This grant provides funds for the principal investigator to organize an international Particle Tribology Symposium (PTS) as a one-day event on the fundamental studies of particle related tribology and its application to manufacturing processes, energy related problems, and other related engineering areas. Tribology is the study of friction, lubrication, wear, and material removal. Particle tribology affects many areas of science and technology such as computer chip nano-manufacturing, magnetic hard disk drive technology, solar energy wafer processing, wind energy, agriculture, space technology development, and environmentally-benign lubrication. For example, particle slurries are used in special processes that polish computer chip and solar cell wafers to mirror smooth finishes. Magnetic hard disk drives and wind turbines are both technologies that are damaged by particulate contamination. While particle science scholars are often spread out amongst many different non-intersecting research communities, the PTS aims to increase the synergy by assembling these international and domestic scholars to have broader impact and ultimately create more innovative solutions to the world?s particle tribology challenges. The PTS will be held within the 2010 International Joint Tribology Conference (IJTC), which is co-sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers.
The expected benefits from this symposium are that: (1) researchers from different sectors will convene to exchange ideas about solving various particle tribology problems; (2) students from America and other countries will convene to learn about their peers? research in a poster session/competition; (3) companies will have a vehicle to identify experts who are conducting innovative research to tackle their problems; (4) a larger than average number of researchers from underrepresented minority groups, at the junior professor and graduate student levels, are scheduled to participate in the PTS ensuring that the field of tribology and related fields benefits from America?s diverse population; and finally, (6) particle tribology researchers will receive supplemental support to bring more students to the PTS (and IJTC) ensuring a healthy pipeline of future innovators in this area.
Intellectual Merit The intellectual merit of this award is that the first Particle Tribology Symposium (PTS) was organized as a one-day symposium on the fundamental studies of particle tribology (i.e., the study of friction, lubrication, and wear) and its application to manufacturing processes, energy related problems, and other tribology-related engineering areas. The PTS convened in one venue both international and domestic scholars who participated in particle tribology based communities which did not previously intersect. This symposium occurred within the ASME/STLE International Joint Tribology Conference (IJTC) on October 17-20, 2010 in San Francisco, California (USA). The PTS was also being organized in the spirit of the Gordon Research Conferences, where multiple preeminent scholars and/or their research groups presented their latest unpublished research results or an overview type presentation of their particle tribology related research area. Additionally, numerous tribologists at the start, pre-middle (i.e., 1st decade), and middle (i.e., 2nd decade) of their careers presented, in concert with prominent senior tribologists. These presenters have all contributed thoroughly to the literature of particle tribology, manufacturing, and other related research. The specific outcomes from the 1st Particle Tribology Symposium were that: Particle tribology academicians and industry researchers convened to discuss how their fundamental research is being employed in particle applications and industrial processes such as semiconductor manufacturing, abrasive machining processes (e.g., chemical mechanical polishing), data storage systems, space systems, smart fluid based systems, and fossil fuel energy systems; Students studying particle flow tribology (who are often spread out across various conferences and sessions) participated in a poster session/competition where they will be able to see their work from a broader more synergistic perspective (the poster winner was a Hispanic PhD student from Texas A&M University); Non-tribologists had the opportunity to participate in a premier tribology conference where they demonstrated how they are leveraging fundamental tribological principles to solve particulate flow problems; Researchers from academia (at varying levels) and industry convened to discuss their approaches to conducing basic research in the area of particle friction, lubrication, wear, and material removal; Researchers from women and underrepresented minority groups participated as poster or regular presenters ensuring that the PTS had a broad impact on Tribology; Particle tribology researchers were able to bring more students to the overall conference due to the travel assistance provided by the NSF funding; The NSF award served as a successful "seed effort" for launching future Particle Tribology Symposia since it was held for a second year in October, 2011 without requiring sponsorship from the NSF. Broader Impact One of the goals of the PTS was that researchers outside of the traditional Tribology community, who work on particle Tribology related research, were invited to the PTS to broaden the topics of the meeting. Dr. Melany Hunt, who is a Vice-Provost at the California Institute of Technology and a researcher in multiphase flows, gave the opening talk of the PTS on her work with particle collisions under elastohydrodynamic lubrication. She is not a traditional attendee in Tribology conferences. Tribology is also a broad and diffuse field of engineering and science so it is very difficult to bring numerous Tribologists together to a single venue. Yet, the PTS convened likely the highest number of underrepresented minorities in the field of Tribology in history in a single conference session. In addition to venues such as the PTS, the PI has been working to increase the number of PhD students in STEM areas. For example, the PI has a web-seminar (see click or paste this URL: mms://wms.andrew.cmu.edu/001/higgs_phd.wmv) entitled "The PhD, the Whole PhD, and nothing but the PhD" which presents an argument of why talented American students in engineering and science should pursue PhDs.
