Department of Mechanical Engineering PhD Student Claire Ticknor recently won a prestigious student presentation competition at the International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (ICAM) hosted by ASTM in Atlanta. The competition was judged by a select group of Scientific Organizing Committee members on the quality of the presentation and technical content presented. Students from institutions around the world participated.
The ICAM conference is the annual flagship conference for ASTM and emphasizes standardization, qualification, and certification around additive manufacturing, with a particular focus on industry-specific requirements. In addition to the specific requirements of various industry sectors, it also covers the fundamentals of the advanced manufacturing processes.
“It was cool to see how industry and academia rely on each other and how industry approaches research differently,” said Ticknor. “It opened my eyes to many other uses for additive manufacturing and expanding the idea of what can be 3D printed.”
Ticknor’s presentation, entitled “Investigating defect effects in additively manufactured metal matrix composites using a large-strain elasto-viscoplastic FFT-framework” was awarded first place, which included a plaque and cash prize of $1000. Additively manufactured aluminum metal matrix composites are an aluminum matrix with varying amounts of ceramic particles dispersed throughout. Using the framework Ticknor presented, they can accurately model the stress-strain response of multiple compositions with differing amounts of ceramic particles.
“This topic is exciting because these materials offer interesting properties that we can take advantage of,” said Ticknor. “Specifically, with the addition of ceramic particles we can create an aluminum material that is still lightweight but much stronger. This project is the start of a whole pipeline to change the design of these materials for specific end users. It’s exciting to be part of a larger collaborative project to move these cool materials forward,” said Ticknor.
“Winning the award is exciting and a nice validation of my presentation and communication skills that are important in the research community. Moreso the competition and award has helped me connect with some wonderful and brilliant people.”
Ticknor is a member of the Multiscale Mechanics & Materials Lab and student of associate professor Ashley Spear. You can visit the lab website for more information.