Spreading the Word about Materials Engineering
The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, generally known as TMS, is a major organization encompassing the entire range of materials and engineering, and among its primary functions is to provide a forum for the exchange of information. Its annual meeting, held this year in Nashville, was a high-profile event that drew almost 4,000 materials engineers and other professionals from around the globe to share their research and encourage the transfer of technology to industry.
Associate Professor Nikhil Gupta of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering first organized a symposium on metal and polymer matrix composites back at the TMS 2013 meeting, and in 2016 he once again showcased the state of the art in lightweight composite materials by organizing the second edition of the event. The symposium is now established as a series and will be held again (as the third edition) in conjunction with the Materials Science and Technology Conference in October 2017.
Topics at the well-attended symposium ranged from composites that can be used to make lightweight 3D-printed components (presented by Tandon student Steven Zeltmann) to analyzing why wind turbine blades and airplane fuselages fail.
Besides organizing the symposium, mid-2016 found Gupta guest-editing a special issue of JOM, a journal published by the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society. Included are almost a dozen papers from the symposium, covering such topics as lightweight aluminum and magnesium matrix composites, lightweight polymer matrix composites, and the additive manufacturing of composite and advanced materials.
