By Graduate Student Reporter Graham Sanborn, Georgia Tech

Four high-level government and academic professionals presented at the plenary focused on innovation initiatives for rapid commercialization in materials and manufacturing.

Julie Robinson, Chief Scientist of the International Space Station (ISS) at NASA, kicked off the session with her presentation titled, "The ISS as an Innovation Laboratory." Robinson explained how researchers and industry should use the ISS for experiments to promote innovation. The ISS is able to support about 200 experiments at once and its lifetime is just beginning - with limited past use and at least seven more years of fully operational utilization. Robinson reviewed how the ISS and other microgravity systems have a history of promoting experiments that directly accelerate the transfer of knowledge into industrial processes. The ISS now presents a great innovation opportunity for future developments.

Frank Gayle, Deputy Director of the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Robert Ivester, Deputy Program Manager of the Advanced Manufacturing Office at the U.S. Department of Energy, both presented on innovation related to the presidential Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) initiative. 

Gayle helps direct the interagency office, which is hosted by NIST and was set up as a result of the AMP. The AMP initiative includes plans for developing 15 manufacturing hubs that are linked in regional clusters across the United States, promoting innovation between businesses (small and large) and academia, and workforce development and education. Gayle highlighted a pilot manufacturing institute on 3D printing called the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute.

Ivester's Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) is a member of the AMP. Ivester explained that motivations for these new initiatives are a result of the United States falling behind in economic competitiveness. More importantly, there is a significant U.S. high-tech trade deficit. These facts are worrisome considering there has been a deficit since 2001, and 60% of U.S. science and engineering jobs are in manufacturing. The AMO aims to promote economy-wide life cycle impacts, with goals to reduce life cycle energy consumption of manufactured goods by 50% over ten years. Both AMP offices are directing efforts to bridge the current funding gap between basic science and prototyped technology (TRL 4-7).

Tresa Pollock, Alcoa Professor of Materials and Chair of the Materials Department at the University of California at Santa Barbara, presented a talk on "Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME): A Study on Implementing ICME in the Aerospace, Automotive, and Maritime Industries." This talk provided an update on a report led by TMS on the implementation of ICME. This newly recognized discipline aims to "accelerate development of advanced materials and manufacturing processes from discovery to deployment." The study is intended to serve as a field manual for practitioners to implement ICME and is centered on lightweight applications in the aerospace, automotive, and maritime sectors. It is being led by five teams, made up of industry and academia experts in each of the sectors, and will be complete in July 2013.

The plenary concluded with an open panel question and discussion session. The event was moderated by George Spanos, TMS Technical Director, and was supported by the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute and the Georgia Tech Institute for Materials.

By Graduate Student Reporter Alex Leary, Carnegie Mellon University

Leon Prentice, a Senior Research Engineer with CSIRO, delivered the de Nora Prize Lecture Wednesday during the Energy Technologies and Carbon Dioxide Management: Carbon Footprint Analysis symposium. The de Nora Prize recognizes outstanding materials science research and contributions to the reduction of environmental impacts, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, as applied in global metallurgical industries. 

The lecture focused on recent work on MagSonic^TM, a carbothermal magnesium refinement process. Prentice's remarks focused on economic assessments in preparation for scale up and contrasted the process to the currently adopted techniques in industry: the Pidgeon process and electrolytic extraction. Plans are underway to construct a $10-12M pilot plant to prove continuous operation and production of high-purity magnesium, better assess the economics, and determine environmental impacts. The planned production rate is 10 kg/hr, and he stated that, "capital intensity is a big discussion. Our analysis has MagSonic^TM at $5600 per annual ton." 

Prentice advised caution with regards to process economics adding, "There are a lot of different claims in the literature. They tend to only focus on one part of the process. So the main advantage of MagSonic^TM derives from its simplicity." The technique uses a nozzle to provide rapid cooling that solves the reversion reaction, a traditional limitation of thermocarbon processes. "As the products of the reaction are gasses, you need to know the pressures to avoid a leak," said Prentice. His team developed novel computational fluid dynamics to better understand the flow pattern.

"MagSonic^TM is likely to be more expensive than Pidgeon due to the reactors and the vacuum system," said Prentice, but he predicted 50% less energy intensity and 85% less GWP. He remarked, "We think that capital cost is outweighed by the operating cost. This depends strongly on where you build and how much your electricity is. There may also be savings in the labor intensity required." He estimated the process requires 145.6 kWh/kg of magnesium produced and that electricity will account for 47% of the total operating costs. 

Prentice pointed interested parties to review recently published work that provides more details on the process and recognized his CSIRO team for their efforts.

In partnership with The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), TMS officially launched the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) Digital Data Community during TMS2013. The MGI Digital Data Community is a new, online resource that augments and further supports the broad-scale development of a Materials Innovation (MI) infrastructure.

The new, interactive tool made its debut through online demonstrations at the TMS Materials Innovation Learning Center, which was a featured showcase at the TMS2013 Exhibition.

Developed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the MGI is an effort to accelerate the discovery and deployment of advanced materials - from laboratory to commercial marketplace. A principal goal of the initiative is to build a Materials Innovation infrastructure that will:

• Integrate computational and experimental tools with digital data into the full product development cycle, with a goal to reduce new product development time and costs by almost half;
• Support increased collaboration amongst researchers and stakeholders.

As part of the response to this challenge, the new MGI Digital Data Community supports community building and interactions within the various sub-disciplines of materials science and engineering. It allows users to build and join communities surrounding specific technical disciplines and topics, especially focused on the creation and sharing of data. These communities provide a forum for discussions; sharing documents, slide shows, and videos; notifying other members of upcoming events; and more.

Users can create a free account and start joining or creating communities for discussion and collaboration by visiting www.mgidata.org.

• Follow the prompts and instructions on the site to create a user profile and to join or create communities of interest within your field or area of expertise.
• Invite colleagues and acquaintances to start taking advantage of this excellent resource for technical interactions and networking!

To find other resources built around accelerating materials development, check out the Materials Cyberinfrastructure Portal.

By Graduate Student Reporter Graham Sanborn, Georgia Tech

The eventful Light Metals Division (LMD) Luncheon occurred Wednesday and included the presentation of three scholarships, five professional awards, and a talk by John Mitchell from Rockwood Lithium.

Three undergraduate students were presented with 2013 LMD scholarships for research projects at their respective universities. Rodney Lee Jones from Ohio State University, Marissa Lafata from the University of Michigan, and Aeriel Murphy from the University of Alabama were the students honored at the event.

In addition, five professional awards were made. The Young Leader Professional Development Award was presented to four young leaders: Shib Narayan Meher, National Aluminum Company, Ltd.; Leon Prentice, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering; James Saal, Northwestern University; and Kiran Solanki, Arizona State University. Dmitry Eskin from Brunel University received the LMD Technology Award. The Distinguished Service Award was presented to Jomar Thonstad from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. For publication awards, the Light Metals Best Paper Award was presented to Andrey Panov from UC RUSAL Engineering and Technology Center and his colleagues. The JOM Best Paper Award was presented to Mansoor Barati and colleagues from the University of Toronto. (For a complete listing of TMS award winners, click here.)

The din of the Presidio room, spilling into the hallway at the Grand Hyatt, was all TMS President Elizabeth Holm needed to measure the success of the Young Professional Happy Hour Reception on Wednesday.

"Listen to the volume of noise in the room," she said. Shelooked around at the clusters of young professionals in the early years of their career, mingling loudly with various members of TMS leadership, and smiled.

"I'm delighted," she said.

TMS has held receptions for its young professionals for years, but this was the first time more seasoned members had been invited to join in the event, said Bryn Simpson, TMS Member Services Manager. This expansion of the invitee list was expressly in response to the desire of those up-and-coming leaders of the organization to have a chance to network with more experienced members. This year, volunteers involved in revitalizing the TMS Foundation, which supports the young professionals in the society, were also invited to the reception.

Jennifer Carter, who just weeks ago took on a faculty position at Case Western Reserve University, said she appreciated the opportunity and access afforded by the casual environment of the reception room. She especially welcomed the chance to speak with the TMS president.

"Liz Holm is really hard to get hold of," she said. "I've been trying to find her all week. I was happy to see her walk through the door. . . . It makes you feel valued."

With about 30 attendees at various points in their careers making the most of the happy hour, Holm said the event reinforced the society's commitment to its next generation of leaders. "The young and mid-career professionals are a priority for the society," she said. She anticipated that this was not the last time such a networking reception would be held. "I would strongly advocate doing it again," she said.

Electronic, Magnetic & Photonic Materials Division

Megan Cordill, Erich Schmid Institute, "Fatigue-Induced Grain Coarsening and its Influence on the Electrical Resistance of Cu Films on Polyimide"

Extraction & Processing Division

Jan de Bakker, BBA, Inc., "A Review of Energy Use in Fine Grinding"

Light Metals Division

Fadi Abu-Farha, Clemson University, "Friction Stir Back Extrusion (FSBE) of Lightweight Alloys"

Materials Processing & Manufacturing Division

Eren Kalay, METU, "Nanocrystal Formation From an Amorphous Precursor"

Structural Materials Division

Zhenzhen Yu, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, "In-situ Probing of Microscopic Deformation Kinetics in Advanced High-Strength Steels"

This week, TMS approved Fundamentals of Friction Stir Welding and Processing, a continuing education course planned for June 2013. Join your TMS colleagues at the University of North Texas, June 9-11, for this special, limited-seating event.

The goal of this short course is to provide participants with the essence of the accumulated friction stir welding (FSW)/friction stir processing (FSP) knowledge: both fundamental and practical. This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of the process and the linkage to performance by introducing aspects from basic process design, controls, tools, and metallurgical aspects. The course will culminate with a demonstration and discussion of how various elements of the course link together.

Today marks the final day of the TMS 2013 Annual Meeting & Exhibition. A full schedule of technical programming is planned, and TMS information and services booths will be opening during the following hours today:

Registration
7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Technical Programming Support Center
7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

TMS Member Welcome Center
7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

TMS Foundation Center
7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Wiley Booth (for purchasing proceedings and other TMS publications)
7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Technical Sessions
8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Recycle Your Technical Program and Badges

If you don't plan on keeping your TMS2013 technical programs and conference badges, please discard them in the Recycling bins located in the East Registration Lobby, where the TMS registration, membership, and Foundation booths are located. 

Watch your E-mail for Post-Meeting Survey

In about a week, TMS will be sending a post-conference survey to all meeting attendees and exhibitors. When you receive this survey in your inbox, please take a few moments to provide honest feedback that can help TMS to enhance your future meeting experiences with us.

Plans are already underway for TMS2014, which will be the society's 143rd annual conference. Mark your calendars now for next year's event:

TMS 2014 Annual Meeting & Exhibition
February 16-20, 2014
San Diego, California

Symposium proposals will be accepted through March 31 for the 2014 meeting, and abstract submissions will open in a few months.

For a complete listing of additional TMS conferences planned in the coming year, visit the Upcoming TMS Meetings Page.

Thank you for joining us at the TMS 2013 Annual Meeting & Exhibition, and we hope to see you all again in 2014. 

Safe travels!