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Current News
May 2013
- Garrison Develops New High-Stress Steel for Industry
Warren M. Garrison Jr. has developed a new ultra-strength steel of high fracture toughness that is significantly less expensive to manufacture than existing products
The new steel contains no cobalt and only a relatively small amount of nickel and therefore is much less expensive than other ultra-high strength steels of high fracture toughness — all of which contain large amounts of cobalt and nickel.
Garrison said the new steel is one of the outcomes of a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program, which was funded by the U.S. Navy.
One of the objectives of the STTR program was the development of an inexpensive, ultra-strength steel with high fracture toughness that could be used in Navy aircraft applications. The company in charge of the STTR program was Navmar Applied Sciences Corporation of Warminster, Pa., which specializes in engineering and technical support for the Department of Defense, the U.S. government and private industry.
CMU's Garrison worked with Jeffrey Waldman, the scientist in charge of the program at Navmar, and William Frazier, chief scientist at the Air Vehicle Engineering Department of the Naval Air Systems Command.
The new steel developed at CMU also has excellent resistance to crack growth during stress corrosion cracking in salt water. "The rate of crack growth during stress corrosion cracking of the new steel is comparable to that of other ultra-high strength steels of high fracture toughness and is much better than that of low alloy steel 300M, which is the steel used in the landing gear of most commercial aircraft," said Garrison, who has a patent pending for the new steel.
The researchers report that the next step in the development of the new steel would be to assess its properties in commercial scale heats. While the alloy was developed with Navy aircraft applications in mind, given its low cost and high toughness, it could be used for other applications.
April 2013
- Christopher Bettinger Develops Edible Electronics for Medical Device Industry
It sounds futuristic, but today Carnegie Mellon University researchers are developing edible electronic devices that can be implanted in the body to improve patient care.
"We are creating electronically active medical devices that can be implanted in the body," said Christopher Bettinger, an assistant professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at CMU. "The idea is for a patient to consume a pill that encapsulates the device."
Bettinger, along with Jay Whitacre, a professor of materials science and engineering, is creating edible power sources for medical devices that can be taken orally using materials found in the daily diet.
"Our design involves flexible polymer electrodes and a sodium ion electrochemical cell, which allows us to fold the mechanism into an edible pill that encapsulates the device," Bettinger said.
CMU researchers report that the edible device could be programmed and deployed in the gastrointestinal tract or the small intestine depending upon packaging. Once the battery packaging is in place, Bettinger's team would activate the battery.
Bettinger reports that the battery could power biosensors to measure biomarkers or monitor gastric problems. The battery also could be used to stimulate damaged tissue or help in targeted drug delivery for certain types of cancer.
"There's so much out there we can do with this novel approach to medical devices," said Bettinger, a recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research for his innovative work on advanced materials for next-generation implanted medical devices.
Bettinger has worked for more than a decade at the interface of materials science and biomedical engineering. Some of his innovative technologies include new synthetic materials that mimic the natural properties of soft tissue and biodegradable electronics that could usher in a new era of electronically active implants.
More information about Bettinger here. See coverage by CBS Pittsburgh.
February 2013
- Debdutta Roy is the recipient of the 2013 Ladle & Secondary Refining Award for Best Paper
The AIST Refining and Casting Technical Division, Ladle and Secondary Refining Technology Committee selected, MSE recent graduate student, Debdutta Roy as the recipient of the 2013 Ladle and Secondary Refining Award for Best Paper for her work entitled "The Effect of Silicon on Desulfurization of Al-Killed Steels."
Established in 2005, this award is presented to the author of a ladle and secondary refining technical paper judged to be the best of class by the AIST Ladle and Secondary Refining Technology Committee. Dedbutta will receive this award at a presentation in May 2013.
January 2013
- Carnegie Mellon University’s Sumit Goenka Receives Shri Ram Arora Award at TMS2013
Sumit Goenka, Graduate Student at Carnegie Mellon University, will be recognized by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) with the Shri Ram Arora Award. Goenka will receive the award at the TMS 2013 Annual Meeting & Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, on March 5.
Said Goenka: “Shri Ram Arora recognizes young researchers in the field of materials science and engineering. Receiving this prestigious award and attending TMS2013 provides me a platform to interact with researchers and people working in similar areas. This is a great opportunity for me to expand my knowledge and collaborate with faculties having similar interests. As a TMS student member, I not only get to apply for various scholarships and awards, but also expose me to the industry-institute interaction.
Presented by the TMS Foundation through a grant from the Dr. Om Arora family, as a means of perpetuating their father’s, Shri Ram Arora, quest for continual learning and academic challenge, this award recognizes, encourages, and supports the quest for knowledge within the materials science and engineering community. Winners receive an engraved award and cash honorarium.
Goenka will receive the award at the 2013 TMS-AIME Honors & Awards Banquet, to be held March 5, 2013 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, as part of the TMS 2013 Annual Meeting & Exhibition.
Now in its 142nd year, the TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition attracts approximately 4,000 materials scientists and engineers working in industry, academia, and government from more than 68 countries. TMS2013 is scheduled for March 3-7, 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, visit www.tms.org/tms2013.
ABOUT TMS
TMS is a member-driven international professional society dedicated to fostering the exchange of learning and ideas across the entire range of materials science and engineering, from minerals processing and primary metals production, to basic research and the advanced applications of materials.
- McHenry named distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Magnetics Society
Michael McHenry has been named distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Magnetics Society. As part of this honor, he will give more than 30 talks world wide during the next year. The award recognizes his contributions to magnetic materials and his lectures will focus on high frequency magnetic materials and their use in transformers and integration into the power grid.
October 2012
- Carnegie Mellon Researchers Lead Work To Develop Devices for Improving Lives of Amputees.
PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's Christopher T. Bettinger and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski received $1.6 million for the next four years from the U.S. Army to improve the use of prosthetic devices.
"This is very exciting research as we work to create devices that can translate neural activity of a patient into instructions to move robotic limbs or other prosthetic devices," said Bettinger, an assistant professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.
One of the researchers key challenges is designing brain-machine interfaces for long-term reliability because the signal-to-noise ratio in these materials typically decays as the body reacts to the implant and tries to ward off foreign material.
The project, led by Bettinger and Matyjaszewski, the J.C. Warner Professor of Natural Sciences at CMU's Mellon College of Science, along with Kacey Marra, a collaborator at the University of Pittsburgh, aims to engineer autologous tissues using mechanically compliant electrically conducting polymeric materials.
"The tissue constructs are designed to make stable long-term connections between nerves in the peripheral nervous system by mimicking the native tissue areas," Bettinger said.
"New techniques in polymer chemistry have allowed us to make smarter, more durable materials. We have been able to create materials with great potential in a variety of applications. It's exciting to see if we can make something that will help those who wear prostheses," Matyjaszewski said.
The researchers also noted that the project has broad impact on wounded warriors by providing amputees with better control of prosthetic limbs. American soldiers and Marines walking combat patrols in Afghanistan have suffered a surge of gruesome injuries, losing one or both legs. And military statistics report more amputee injuries are possible as attacks by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) skyrocketed from five in April 2009 to more than 300 in April 2012.
"It is imperative that we develop pioneering tools and devices to better help our wounded warriors recover from such traumatic injuries," Bettinger said.
Article at CMU News
September 2012
- Adam W. Feinberg Wins Prestigious Innovation Award from National Institutes of Health
Carnegie Mellon University's Adam W. Feinberg was awarded a five-year, $2.25 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award to continue developing new biomaterials and cardiac tissue engineering strategies to help repair the human heart following injury and disease.
"I am extremely excited about this award because it will allow me to continue pursuing leading edge research designed to help regenerate and repair heart muscle and improve wound healing in a variety of biomedical arenas," said Feinberg, an assistant professor in CMU's departments of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.
Feinberg is one of 81 researchers nationwide receiving awards from the NIH to pursue visionary science that exhibits the potential to transform scientific fields and speed the conversion of lab research into improved health, under the High Risk-High Reward program supported through the NIH Common Fund.
Read full article.
July 2012
- Professor John Kitchin has been awarded the Presidential Early Career
Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by
the U.S. government to scientists and engineering professionals in the
early stages of their careers.
Kitchin, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering
with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, was nominated for the prestigious award by the Department of
Energy's Office of Fossil Energy for his research efforts in collaboration
with the National Energy Technology Lab's Regional University Alliance
(NETL-RUA), an alliance of five universities that conduct fully-integrated
basic and applied energy and environmental research.
"I am honored to be selected as a PECASE recipient for our work in
electrochemical oxygen separation. I am especially grateful to the NETL
Regional University Alliance, who supported this work and who continue to
provide a unique environment to develop CO2 capture enabling and clean
energy technologies," Kitchin said.
In this work, Kitchin and his team developed an electrochemical separation
method for separating oxygen from air at ambient pressure and temperature.
Cheap, efficient oxygen production is critical for several clean energy
and CO2 capture technologies of the future. Traditional air separation
methods require extreme refrigeration to turn air into liquid that can be
distilled, which is very energy intensive. Another alternative uses
extremely high temperatures and pressures to selectively drive oxygen
through ceramic membranes.
"Our approach uses electrochemistry to reversibly convert oxygen in air to
ions, transport the ions across the membrane, and convert the ions back to
pure oxygen on the other side of the membrane. All of this can be done at
room temperature and ambient pressure. We continue to develop catalysts to
make this process more efficient and economical. Increasingly, this
technology can be used for other applications like hydrogen purification,"
Kitchin said.
An innovative researcher and educator, Kitchin received the Kun Li Award
for Excellence in Education in 2010 and won a five-year, $750,000 grant
from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2010 to develop new materials for
producing hydrogen and oxygen from water using electrochemistry.
Kitchin earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from North Carolina State
and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware.
April 2012
- Congratulations to Sridhar Seetharman, his research group, and
collaborators at NETL on being selected to receive The American
Ceramic Society's Spriggs Phase Equilibria Award for their paper
"Phase Equilibria in Synthetic Coal - Petcoke Slags (Al2O3-CaO-FeO-SiO2-V2O3) Under Simulated Gasification Conditions" published in
Energy & Fuels, vol. 25 [7], pp 3298-3306 (2011).
The complete list of authors is Jinichiro Nakano, Kyei-Sing Kwong,
James Bennett, Thomas Lam, Laura Fernandez, Piyamanee Komolwit, and
Seetharaman Sridhar.
This award is given to the authors who made the most valuable
contribution to phase stability relationships in ceramic-based systems
literature during the calendar year prior to the selection. The award
will be presented at the American Ceramics Society Banquet, held at
the MS&T meeting here in Pittsburgh later this year.
February 2012
- Christopher Bettinger honored by National Academy of Sciences
Professor Christopher Bettinger was one of only 17 people to be honored for
their scientific contributions by the National Academy of Sciences. He
received the academy's award for initiatives in research. It is supported by
Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and comes with a $15,000 prize. Read more
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