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The University of Tennessee College of Engineering 120 Perkins Hall Knoxville, TN 37996-2012 |
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| Newsletter
of the UT College of Engineering |
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Engineering centers focus on research
Dr. Jerry Stoneking, dean of the College of Engineering (COE), remains enthusiastic about the new millennium months after the year 2000 has begun."The 21st century offers many exciting challenges for the UT College of Engineering, one of which is the area of research," Stoneking commented. "Dr. J. Wade Gilley, the president of the University of Tennessee (UT), has designated as a primary goal for UT to become one of the top 25 public research universities in the U.S. within the next five to seven years. The COE will play a significant role in achieving that goal."
The prospects for research activities at the university have been enhanced by the recent assumption of management duties for Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) by UT and Battelle.
This increased emphasis on research offers a unique opportunity to focus on the activities of the College of Engineering's three major research centers: the Center for Materials Processing, the Maintenance and Reliability Center and the Measurement and Control Engineering Center.
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The
Center for Materials Processing
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Dr. Carl McHargue, director of the Center for Materials Processing (CMP), has had a birds-eye view of engineering research at both UT and ORNL for almost 50 years. "I was the manager for the materials science program at ORNL for over 38 years," McHargue recalled. "In the early '60s, Dr. Andy Holt and Alvin Weinberg, ORNL lab director, decided to create joint professor appointments for both UT and ORNL. I became a professor of materials science and engineering while I was still at the lab, and after my retirement from ORNL I came to UT."
McHargue assumed management of the Center for Materials Processing in 1990.
The CMP's interdisciplinary approach requires the interaction of faculty and staff in both the Materials Science and Engineering department and the College of Human Ecology. Participating researchers come from most engineering disciplines. CMP's primary research focus is directed toward developing significant research and academic programs that address the specific needs of industry in the field of materials processing.
CMP was created in 1985 as a Center of Excellence through the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. This designation allows the center to be a recipient of state funding for research and education. Although CMP receives money from the state, it also generates income in the form of contracts with member organizations and research grants, many of them initiated by UT professors for their own research projects.
"Recently, we have generated five dollars in income for every dollar we've received from the state," McHargue commented. "One thing that I have been particularly pleased with is that a large portion of our research funding comes from industry as opposed to government contracts."
McHargue and other faculty connected with CMP have also been looking to the future during a series of meetings involving UT professors and researchers from ORNL to uncover new areas of research opportunities.
One major field of interest is that of nanoscale properties measurements, the measuring of extremely small-scale items (as an example, the distance between atoms is a few nanometers). Dr. George Pharr, a professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, is a leading researcher in this area. One of Pharr's latest projects involves working with Carbomedics, one of the world's leading manufacturers of artificial heart valves.
"The valves are made of pyrolytic carbon, a biocompatible material," Pharr explained. "The surfaces on the valves must be very smooth, as any roughness can cause blood cells to be damaged and can create a build-up of biological material on the unit, which can impair the function of the valve. As part of this smoothing process, the valves are coated with many layers of a thin carbon film. It's our job to establish exactly how any processing techniques may be creating problems with roughness on these valves. This is where our nanome-chanical testing comes in."
Pharr is also involved in nanoscale properties testing for the magnetic storage industry, and has worked in conjunction with engineering faculty members at the University of Memphis on techniques to explore the properties of very small components in human bones.
Pharr's graduate assistants are funded with corporate grants through the CMP. "We can offer these students unique opportunities for research experience through the financial support of the CMP members," Pharr added. "The companies then get the benefit of our research work. It's a win-win situation."
For more information,visit http://www.engr.utk.edu/cmp