Monthly Archives June 2016

Members of our laboratory volunteered at a Camp Connect event at UCF.  Students, from 8th to 10th grade, came from surrounding schools to engage in activities that focus on STEM related subjects.  Our members oversaw an activity showing the importance of light weight structures with high strength to weight ratios. A presentation was given by our group on space structures as examples of why the strength to weight ratios are important. Following a brief presentation on aerospace structures, the students competed to build a solar sail mast with the highest strength to weight ratio. They were given some basic materials, such as index cards, straws, tape, string etc. to build their structure.  At the end of the allotted time students went to the weighing station to see how much weight their structure can hold.  The winners received a certificate for their accomplishment.

Laboratory group members Alex Selimov, Alejandro Zelaya, Lin Rossmann, and Eric Barker presented two research posters at the Summer Research Academy hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research at UCF.  This event is held over two and half days during the Summer for current and incoming students to get an understanding of university research.  The participants get to meet with current faculty and students involved in research, find research opportunities, and for no charge earn one credit for work before, during and after the event.

Group members Alex Selimov and Alejandro Zelaya presented “Real Time Testing of High Temperature Aerospace Materials”. The posters investigation included using Piezospectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and x-ray tomography for a better understanding on crystal structure specific interactions.

Lin Rossmann and Eric Barker presented “Piezospectroscopy for Non-Invasive Stress Detection”. This poster describes the applications for Piezospectroscopy through depicting early crack detection and provides data from experiments conducted at UCF on various types of alumina composite coatings.