mall and also demonstrate various exciting materials technologies. The exhibit at the museum will continue for two weeks and additional demonstrations will take place Wednesday January 26 from 1 PM to 5 PM and Saturday January 29 from 10 AM to 5 PM.
After months of work on the Making Stuff outreach campaign, the UVA Department of Materials Science and Engineering got its reward with the premiere of the show on PBS. Prof. Jerry FLoro, who was an adviser for the program, organized an event for undergraduate and graduate students, along with faculty and staff. Prof. Floro described his work on the program and the history of the development, while grad students Chris Petz and Ryan Comes explained the department’s outreach campaign over the past 6 months. Over 200 people crowded into the Gilmer Hall auditorium for the show, and gave the episode a rousing round of applause at the end of the hour. The next episode airs Wednesday, January 26 at 9 PM EST on PBS.
Nine teams of local high school students spent the day in the Rotunda at UVA, presenting posters on how materials science can impact our daily lives. Students from Charlottesville High School, the MESA center at Albemarle HS, Madison HS and Fluvanna HS participated in the project as part of the UVA Making Stuff outreach coalition. Participants were able to interact with faculty and graduate students in the MSE department during the open session. They then presented their work to Profs. Beth Opila and Rob Kelly, and grad students Chris Nolph and Kathleen Shugart, who served as judges. The awards went to:
1st Prize: Randall Jepson Jr and Ben Deal, “Aerogel: A Smarter Material for a Smarter Future”, from Albemarle HS.
2nd Prize: Naomi Wiener, “Quantum Dots to Enhance the Academical Village,” from Charlottesville HS.
3rd Prize: Melissa Lewis and Guillaume Bailey, “Lotusan Paint,” from Albemarle HS.
NBC 29 in Charlottesville came by the Rotunda to do a news piece on the competition, which is available here.
The UVA Making Stuff coalition made two trips to local high schools last week, visiting Orange County HS and Madison County HS to teach students about materials science. Graduate students performed demonstrations explaining how materials scientists can engineer stronger materials. Students from each school are planning to participate in the materials science competition in January. For more information on the high school competition, check out the this flyer.
The full presentation is also available here.
After months of work, the big day finally arrived this past Saturday. The MSE-EP Board presented the new children’s book on materials science at the WVPT Kids’ Book Festival. Author Bridget O’Brien, along with contributors Chris Petz and Ryan Comes, and volunteers Justin Erwin, Wenjing Yin, Prakash Palanisamy and Priya Gatwai handed out books to kids and parents of all ages. The group also performed popular demonstrations including Magic Sand, ferrofluids and amorphous metals. To view a PDF copy of the book, click here.
Bridget leads the audience in a demonstration
Priya, Prakash and Ryan with some of the demonstrations
As part of the Making Stuff outreach program, the MRS chapter hosted an in-service for local high school teachers on Friday August 20. Various Engineering professors presented some background on the four categories of the Making Stuff program. Prof. Petra Reinke of MSE taught the audience about nano-scale materials to cover the Smaller subject. Prof. Gary Shiflet presented Stronger materials and described how they have shaped civilization in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Prof. Eric Loth of MAE discussed some of his research on self-assembled hydrophobic coatings and how they represent Smarter materials. Prof. Jim Smith of Civil Engineering discussed his research on water purification using ceramic materials and silver nanoparticles to make Cleaner drinking water in developing countries. Each teacher was given a packet of information to use in their classes this year. Any other teachers interested in covering materials science in their classes are welcome to download the packet from this post.
Prof. Gary Shiflet‘s Presentation
Prof. Eric Loth’s Presentation
Prof Petra Reinke’s Presentation
Prof. James Smith’s Presentation
Addtional Information on Smarter Materials
Additional Information on Smaller Materials
Additional Information on Cleaner Materials
Additional Information on Stronger Materials
Materials Science Resources on the Web
Handout for Making Stuff Competition High School Competition
NOVA Making Stuff flier
Introducing new Work-as-Art competition! Check your email or here for more details and submit your work. Deadline: Midnight, November 1st, 2010.
2/27/2010 Members of MRS and TMS/MA in conjunction with Center for Diversity participated in a Build-a-Speaker workshop hosted as a part of Engineer’s Week. Girl scouts (cadets) and their parents were introduced to the science behind speakers and were given an opportunity to build simple speakers from everyday items (plastic cup, coil of wire, magnet and a rubber band).
2/18/2010 Members of MRS and TMS/MA in conjunction with Center for Diversity participated in a Build-a-Speaker workshop in Buford Middle School. Middle school students were introduced to the science behind speakers and were given an opportunity to build simple speakers from everyday items (plastic cup, coil of wire, magnet and a rubber band). Pictures are forthcoming.
Members of the MSE community including MRS and TMS/MA members came together Saturday to show the Charlottesville community what it means to be a materials scientist. Grad students led tour groups and did demonstrations in their labs, while MRS advisor and MSE Prof. Jerry Floro did a hands on demonstration in the Wilsdorf Hall Atrium, showing visitors ferrofluids and amorphous metals and how they are used in everyday life.
A few pictures from the event are below:
Prof. Floro leads the hands on demonstration.
Kiril Simov demonstrates Prof. Reinke's scanning tunneling microscope.
