Doctoral Students Take First and Second Place at Hayes Forum

Todd Letcher and Daniel Paquet, mechanical engineering doctoral students, took first and second place respectively in the engineering discipline at the 24th Annual Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum held on May 1, 2010.

Todd Letcher titled his presentation, “The Design of a Small-Scale Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Optimized for Low Wind Speeds.” His research project was to design, test and analyze a wind turbine specifically for low wind speeds. This was accomplished by using a combination of common vertical axis wind turbine rotors. Todd received first place in the oral presentation and receives a cash prize of $800. His research sponsor is American Public Power Association (Westerville Electric Division) and his advisor is Dr. Herman Shen. Past awards for Letcher include the 2009 Ohio State University Graduate Associate Teaching Award which gave him the honor of being the first mechanical engineering student in ten years to receive this award.

Second place in the oral presentation went to Daniel Paquet. His presentation was titled, “An Integrated Material Characterization-Multiscale Model for the Prediction of Strain to Failure of Heterogeneous Aluminum Alloys.” Advised by Professor Somnath Ghosh, Daniel presented his research work on the development of a multiscale model for ductile fracture of heterogeneous materials such as cast aluminum alloys. He demonstrated how the features of the microstructure can be incorporated in the prediction of strain to failure through the use of multiscale modeling. Specific topics discussed were the development of macroscopic constitutive relations that incorporate the microstructural features of representative volume elements of actual microstructures and the identification of critical regions prone to localization of deformation and damage in a heterogeneous microstructure. This second place recognition contains a cash prize of $400. Previous awards for Paquet include the best poster award at the Physical Metallurgy Gordon Research Conference held in Andover, NH in August, 2009.

Hayes award winners are selected by a committee of distinguished faculty members from across the Ohio State campus. Letcher and Paquet were selected as award recipients based on their superior oral presentations. Both were invited to submit a proceedings paper to the OSU Knowledge Bank.

The Hayes Research Forum is co-sponsored by the Council of Graduate Students (CGS), the Graduate School, and the Office of Research. This forum provides a professional development experience for OSU graduate students by encouraging them to share their research within the University community. Students enrolled in any area of graduate study at The Ohio State University are invited to participate.

Congratulations to both of our winners and their advisors!