SPE® issues call for scholarship applications.

Press Release Summary:



The organizing committee for the SPE Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition announced that it will again bestow two $2,000 USD scholarships for graduate-level research in polymer composites that has impact on ground transportation. Winning students will be required to report on the results of their findings during the 12th annual SPE ACCE, which takes place September 11-13, 2012. Scholarship application forms are due July 1, 2011.



Original Press Release:



SPE® Issues Call for Scholarship Applications for Graduate-Level Research in Automotive Composites



Scholarships Application Forms Due July 1, 2011 for Two Awards to be Announced in August 2011

TROY (DETROIT), MICH - The organizing committee for the SPE Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (SPE ACCE) announced today that it will again bestow two $2,000 USD scholarships for graduate-level research in polymer composites that has impact on ground transportation. Students interested in applying will find a Scholarship Application form available for downloading at www.speautomotive.com/comp.htm; applications should be submitted electronically to ACCEpapers@speautomotive.com by July 1, 2011 for awards to be announced in August. The scholarships are funded by proceeds from previous SPE ACCE conferences and donations made by the SPE Composites and Automotive Divisions.

Winners will be selected from the pool of qualified applicants by SPE ACCE committee members and invited industry experts. Winning students will be required to report on the results of their findings during the twelfth-annual SPE ACCE, which takes place September 11-13, 2012. This is the fifth year conference organizers have offered these graduate-level scholarships to fund transportation composites research.

The 2010 SPE ACCE Scholarship Award winners were Benjamin Hangs, a doctoral candidate at the Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical Technology who will present his work on Integration of Features into Parts made from Thermoplastic Unidirectional Tape-Overview & Case Study at this year's conference; and Francesco Deleo, a doctoral student in at the University of Washington, the results of whose project will be presented this September on Crashworthiness Energy Absorption of Carbon Fiber Composites: Experiment & Simulation.

The 2009 awards were presented to Gregorio Manuel Vélez-García, a Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, whose work focused on Development of a New Method for Predicting Fiber Orientation in Fiber-Reinforced Injection-Molded Thermoplastics, and to Zeba Farheen Abdul Samad Parkar, then a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign whose research topic was Novel Aromatic Thermosetting Copolyester (ATCP) / Carbon Fiber Composites.

In 2008, the winners were Uday Sharma of University of Michigan-Dearborn, whose topic was Analysis of Thermoplastic Woven Composites at High-Strain Rates, and Tobias Potyra of Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical Technology, who worked on New Direct Processing Technology for the Manufacture of SMC Parts (Direct-SMC).

The first scholarships were given in 2007 in honor of journalist and composites-industry insider, Steve Loud who passed away in 2006. The recipients were Roston Elwell from Texas A&M University for research on the Use of Active-Core Composite Sandwich Panels for Improved Automotive Safety; and Alejandro Londono-Hurtado from University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose work involved Simulation and Numerical Modeling of Fiber Orientation and Density Distribution During Molding of Fiber-Reinforced Automotive Parts.

Held annually in suburban Detroit, the SPE ACCE typically draws 400+ speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees from 14 countries on five continents and provides an environment dedicated solely to discussion and networking about advances in transportation composites. Its global appeal is evident in the diversity of exhibitors, speakers, and attendees who come to the conference from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia / Pacific as well as North America and who represent transportation OEMs - automotive and light truck, as well as agriculture, truck & bus, heavy truck, and aviation - and tier suppliers; composite materials, processing equipment, additives, and reinforcement suppliers; trade associations, consultants, university and government labs; media; and investment bankers. The show is sponsored jointly by the SPE Automotive and Composites Divisions.

The mission of SPE is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics. SPE's Automotive and Composites Divisions work to advance plastics and plastic-based composites technologies worldwide and to educate industry, academia, and the public about these advances. Both divisions are dedicated to educating, promoting, recognizing, and communicating technical accomplishments for all phases of plastics and plastic-based composite developments, including materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design and testing, and application development.

For more information about the SPE Automotive Composites Conference, visit the Automotive Division's website at speautomotive.com/comp.htm, or the Composites' Division website at compositeshelp.com, or contact the group at +1.248.244.8993, or write SPE Automotive Division, 1800 Crooks Road, Suite A, Troy, MI 48084, USA. For more information on the Society of Plastics Engineers or other SPE events, visit the SPE website at www.4spe.org, or call +1.203.775.0471.

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