The purpose of this award is to provide partial travel support for post-docs and graduate and undergraduate students to attend the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Salt Lake City, Utah, November 10-14, 2019. The students will participate in the ASME Society-Wide Micro and Nano Technology Forum (Topic 17-15), which focuses on new research in the field of micro and nano engineering and science. The students will present through oral and poster sessions their latest research results to the advanced manufacturing and broader engineering communities. Funds for the students' travel are based on the technical quality of the poster abstracts submitted as well as on a statement from the students' research advisors. Priority is given to student participants who are women or who come from underrepresented minority groups. This approach promotes diverse participation at the conference, in the short term, and in STEM fields, in the long term. This award benefits the nation through the education of a skilled and diverse manufacturing and engineering workforce better prepared to provide transformative solutions the challenges of their chosen fields.
This participation support is expected to benefit the students' professional, scientific and technical development. Attendance at the conference gives the students a broader view of the advanced manufacturing and engineering profession and of state-of-the-art research in their fields via access to several technical and professional development talks by leading domestic and international speakers. Students enhance their communication skills through oral and poster presentations, in-depth discussions of their work with peers in their fields during the Society-wide Poster Symposium at the Micro and Nanotechnology Forum. This interactive experience significantly broadens student education, increases their enthusiasm for their research topic, acquaints them with expectations for scientific careers, and exposes them to new avenues for innovative research.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
