A collaborative framework under the GOALI/FRG program is proposed to formalize a highly productive interaction between interdisciplinary researchers at Center for Thermal Spray Research (CTSR) SUNY Stony Brook and a group of industrial partners guided through a common linkage of a globally-used materials process technology (thermal spray - a multi-billion dollar surface engineering industry) but with a diversity of materials interests/applications. The principal intellectual goal is to explore key, unexplored microstructural and nanostructural features of TS-produced coatings and materials. This will no doubt lead to dramatically enhanced confidence (potentially for prime reliance), increased applicability and expanded deployment of the materials and process technologies into new territories. This program will provide a focal point allowing various industrial interests to converge through a framework of fundamental interdisciplinary science. In addition, it will offer opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students as well as K-12 outreach, working closely with industrial counterparts. Specific plans include (a) One-on-one interaction between graduate students and industrial collaborators, (b) Opportunities for students to present results at bi-annual industry review and via thesis committees, (c) intern opportunities at industrial sites and (d) Field trips to the SPLAT (SPraying, Learning And Testing) Center, a specially designed, 'kid-friendly' interactive research laboratory that will be the hub and heart of the outreach efforts and will offer thousands of young people and teachers a space of their own where they are welcome to explore and discover a wide range of exciting and highly relevant topics. Industrial partners will explore ways to help provide resources such as equipment, teaching modules and media to fortify science links to industry. Finally, the real-world relevance through our unique industry linked K-12 outreach will inspire a generation of children to pursue careers in physical sciences and engineering.
The principal intellectual goal is to develop a fundamental understanding of the mechanics and physics of rapidly-quenched interfaces and defective structures, and properties resulting from their interaction. This represents a logical and critical next step not only in the elevation of TS coatings to 'prime reliant' status, but expansion of these materials into new, meso-scale functional devices (e.g. fuel cells, sensors). Activities will necessarily build on process science, novel characterization and analytical/numerical models achieved through a highly successful MRSEC program (near completion) and investigate both recognized and newly-identified fundamental materials issues of profound industrial importance. Proposed scientific efforts are tightly woven with the industrial partnership and also offer an ambitious and imaginative educational outreach concept aimed at inspiring future scientists and engineers into a seen-as-traditional, yet important, expanding and transforming materials discipline.
