Travel Grant: Consortium for the Advancement of Shape Memory Alloy Research and Technology 3rd International Student Design Competition; Konstanz, Germany; May 12-17, 2019

Colorado School Of Mines, Golden CO

Investigators

Abstract

This grant provides travel support for undergraduate and graduate students to take part in the Consortium for the Advancement of Shape Memory Alloy Research and Technology (CASMART) 3rd International Student Design Competition to be held in Konstanz, Germany from May 12-17, 2019. The design competition will be held as part of the International Conference on Shape Memory and Superelastic Technologies (SMST). Building on the success of past conferences, SMST 2019 will be the premier forum for sharing and dissemination of the latest scientific, engineering, and technology advances in field of smart materials. This is the 3rd installment of the design competition with a healthy history of US participation. Students will present their solutions to design challenges in various industries, such as astronautics and medicine. The designs will be developed by students based on the creative use of engineering theories and methods, engineering design principles, and mentorship provided by CASMART members. Not only will the students be exposed to the interesting work of fellow competitors, they will also be exposed to world class academic and industrial research in an international environment, which will foster their personal and professional growth. Toward ensuring a workforce to sustain that growth, as well as current market and R&D needs, CAMSART held its first international student design competition in 2015 and has repeated it every-other year since then in conjunction with the SMST conference. This grant will support undergraduate and graduate students participating in this design competition to travel to the conference to present their designs in paper, poster, and hardware demonstration formats. Specifically, there are 14 student teams registered for the competition representing five US Universities: Colorado School of Mines, Texas A&M, University of Minnesota, University of Toledo, and University of North Texas. The student teams will compete their designs for: deployment and orientation mechanisms for solar arrays that power smallsats, compact deployable communications dishes with curvature correction, heat engines for recovering energy from power plant waste heat streams, and advancements in the state of the art for Tourniquets and scoliosis spinal curvature prevention devices. CASMART will collect the student papers and condense them into a full length, peer reviewed article on the advancements in the state of the art in SMA alloy and application design practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.