N.M. Tech Students Win Top Poster Awards at Materials Symposium

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M., December 5, 2002 -- New Mexico Tech materials engineering students garnered three of the top prizes at a research poster competition held recently in conjunction with the 14th Annual Rio Grande Regional Symposium on Advanced Materials in Albuquerque.

New Mexico Tech doctoral candidate Shuwei Ma won first place in the graduate division for his poster titled "Microstress Evolution in a High-Volume Fraction Y/Y3 Superalloy." Ma received a $200 cash prize as part of his award.

Another Tech doctoral candidate, Huseyin Adanir, placed third overall in the graduate poster competition with his presentation on "Developing of and Wetting Behavior in Sn-Based Ag-Cu Master Braze Alloy," and received $50 for his efforts.

Mike Czerepak, an undergraduate student at New Mexico Tech, presented "Effect of Ion Exchange Treatments on the Fracture Toughness of Anodic Bonds" in the undergraduate poster competition and placed third in his division, also earning $50 as part of his award.

The poster competition featured nearly 50 presentations made by university students representing New Mexico Tech, the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Texas at El Paso.

Posters were judged by a panel of professionals in materials engineering fields on the basis of visual presentation, technical content, and oral presentation.

The Rio Grande Regional Symposia on Advanced Materials are technical meetings which are sponsored each year by the New Mexico Section of the American Ceramic Society, the New Mexico Section of the Materials Research Society, and the Albuquerque Section of ASM International.

The popular series of meetings and presentations are often used by materials researchers and students throughout the Rio Grande geographic area as a means of "warming up" for presentations to be made at other national conferences.