This award provides support for graduate-student travel to the Combustion Meeting organized by the Central States Section of the Combustion Institute (CSSCI). The meeting will be hosted by The University of Illinois during March 21-23, 2010 in Champaign, IL. NSF funds are targeted to increase the participation of graduate students at the meeting.
The CSSCI membership consists of combustion researchers from the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. The CSSCI conducts technical meetings to promote the exchange of new ideas among combustion researchers from across the United States, in particular in the Central United States. The technical meetings are held yearly, and their organization alternates between the CSSCI and the US Sections of the Combustion Institute.
The conference will consist of three days of primarily contributed presentations organized in multiple parallel sessions each day. The contributed presentations will include both podium and poster presentations. A few invited speakers will also present each day. Information about the availability of travel support to graduate students will be provided in all the meeting announcements and on appropriate websites. In addition, an announcement about the availability of travel support will be mailed to members of the Combustion Institute.
Combustion research is a multi-disciplinary field encompassing diverse disciplines in engineering and science. Society relies on combustion for power generation, transportation, and manufacturing. This conference allows combustion-focused researchers to exchange ideas in a stimulating technical forum. The intellectual merit of this activity arises from the participation of combustion experts from across the United States and from dissemination of their technical findings, their communications with students, and their visions of future research directions.
Support of this project will have the broad impact of promoting participation of students in scholarly workshops, training and education beyond the classroom, interaction among students from different universities, dialogue between students and senior researchers, and increased exposure to industrial and professional careers in the field of combustion.
This grant was provided to support student participation at the Spring Technical Meeting of the Combustion Institute. The meeting was held at the University of Illinois on March 21-23, 2010. At this regular meeting participants from academia and industry present their latest research. Graduate student participation is especially encouraged here, and this venue is optimal for first time presentations by such students. The audience is supportive and friendly, and yet the top combustion researchers in the field are present and active. The meeting provides and opportunity for students to gain feedback on their research, a presentation for their resume, speaking practice, and valuable networking opportunities. The NSF award provided for travel stipends of $173 for 29 students, and the Section provided an additional $100. In addition, the NSF award supplemented the cost of printing programs and proceedings on flash drives for the student participants. The meeting was very successful. There were 123 attendees, of which 52 were students. Through NSF support, we were able to keep the registration fees very low (~$200), making this meeting very accessible for researchers. Feedback from the meeting was very positive, and students were able to enjoy the presentation sessions, a welcome reception, an evening banquet, plenary sessions, and lab tours, all as part of the meeting.
