Student News

The MTSE department is happy to announce a new scholarship named after one of our former students: the Syed Ian Maswood Memorial Scholarship in Engineering. Current MTSE graduate students are highly encouraged to apply. Download more information or apply using our online application.

UNT MSE graduate students won top prizes at North Texas Symposium of Materials Science and Engineering

Jessica and Hitesh at the Symposium at UT Dallas

In the 4th North Texas Symposium of MSE held at UT Dallas on April 3 2013, UNT graduate students Jessica Rimsza and Hitesh Vora won the first and third prize, respectively. The second prize went to Srikar Jandhyala of UT Dallas. Fifteen graduate students from UT Dallas, UT Arlington, Texas Christian University, and UNT presented their research work in the Symposium at Natural Science and Research Engineering Laboratory of UT Dallas. Jessica Rimsza, working with Prof. Jincheng Du of UNT MSE department, presented her research on simulations of structure and properties nanoporous silica at the Symposium. Hitesh Vora, working with Prof. Narendra Dahotre of UNT MSE department, presented his research on laser surface alloying of aluminum to enhance corrosion resitance. UNT MSE graduate students Victor Ageh and Shavran Katakam also presented at the Symposium. The traditional oral presentation competition of MSE graduate students was judged by six material scientists and engineers (four from industry and two from universities). American Society of Metal (ASM) North Texas Chapter provided cash prizes of $500, $400 and $200 for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd three prizes respectively. An award ceremony and presentation of the prize winners with ASM President will be held on April 11 at UT Dallas.

Mr. Hitesh D. Vora, a doctoral student in Materials Science and Engineering advised by Professor Narendra B. Dahotre, won first prize ($500) in the Engineering Category at the 2013 Graduate Exhibition sponsored by the Toulouse Graduate School, University of North Texas on March 2-3, 2013 held in Denton, Texas for his poster, titled as “Laser Machining of Structural Ceramics: An Integrated Experimental and Numerical Approach for Surface Finish.”

Hitesh D. Vora, doctoral student in Materials Science and Engineering
(Click to Enlarge)

The prime emphasis of the 2013 Graduate Exhibition is on communicating research and creative endeavors to a general audience and offers an unusual opportunity for professional development by challenging graduate students to present their work in clear, comprehensible terms to people outside their fields, and also an excellent opportunity for graduate students to see themselves as part of the larger University community, to share their creativity, and to appreciate the breadth of quality research being done at the University of North Texas. The award ceremony was held on Sunday, March 3rd at University Union Lyceum and winners were announced by Dr. Mark Wardell, dean of Toulouse Graduate School at University of North Texas. Ye Xiang, doctoral student in Materials Science and Engineering advised by Dr. Jincheng Du, also won the 3rd prize in the same event.

Congratulations to Victor Ageh, a PhD candidate, for receiving a one year $5,000 scholarship from The Jane and Frank Warchol Scholarship Fund of the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC) Foundation. He has also been invited to attend the 2014 SVC Technical Conference to present his work on high temperature lubricious oxide coatings.  "The Department is proud of Victor for receiving this award to support his PhD research studies," said Professor Thomas Scharf, his PhD advisor.

Anchal Sondhi (back row, 8th from right) with ACerS President's Council of Student Advisors
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Anchal Sondhi, PhD candidate co-advised by Professors Richard Reidy and Thomas Scharf, was selected as a member for the President's Council of Student Advisors (PCSA) committee of The American Ceramic Society (ACerS). PCSA is comprised of students from universities from across the country and throughout the world. The mission of PCSA is to engage students as active and long-term leaders in the ceramics community and to increase participation in ACerS at the local and national levels.

As part of induction the annual meeting was conducted in Daytona beach, Florida from 26th January 2013 to 27th January 2013 where fellow student members from various other universities met to discuss PCSA items. During the period of membership Anchal will work in the Communications Committee of PCSA and help in developing and communicating ceramics focused information worldwide.

Further details about PCSA are at:
http://ceramics.org/acers-community/presidents-council-of-student-advisors

Dr. Jincheng Du and group presented at ASM North Texas Chapter Meeting

Mrunal Chaudhari, Arun Kumar (ASM North Texas Chapter President),
Dr. Du and Ye Xiang

The ASM North Texas Chapter monthly meeting in Dallas featured UNT researchers Dr. Du and his Ph.D. students Mrunal Chaudhari and Ye Xiang on Feb. 13 2013. The advisor/students team presented a seminar "Modeling and simulations in materials research: from nickel based super alloys to bioactive glasses". Dr. Du first introduced the UNT MSE department, his group research and the field computational materials science. Mrunal Chaudhari then presented his thesis work on first principles calculations of site occupancy in nickel based super alloys. Ye Xiang presented her research on structure and diffusion of bioactive glasses. A group of other UNT students including Jessica Rimsza, who is the Vice President of the Materials Advantage UNT Chapter, also attended the meeting. Social time with ASM North Texas Chapter members was held after the seminar.

MTSE Professors Witold Brostow, Wonbong Choi, Jincheng Du, Jim Williams, and Zhenhai Xia, as well as MTSE PhD student Jessica Rimsza, were featured in the Spring 2013 UNT Research Magazine, Volume 22 for sustainability research projects, graduate fellowships, collaborations, and new faculty announcements.

Mr. Ankit Srivastava, a doctoral student in Materials Science and Engineering, was the sole first place winner in the Best Student Paper Competition at the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) annual meeting held November 9-15, 2012 in Houston Texas.  The award is sponsored by the Haythornthwaite Foundation and the ASME Applied Mechanics Division. Ankit presented his research work on high temperature creep rupture of single crystal superalloys used in jet engine turbine blades during ASME annual meeting. His work was supervised by his dissertation advisor, Professor Alan Needleman. Each year the Haythornthwaite Foundation holds a national competition for travel grants to graduate students enrolled in US universities working in any field of applied mechanics and Ankit was awarded one of these to attend the ASME meeting.  The recipients of Haythornthwaite Foundation travel awards, which include students from the most highly ranked Mechanical Engineering programs, are finalists to compete for the Best Student Paper Award. The Best Student Paper Award was presented to Ankit at the Applied Mechanics Division Honors and Awards Banquet.

Kyle Roget, MTSE graduate student co-advised by Prof. Thomas Scharf and Prof. Srinivasan Srivilliputhur won third place prize at the 2012 Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) annual meeting held in St. Louis, MO for his poster, "Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Frictional Behavior in FCC Copper and HCP Magnesium."

The MTSE department's Undergraduate Fall Muster will be held on Friday, September 7 in Discovery Park B-155 from 2-3:20pm OR 3:30-4:45pm (you choose!). Both current MTSE undergraduates and students who might have an interest in discovering the department and its research areas are encouraged to attend. (Download Flier)

Congratulations to MTSE student Bed Sharma who received the Outstanding Poster and Presentation award at the 22nd International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry (CAARI).  The 2012 CAARI conference was held in Fort Worth, Texas from August 5th to 10th.

MTSE PhD student Jessica Rimsza received a prestigious award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP). The award provides fully sponsored three-year support of graduate study with distinctive opportunities of international research and career development. "Such honor to Jessica is a testimony of the higher quality of graduate students in the department that is poised to gain prominence in the country," said Prof. Narendra Dahotre, chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Jessica joined UNT MSE program in the Spring 2012 after finishing her undergraduate study at University of Arizona.  She has been working on computer simulations of nano-porous materials and plasma/material interactions in the group of Prof. Jincheng Du. "Jessica is an outstanding student who has been making great progress in her research.  Jessica is always prepared and comes with lots of questions in each of our weekly and group meetings. She is very capable and has lots of potentials. I am not surprise that she received the NSF GREP award," said Prof. Du. In addition to her research, Jessica is also active in student organizations and community service. She is the vice president of the Materials Advantage UNT Chapter and has been active in Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The GREP award of Jessica is the first in the MSE program and the eighth student of UNT to receive the award.

Read the UNT news article on Jessica's achievement.

2012 North Texas Student Symposium on Materials held at UNT

The UNT delegation to the Symposium. Photo courtesy of Angela Nelson.

The Department of Materials Science & Engineering at UNT and the Materials Advantage UNT Chapter organized the 2012 North Texas Student Symposium on Materials Science & Engineering at UNT's Discovery Park on March 28, 2012. The Symposium was a student-only oral presentation competition for students from UT Arlington, UT Dallas, and UNT in the DFW area. There were twelve presentations representing the three universities in the four-hour long Symposium, with strong participation from delegations of the three institutions. Anchal Sondhi, Travis Hilbig, Shravana Katakam, and Mrunalkumar Chaudhari from the UNT MTSE program represented UNT, presented their research in the Symposium, and answered questions from the judges, faculty, and fellow students. An award ceremony was held at the end of the symposium. The final awardees were Chia Jen Hsiu (UT Arlington), Mrunalkumar Chaudhari (UNT), and A. L. Salas-Villasenor (UT Dallas) for the first, second and third place prize, respectively. The fourth place prize winners were Shravana Katakam (UNT), Megan Velten, Lili Liu and Dong Liu (UT Arlington).

Read more about the Symposium and the UNT MTSE participants.

Photo courtesy of Angela Neslon.

The 2012 North Texas Inter-University Student Symposium on Materials Science & Engineering will be held at UNT on March 28. This is a traditional event of student-only presentations with participants in Materials and related fields from UTA, UTD, SMU and UNT in the metroplex. The UNT MSE department and Materials Advantage UNT Chapter will organize this year’s event. Prizes to the winners of the oral presentations will be provided by industrial partners. Students are encouraged to submit abstracts before the deadline, March 23. For more information, contact Dr. Jincheng Du (Du[at]unt.edu) or Kris Mahdak (Kristopher.Mahdak[at]unt.edu) or download the flyer.

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