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STAIR: Sustainable Technology through Advanced Interdisciplinary Research


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  • IGERT Trainee Khoa Nguyen, STAIR Associate Richard Simmerman, and STAIR PI Dr. Barry Bruce attended and presented posters at the 21st Western Photosynthesis Convention at Pacific Grove, CA, in January. Khoa's entry won the best graduate poster award.
  • IGERT Trainee Travis Russell completed the requirements for his masters degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering in December 2011.
  • IGERT Associate Nethika Suraweera has completed 15 hours of approved courses (6 hours from her home discipline and 9 hours from two other disciplines, e.g., math and computer science) to earn the Interdisciplinary Graduate Minor in Computational Science (IGMCS).
  • IGERT students Jeff Bunn, Michelle Everett, and Rosemary Le taught science lessons on fuel cells, super conductors and crystals to 5 chemistry classes at the Webb School of Knoxville in October. Additionally, they presented information about graduate school opportunities. Click here to see pictures of their visit.
  • View a recent video of the BugE® in action. This all electric vehicle can travel 30 miles a day on a charge and costs $0.01 per mile to run. It has a top speed of 45 miles per hour and produces less than one-fifth the green house gas emissions of the Toyota Camry. IGERT Michelle Everett, project leader for the P3 Team, addresses the economical benefits of the car and PI Dr. Paul Frymier discusses the car’s environmental impact.  Click here.
  • STAIR Co-principal Investigator Dr. Claudia Rawn co-organized and co-chaired the Oak Ridge Chapter of ASM's Materials Camp for Teachers June 20-24, 2011. STAIR Trainee Michelle Everett also participated in the week long camp by assisting the Master Teachers and mentoring the Teacher participants. The program, developed at the University of Washington and Edmonds Community College, builds on curriculum development, teacher training and student programs in Materials Science and is supported by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technology Education program.
  • STAIR students and advisors participated in a retreat at Roan Mountain State Park in May 2011. Students presented their research work to their peers and to the STAIR advisors. Khoa Nguyen won the competition for the best presentation and the $100 award prize. The plenary speaker, Dr. Chris Cherry, presented his ongoing research on electric bikes in China. Click here to see collage of the activities.
  • STAIR program participants and PI, Dr. Claudia Rawn, participated in Earth Day at Oak Ridge in April. The BugE® proved to be a popular display. This battery electric vehicle (BEV) is designed for near urban commuting and can travel 30 miles before needing another charge. To see pictures of this unique vehicle, click here.
  • Michelle Everett, IGERT, and Dr. Paul Frymier, PI, are a part of a 14-member University of Tennessee team participating in EPA's P3 Program (People, Prosperity and the Planet). See a picture of their alternative vehicle and learn more about the team's project. click here.
  • IGERT Trainee Michelle Everett participated in the ASME Student Poster Night November 18. The title of her poster was “Synthesis of Isoretocular Metal Porphyrin Frameworks.”
  • IGERT Associates Qianping He, Ify Iwuchukwu, Nethika Suraweera, and Qifei Wang presented papers at the 2011 Annual AIChE meeting in Salt Lake City, UT. Publications and Presentation Page
  • IGERT Trainee Jeff Bunn presented a talk, “Residual Strain Tensor for Steel Samples Subjected to Tension and Torsion at NRSF2” at the UT Energy Partnership Forum meeting in September 2010. The forum's purpose is to facilitate a partnership between DOE and DOD through universities and industries to solve complex energy problems.
  • STAIR PI Dr. David Keffer has accepted a Fulbright grant as a “Distinguished Lectureship” in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Yonsei University in Seoul Korea. This project is titled, “The Search for Sustainability in Seoul.” The grant, lasting 10 months, began September 1, 2010.
  • STAIR Co-principal Investigator Dr. Claudia Rawn, in conjunction with the ASM Oak Ridge Chapter, conducted a Materials Camp for teachers June 21-25, 2010. The program, developed at the University of Washington and Edmonds Community College, builds on curriculum development, teacher training and student programs in Materials Science and is supported by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technology Education program.
  • IGERT Trainee Patrick Ward gave a presentation at the General Research Institute for Nonferrous Metal in Beijing, China, in June 2010. The topic of his presentation was the development and characterization of hydrogen storage materials. In his first couple of slides, Patrick briefly introduced the STAIR program and its research objectives. The rest of the presentation discussed methods for the production of metal decorated fullerenes, synthesis of disulfide connected MOF’s, and the development of a Raman technique for the characterization of hydrogen storage materials. The audience consisted of about 30 students and Dr. Xin Ju. Most of the students were material science majors.
  • IGERT Trainee Jeff Bunn participated in a poster session at the 2010 Annual IGERT Project Meeting meeting in Washington, DC, May 23-25, 2010. Jeff is a Civil and Environmental Engineering graduate student.  Poster Presentation.
  • High school student Jonathan Patrick (JP) Luna has played an important role in the efforts of Dr. Keffer's research team. STAIR student Nethika Suraweera is using his computer models to study hydrogen storage in nanoporous adsorbents. Read more about this talented high school student and his work in this spring's issue of Tennessee Engineer, page 6. “J.P. Luna: Setting High Standards”.
  • IGERT Associate Qifei Wang completed his Master of Science degree in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering earlier this spring. His research interest is in multi-scale modeling of polymers.
  • STAIR IGERT Trainees and Associates participated in the Earth Day 2010 festivities at Bissell Park in Oak Ridge where they handed out reprints of the posters on display at the American Museum of Science and Energy. They also had environmentally friendly bags to give away. Earth Day pictures of the exhibit.
  • STAIR IGERT Trainees and Associates created a panel exhibit for the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, TN. The title of the exhibit was, “STAIRing at Resource Conservation: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”See pictures and posters of the exhibit. The exhibit was on display during the month of April and part of May.
  • IGERT Michelle Everett attended the 2010 Inter-IGERT Nanoscience and Professional Development Workshop sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin, April 14-17. Along with presenting a poster at UT-Austin's annual Nano Night, the workshop was geared towards career development and professional enrichment of the IGERTs.  Group Picture
  • In March, IGERT Trainee Patrick Ward conducted a science lesson in chemical energy for 6th grade science students at Vine Middle School.  Click here to see pictures from the visit.
  • IGERT Trainee, Patrick Ward, met weekly with high school students Ellen Ford and Kevin Gayler during the fall 2009 semester. Under Patrick’s leadership, the students worked on the synthetic design of metal decorated fullerenes for possible hydrogen storage materials and gave a poster presentation on their progress at Farragut High School in December 2009. Picture Patrick’s mentorship with Kevin will continue throughout the 2010 spring semester as Kevin researches using free radicals of metal carbonyls as possible reagents to produce precursors to the desired metal decorated fullerenes.
  • IGERT Trainee Michelle Everett received her Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering December 11, 2009.
  • In November, STAIR program students organized and led in a local middle school outreach program for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science students. Using visual and hands-on experiences, STAIR students generated active participation and an interest in the science concepts being introduced.  Click here to see pictures from the visit.
  • STAIR program students Michelle Everett and Jeffrey Bunn led teams of high school students in the week-long Materials Camp held at the University of Tennessee June 15-19, 2009. The camp was directed by Dr. Claudia Rawn, Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering and co-director of STAIR. In one of the sessions, Dr. Paul Frymier, STAIR program faculty, used a small hydrogen-driven car to demonstrate the challenges of developing materials that will capture, hold and release hydrogen, a sustainable energy source, efficiently.   Click here to see Materials Camp pictures.
  • IGERT Trainee Michelle Everett participated in a poster session at the 2009 Annual IGERT PI meeting in Alexandria, VA, May 17-19, 2009.   Poster Presentation
  • A UT Team, advised by Dr. Paul Frymier, received one of ten Honorable Mention awards at the April 18-20 National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, DC., “Microrefining of Waste Glycerol for the Production of Value-added Products”. Dr. Frymier is an IGERT advisor/faculty member.
  • IGERT Fellow, Michelle Minton, competed in the Annul Sigma Xi Student competition at UT April 16 and placed second in her session.
  • IGERT advisors, Drs. Frymier and Keffer, took a student team to compete in AIChE meeting in Tuscaloosa, AL, April 3, 2009. The team's hydrogen car finished second.