 |
 |
If you are having problems viewing this message, click here.
For the week of July 8, 2011
@COE will be published on a biweekly basis for the remainder of the summer; the next edition will be sent out on Friday, July 22.
Please send submissions for @COE to Julie Stansberry in the Engineering Communications Office at [log in to unmask] by noon on Thursdays.
Student News
Graduate Student Receives Health Physics Society Award
Santosh Bhatt, a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, received the 2011 H. Wade Patterson Memorial Award from the Health Physics Society at its annual meeting last week in Palm Beach, Fla.
Established in 2003, the H. Wade Patterson Memorial Award is presented each year at the annual Health Physics Society meeting to recognize outstanding students in accelerator health physics. The winner receives a check and plaque. The award is a tribute to H. Wade Patterson (1924-1997), who was the first president of the Accelerator Section of the Health Physics Society and is generally regarded as the first professional accelerator health physicist.
Faculty and Staff News
Professor Elected Co-Chair of American Filtration Society Annual Conference
Dr. Gajanan Bhat, professor in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) and director of the Nonwovens Research Laboratory (UTNRL), has been elected to be the Co-Chair of the American Filtration Society (AFS) Annual Conference next year. The conference will be held in Boca Raton, Fla., during the first week of June 2012. Also, during the 2011 Annual Conference last month, Bhat chaired a session and gave a talk showcasing the melt blown nanofiber research at UTNRL. UTNRL is the only capability in the world to have pilot lines and the ability to conduct melt blown nanofiber research from multiple technologies. For more info on AFS and the upcoming conferences, please click here.
UTSI Part of Collaboration to Win NSF Grant
The University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), in collaboration with Northwestern University (NW), won a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to perform state-of-the-art in situ transmission electron microscopy to observe the growth of nanoparticles in a glass matrix.
Researchers at UTSI and NW, jointly led by Dr. Jacqueline Johnson (UTSI) and Dr. Amanda Petford-Long (NW), are working to improve medical imaging technology through the use of a novel glass-ceramic. The glass-ceramic is a fluorochlorozirconate (FCZ) glass composition containing barium chloride nanocrystals doped with europium. The glass-ceramic performs the task of storing an x-ray image as part of a computed radiography (CR) system. The unique properties of the glass-ceramic can provide better image quality than that found in current computed radiography (CR) medical imaging systems, which is important for high resolution applications such as mammography. Recent work has focused on transmission electron microscope (TEM) studies of the growth of barium chloride nanocrystals.
In computed radiography systems, a reusable cartridge temporarily stores an x-ray image until it can be read out by a laser scanner, producing a digital image. This is possible because of a process known as photostimulated luminescence (PSL). In this process, storage phosphors, such as the glass-ceramic being studied, absorb and store x-ray energy by creating electron-hole pairs within the material. Upon exposure to laser light, the electron-hole pairs recombine, allowing the storage phosphor to release the stored energy in the form of visible light at a wavelength that differs from the laser. This light can then be detected by a photomultiplier tube (PMT) and converted to an electrical signal and digitized, forming an image.
The storage phosphor begins as a glass that contains the elements zirconium, barium, lanthanum, aluminum, sodium, indium, chlorine and fluorine. Europium is also incorporated because of its luminescent properties. Upon heating, barium chloride crystallites begin to form in the glass, causing the glass to become a glass-ceramic. It is these barium chloride crystallites, which also contain small amounts of europium that give the glass ceramic its unique storage phosphor properties. Understanding the formation of these crystallites is paramount to developing an efficient, high-resolution storage phosphor plate.
In order to study the crystallites and their interface with the glass matrix, TEM or other special means are required. By using in situ TEM, the team will answer questions such as: How do the barium chloride crystallites form within the glass matrix? Why do they luminesce an order of magnitude higher than the equivalent single crystal volume? How does glass composition affect the crystal nucleation process?
Three MSE Faculty Members Publish Papers
Dr. William Weber, Governor's Chair professor, Dr. Yanwen Zhang, joint faculty associate professor, and Dr. Haiyan Xiao, post doctoral research associate, all in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE), co-authored the following two papers being published this month:
Engineering Professional Practice Announcement
Stay up-to-date with Engineering Professional Practice information and events by clicking the “Like” button on the program’s new Facebook page, following the program on Twitter, visiting its website at www.coop.utk.edu or calling 865-974-5323.
Students, please note: If you receive a co-op or internship offer, please contact Engineering Professional Practice for help with paperwork and any preparations you may need – [log in to unmask], 865-974-5323 or 310 Perkins Hall.
Engineering Professional Practice Student Feature
Featured student: Nathan Meek
Our featured student this week is Nathan Meek, a student majoring in materials science and engineering. During the spring 2011 semester, his co-op assignment was at Flint Group in Arden, N.C.
Meek describes the department and what his responsibilities and projects were in relation to the department's operations: “I worked in the Research and Technology Department. I had several projects during my Spring 2011 term, but the two major projects I’ve worked on were, first, testing all internal and external polymers used at the facility to determine new specifications and limits. And second, compiling data to analyze the gauges and measurements on the current products to adjust the process limits accordingly.”
A challenge he had to overcome during this assignment was planning and coordinating everything. "I had several projects at once and needed to coordinate with others so I could get my testing done on time," Meek said. "The lesson I took away from this was to be very organized and coordinating with others.
“Overall it was a great experience. I made friends and learned a lot as well. I would recommend this program to anyone in the College of Engineering at UT.”
Students may read more about their peers’ co-op/internship experiences by logging into their Engineering Professional Practice profile via www.coop.utk.edu, clicking “Resource Library” (on the left margin) and selecting “Students at Work – In Their Own Words.”
For information on engineering co-op and internships, contact Engineering Professional Practice at [log in to unmask] or 865-974-5323.
Advising Announcements
Students Now Can Apply to Graduate Through MyUTK
All students who have not already applied to graduate in Summer 2011, Fall 2011 or Spring 2012 can now apply for graduation online through MyUTK. It is very important that students' profile information is up-to-date before they submit a graduation application. This information includes the student's degree, major, concentration, minor and catalog year.
Students can apply for graduation by going to the "UTK Student Academic Links" inside MyUTK. Before submitting their graduation application, they should view their information in MyUTK from the "View Your Profile" tab. If the student's profile information is not correct, the following staff should be contacted to update the profile:
Undergraduate students should contact their college advising center, academic department or dean's office to have the correct information entered into the system. Undergraduate students who have other questions can contact the Office of the University Registrar at 974-2101.
Graduate students should contact the Graduate School at [log in to unmask] or 974-2475 for information on changing academic programs.
If you have submissions for @COE, the college's electronic newsletter, please send them to Julie Stansberry at [log in to unmask] by noon on Thursdays.