ME Students Win Top Three SPIE Conference Awards
Graduate students from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Ohio State University won the top three awards at this year’s best student paper competition presented by the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) Conference on Smart Structures and Materials in San Diego, CA.
Student research papers submitted by Vijay Neelakantan and Farzad Ahmadkhanlou (both advised by Dr. Gregory Washington), and LeAnn Faidley (co-advised by Dr. Washington and Dr. Marcelo Dapino), were chosen from among 49 extended abstract entries received from around the world. All three ME graduate students also competed in an oral presentation session at the conference on March 7-10.
LeAnn Faidley, an ME doctoral student focusing on smart materials research, was awarded the first-place prize for her paper titled, “Reversible Strain in Ni-Mn-Ga with Collinear Field and Stress.” The second-place award was given to Patrick Downey, who received a master’s degree from OSU while working under Dr. Dapino in 2003. ME doctoral student Vijay Neelakantan placed third with his paper on “A Two-Stage Actuation System Using DC Motors and Piezoelectric/Magnetostrictive Actuators for Controllable Industrial and Automotive Brakes and Clutches.” An honorable mention was given to another ME graduate student, Farzad Ahmadkhanlou, for his paper titled, “The Development of Variably Compliant Haptic Systems Using Magnetorheological Fluids.”
The Mechanical Engineering Department congratulates LeAnn Faidley, Patrick Downey, Vijay Neelakantan, and Farzad Ahmadkhanlou for their academic excellence, and for their impressive performance at this year’s SPIE Conference student paper competition.
