Students from the University of North Texas and other area universities met for an evening of research presentations during the 2012 North Texas Inter-University Student Symposium on Materials Science & Engineering.

The symposium involved student-only presentations with participants in materials and related fields from the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Dallas, and UNT. Dr. Jincheng Du, UNT Department of Materials Science and Engineering  (MSE), said that when he first led the UNT delegation to attend the Student Symposium organized by UT Arlington last year, he was truly impressed by the quality of the presentations and the atmosphere of the symposium.

“Unlike a conventional conference, this student-only symposium motivates students to present their research in utmost clarity and make convincing stories to their fellow students,” Dr. Du stated.

The event, held at UNT on March 28, was organized by MSE and Materials Advantage UNT Chapter. “We decided to organize the Symposium at UNT this year since we believe it would greatly benefit our students and the Material Science program,” Dr. Du said. “Not only the students who present at the symposium benefit from the event but also members of the local student chapter such as Material Advantage UNT chapter who were deeply involved in organizing the event. They also developed their leadership skills and ability to communicate and organize such an event involving multi-universities.”

Twelve students, including four UNT students, had the opportunity to give an overview of their research and answer questions from an audience of faculty and peers. Topics included:

• “Qualitative Investigations on the Mechanism of Zirconia to Zirconium carbide transformation via carbothermal reduction reaction,”
• “Scratch Resistance of Polymers: A Simulation,” and
• “Electrocatalytic Properties of Au/Pd Core/Shell Nanostructured Nanoparticles toward Formic Oxidation.”

A panel of judges reviewed the presentations, and the top students were rewarded for their efforts. UNT Ph.D. student Mrunalkumar Chaudhari, who presented “Reaction mechanisms of oxygen plasma interaction with organosilicate low-k materials,” received second place. “It definitely feels great to get recognized for your efforts and what you already love to do,” Chaudhari said. “By elevating my expectations from myself, this recognition has greatly increased my passion for excellence in the research field."

About the topic of his presentation, Chaudhari explained, “The advancement of the semiconductor industry depends on perfecting the processing conditions. Along with Dr. Jincheng Du, I have been working on understanding the fundamentals behind processing by using simulation tools.”

The other UNT student presenters were Anchal Sondhi, Travis Hilbig, and Shravana Katakam, who was a fourth-place recipient with his presentation on “Stress driven spatial and temporal nano-crystallization in Fe-Si-B amorphous ribbons by laser processing. Microstructure and thermal model study.”

Dr. Du explained that the symposium’s participating universities hope to continue the event as a tradition in the DFW region because of the advantages it brings to the material related programs. “The good news,” he said, “is that UT Dallas has already agreed to host the next symposium.”

View photos of the 2012 North Texas Inter-University Student Symposium on Materials Science & Engineering.