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Katherine Faber, president of the 4th International Congress on Ceramics, on “Shaping the Future of Ceramics.” Credit: ACerS.

I really enjoy going to meetings. The big, conference kind, that is — not so much the day-to-day inhouse kind!

Conferences give me the chance to follow the buzz: the who, what, where and how of ceramic technology. I get the technical details from the sessions, but I get the most out talking to meeting the attendees about their work, what trends they are seeing, who they are collaborating with, what problems they are encountering, etc.

There is just no substitute for the “live action” that happens at a meeting. So, I’m really looking forward to the 4th International Congress on Ceramics this July in Chicago.

International Ceramic Federation convenes these international congresses biennially in cooperation with several international societies. ACerS is the host and organizing society of this fourth congress. ACerS had the privilege of hosting and organizing the first ICC in Toronto in 2006 and is very pleased to reprise the role.

The theme of this congress is “Shaping the Future of Ceramics,” and as you might expect, this refers not just to processing and properties, but also to the business of ceramic science, engineering, product development and manufacturing.

Katherine Faber, president of the ICC4 says the meeting is “designed to bring together international leaders in business and research to investigate new opportunities and emerging opportunities in terms of ceramic design and ceramic manufacturing.”

Indeed, the meeting is organized into themes that reflect this goal: Aerospace; Aerospace; Biology and Medicine; Electro-, Magnetic-, Optical-Ceramics and Devices; Environment, Energy and Transportation; Infrastructure; Nanostructured Ceramics; Security and Strategic Materials; and Workforce Development. Over 600 international attendees representing business, academia and government are expected.

The technical program, Faber says, “is geared toward emerging opportunities in energy, health, transportation and aerospace. We’ll also hear about nanotechnology and nanodevices, as well as other electrical, optical and magnetic materials.”

It seems natural, then, that this year ACerS’s Ceramic Leadership Summit be incorporated into ICC4. The CLS, now in its third year, is a forum for exploring and addressing the business issues and challenges facing the ceramics and glass industries, in both realms of established industries and emerging technologies.

Faber notes, that the combined meeting is an opportunity to bring together those “creating the knowledge and doing the innovating,” to the mutual benefit of all.

There is a lot more going on—an innovative poster session, a short course on sintering, keynote and plenary talks—all in the pleasant setting of downtown Chicago. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing with you a sampling of the talks that are scheduled for ICC4 and CLS and other updates as we learn about them.

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Computer simulations show that metal oxides in water go through many short-lived shapes and structures (see story below). Credit: William Casey, UC Davis.

Check ‘em out:

Scorpions inspire scientists in making tougher surfaces for machinery

Researchers studied the bumps and grooves on the scorpions’ backs, scanning the creatures with a 3D laser device and developing a computer program that modeled the flow of sand-laden air over the scorpions. The team used the model in computer simulations to develop actual patterned surfaces to test which patterns perform best. At the same time, the erosion tests were conducted in the simple erosion wind tunnel for groove surface bionic samples at various impact conditions. Their results showed that a series of small grooves at a 30-degree angle to the flowing gas or liquid give steel surfaces the best protection from erosion.

US inactivity regarding strategic materials criticized at Washington hearing

At a hearing Jan. 26 before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Jeff Green testified that the US has lost critical supply chain capabilities and significant technological capital to China and that the lack of a deliberately thought-out U.S. policy for strategic and critical materials has resulted in economic and national security vulnerabilities. The hearing on “China’s Global Quest for Resources and Implications for the United States” examined Chinese efforts to acquire and manage various natural resources. Green president of the J.A. Green & Co., assists industrial clients in government relations, business development and strategic planning matters and is the former staff director to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness.

Imaging ‘invisible’ dopant atoms in semiconductor nanocrystals

In semiconductor nanocrystals, the physical effects of deliberately included impurities, called dopants, may depend on the dopant position with the crystal. To date, there has not been an effective technique to determine the location of individual dopant atoms in nanocrystals. IRG-4 researchers demonstrated that a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy can be used to reveal the position of such “invisible” dopants.he physical effects of deliberately included impurities, called dopants, may depend on the dopant position with the crystal. To date, there has not been an effective technique to determine the location of individual dopant atoms in nanocrystals. IRG-4 researchers demonstrated that a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy can be used to reveal the position of such “invisible” dopants.

Nano research could impact flexible electronic devices

A discovery by a research team at North Dakota State University, Fargo, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, shows that the flexibility and durability of carbon nanotube films and coatings are intimately linked to their electronic properties. The research could one day impact flexible electronic devices such as solar cells and wearable sensors.

Metal oxide simulations could help green technology

University of California, Davis, researchers have proposed a radical new way of thinking about the chemical reactions between water and metal oxides, the most common minerals on Earth. Using computer simulations and comparing the resulting animations with lab experiments they found that the behavior of an atom on the surface of the cluster can be affected by an atom some distance away. Instead of moving through a sequence of transitional forms, as had been assumed, metal oxides interacting with water fall into a variety of “metastable states” - short-lived intermediates, the researchers found.

Team develops cheaper way of separating nanotubes

Researchers in London have developed a cheaper way of producing high-quality carbon nanotubes in larger quantities than existing methods. A team from the London Center for Nanotechnology has licensed the process, which separates nanotubes into usable quantities without damaging them, to German-based industrial gases company the Linde Group. LCN’s solution was to charge the nanotubes with electrons so that they naturally repel each other, by reacting them with an alkali metal such as sodium in a solution of ammonia. This solution of separated nanotubes can then be used for manufacturing things such as composites, or the nanotubes can be precipitated out of the solution.

Collaborative learning in networks

“We found that collective exploration improved average success over independent exploration because good solutions could diffuse through the network. In contrast to prior work, however, we found that efficient networks outperformed inefficient networks, even in a problem space with qualitative properties thought to favor inefficient networks. We explain this result in terms of individual-level explore-exploit decisions, which we find were influenced by the network structure as well as by strategic considerations and the relative payoff between maxima. We conclude by discussing implications for real-world problem solving and possible extensions.”

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Some of the German delegation of participants in the first Global Young Investigators Forum at ICACC. Thomas Fisher (third from left) was the principle organizer of the forum.

The 36th convening of the International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites is in its second day in Daytona Beach, Fla. This year’s meeting attracted over 1,000 engineers and scientists from 41 countries, who will be presenting about 850 papers. According to the organizers, this year, for the first time, the number of foreign attendees has surpassed the number of US attendees.

Two factors are contributing to the strong international participation: the first European Union–USA Ceramics Summit and the first Global Young Investigators Forum. The EU-USA summit is taking place on Monday and Tuesday and attracted about 25 talks with participants from Germany, Italy, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Belgium, Poland and Spain.

The Global Young Investigators Forum starts tomorrow and runs through the end of the week. The GYIF is a new innovation this year, and all indications are that it’s an idea that is long overdue. Thomas Fisher, PhD candidate at the University of Cologne, Germany, organized the Forum, which will have 45 presentations from PhD candidates and post-docs from more than 14 countries. I’ll have more to tell about the Forum later.

I’m told the weather in Daytona Beach in January can be hit or miss, and since Sunday, it’s been all “hit,” with temperatures in the upper 70s and sunshine.

Here is a catalog of some of the things I’ve been seeing.

George Wicks, ACerS president, and Sanjay Mathur, program chair.

ICACC'12 kicked off with a lively reception on Sunday.

Colleagues and friends met at the reception. Pictured from the left, Lise Schioler, George Quinn and Eileen De Guire.

Jay Singh presented the Society with a gift on behalf of the Indian Ceramic Society. Pictured with Jay are Charlie Spahr (ACerS executive director), George Wicks and Megan Bricker (ACerS director of membership).

Monday's plenary session drew a rapt audience.

David Marshall delivered the first plenary talk and was awarded the James I. Mueller Award.

The beach was no distraction for these attendees.

Andrew Portune of Nottingham, Md., is enjoying the meeting.

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The world of writing about science/engineering/technology is too big for any of us to seriously worry about “competition” and one of the joys of my work is finding other blogs that are fun to read and stimulate discussion among their followers. It’s in this category I’d place Engineer Blogs, a site I recently came across and one that I would recommend to others to check out.

There is nothing fancy about EB, which is built on a standard WordPress template. Maybe I am just old school, but its simplicity is one of the things I enjoy about it: The posts are short and it’s easy to navigate around the site, find comments, categories, etc. Great noms de plumes, too, plus reverence for the duly honored slipstick.

I am uncertain about the history of EB. Its archives go back to January 2011 and the “About” statement says

This is a collection of some of the top engineering bloggers on the internet. Surprisingly, scientists seem to outnumber engineers, though we don’t think that will happen for long. Some posts link directly back to the author’s web page and some stay right here on EngineerBlogs.org. Either way, we promise you some of the best engineering-related content on the web.

A recent post, in which “Miss MSE” muses on the joy of materials science and engineering, gives a sense of the tone of EB

We don’t have the big name or numbers of electrical or mechanical engineering, or the glamour of aerospace, but materials engineering influences pretty much every other field of engineering. It’s kind of awesome like that.

Fundamentally, materials science is all about the relationships between structure, processing, properties, and performance. It also means that I tend to argue with How It’s Made when they attempt to explain why a certain process is used, or what a specific step does, especially when the topic is metallurgy. On the other hand, part of what makes the field so fascinating is that everything is made of something, and figuring out what would be necessary to make it is almost endlessly amusing.

What do you find most interesting or exciting about your engineering discipline?

Indeed, Miss MSE touches off a nice thread of responses.

Opinions and honesty seems to be freely offered. Some academics confess to canceling classes and some admit to being a little cynical about the MGI. Are there engineering celebrities (besides Gates, Jobs and Zuckerberg)?, another post asks. And, time is spent pondering one of the very, very dark mysteries of the universe: Why don’t engineers write?

Grab a cup of coffee, check EB out and maybe add it to your bookmarks.

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Above, Vanderbilt’s Catherine Gay presented the talk “Dispersion of CNFs in Cement Composites” at the recent 2^nd Advances in Cement-based Materials meeting organized by ACerS Cements Division and ACBM. Credit: P. Wray, ACerS.

Monday was a busy day at the Cements Division meeting, hosted by Vandy’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with lots of great presentations, a lively Della Roy Lecture by Karen Scrivener (I’ll write about this in another post) and a division meeting where new officers and award winners were announced.

The officers for 2011-2012 are:

• Paramita Mondal (University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign), chair
• Benjamin Mohr (Tennessee Tech), chair-elect
• Kyle Riding (Kansas State), secretary
• Zach Grasley (Texas A&M), program chair
• Maria Juenger (University of Texas at Austin) & Jeff Chen (Lafarge Centre de Recherche), program co-chairs
• Joe Biernacki (Tennessee Tech), trustee
• Leslie Struble (University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign), fellows committee

Besides the talks presented, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Division leaders challenged the audience to launch a discussion on “Future Directions for Cementitious Materials.” The challenge to identify the most important areas of future research, advancements, education and multidisciplinary work seemed to be enthusiastically embraced by the crowd beginning with an hour group discussion to identify three or four topic areas, each of which would be fleshed-out during focused small-group meetings during the Monday and Tuesday lunch periods.

The initial discussion—in the large-group setting—fairly easily narrowed in on four potential strategic avenues of interest (the exact wording may be a little off here): 1) Multiscale modeling; 2) Hydration mechanisms (particularly in regard to supplementary cementitious materials); Best practices (particularly in regard to examining and comparing data sets, test beds and cases, building data repositories); and Sustainability (particularly in regard to the use of SCMs).

"Future directions for cements" roundtable discussion on sustainability. Credit: P. Wray, ACerS.

Each of these was then discussed in smaller groups over lunch, Monday, with the discussions to continue at lunch today. I was only around Monday, but it appeared that all of the groups were making progress and starting to layout some suggestions for plans that would be reported out. My understanding is that division leaders and other volunteers will attempt to gather these ideas and start developing some specific proposals for collaborative efforts, white papers and funding proposals, at least in time for next year’s meeting.

Speaking of the 2012 Cements Division meeting, the hope is to hold it in June in Austin, Texas.

Cements Division chair Zach Grasley, left, presents the 2010 Brunauer Award to Rouzbeh Shahsavari on behalf of the group of authors. Credit: P. Wray, ACerS.

As part of the meeting’s activities, the division announced the winner of its 2010 Stephen Brunauer Award for best cements paper published by ACerS during the previous year. The winning paper, First-Principles Study of Elastic Constants and Interlayer Interactions of Complex Hydrated Oxides: Case Study of Tobermorite and Jennite (doi:10.1111/j.1551-2916.2009.03199.x) appeared in JACerS and was written  by Rouzbeh Shahsavari, Markus J. Buehler, Roland J.-M. Pellenq and Franz-Josef Ulm, who are connected with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT and the Centre Interdisciplinaire des Nanosciences at CNRS-Marseille Université (France).

One of the highlights of the meeting was the announcement that two members of ACerS’ Cements Division will be members of the Society’s class of Fellows for 2011. Kim Kurtis and Joe Biernacki will be inducted along with other new Fellows during ceremonies at the ACerS Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet on Oct. 17, 2011.

Finally, the meeting organizers recognized six poster presenters for the exceptional quality of their work:

• Lesa Brown (”Durability of Carbon Nanofiber/Cement Composites”);
• Amal Puthur Jayapalan (”Properties of Cement Replaced with Titatnium Dioxide and Limestone Particles”);
• Christopher Jones (”Extracting Realistic Mechanical Constitutive Properties of Cement Paste Using Atomic Force Microscopy”);
• Eric Kim (”Effect of Calcium in Geopolymers Using X-ray Diffraction and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance”);
• Sarah Taylor Lange (”Concrete Constituent Contributions to Indoor Radon Emissions”); and
• Peter Stynoski (”Effects of Silica Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes in Portland Cement Mortar”).

Meeting co-chair Jeff Chen, left, with poster winners Brown, Jayapalan, Stynoski and Lange. Credit: P. Wray, ACerS.

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