ASME Presents Five Awards at Third Micro and Nanotechnology Forum

Benedict Bahner
ASME News Online

The Micro- and Nanotechnology Society-wide Forum, held during the ASME Congress in Boston last month, was the most successful one in the program’s three-year history. During the 2008 forum, more than 160 posters were presented — more than triple the number presented last year.

Five of the poster presentations were honored with prizes at the Forum, which was held on Nov. 5 at the Congress Exposition in the John B. Hynes Memorial Convention Center. The event, which promotes interdisciplinary research in the MEMS and nanotechnology field, was sponsored by ASME’s Knowledge and Communities and Institutes Sectors.

The Third Micro- and Nanotechnology Society-wide Forum, held at the Congress in Boston last month, featured more than 160 poster presenters.

Organizers presented the forum’s grand prize to Yun Suk Huh, Aram J. Chung, Bernardo Cordovez and David Erickson of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., for their poster presentation, “Optofluidic Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Chip for Detection of Dengue Virus.”

First prize was awarded to Kripa K. Varanasi, Peter de Bock, Tao Deng, Pramod Chamarthy, Shakti Chauhan, Ambarish Kulkarni, Gary Mandrusiak, Brian Rush, Boris Russ, Stanton Weaver, Lauraine Denault and Frank Gerner for their poster, “Engineered Nano-structures for High Thermal Conductivity Substrates.”

The second-place prize went to “A Micromechanical Model for Analyzing Heat Conduction and Deformations of Particulate Composites” by Anastasia Muliana, Kamran Khan and Pradeep Gudlur of Texas A&M University.

I-Kuan Lin, Yan Liu and Xin Zhang of Boston University and Yen-Ming Liao, Kuang-Shun Ou and Kuo-Shen Chen of China’s National Cheng Kung University took third place with “Elastic and Viscoelastic Characterization and Modeling of Polymer-based Structures for Biological Applications.”

In addition, a fifth poster, “Nano-reinforced Interfaces: Opportunities and Challenges,” presented by Jacob Wernik and Shaker Meguid of the University of Toronto, was recognized with the event’s Innovation Award.

Raj Manchanda, director of ASME Advanced Technology Programs, said that he was pleased with the big turnout at this year’s event — the first Micro and Nano Forum to be integrated into the Congress Exposition. Previously, the event had been held in the evening, after many Congress activities were finished for the day.

This year's forum was the first to be integrated into the Congress program. It took place on the show floor at the Exposition.

Given the success of this year’s forum, Manchanda said he is hoping for an even larger gathering next year in Orlando, thereby giving its participants an even bigger audience that can lead to more collaborative relationships amongst the global ASME engineering community. “Poster sessions are fluid, dynamic and provide great exposure,” he said. “In a traditional oral presentation, there may be 40 or 50 people in the audience with minimal two-way interaction due to time constraints. At this year’s forum, the audience was three to four times that.”

Manchanda added that the organizers of the Micro and Nano Forum would be happy to talk to other ASME sectors and units who would be interested in participating in this event or who would like to plan their own similar event. “We really want to get everyone involved,” he said. “This forum is about bringing everyone together.”

For more information on the Micro- and Nanotechnology Society-wide Forum, contact Raj Manchanda, director, ASME Advanced Technology Programs, by e-mail at manchandar@asme.org.

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