Graduate Students 2007-2008

Xiangping Chen graduated in April 1998 from Central South University of Technology (now Central South University) with Master degree in Applied Chemistry. After working as a research engineer for 7 years, she decided to pursuing her PhD in South China University of Technology. She will work as a non-degree visiting student at WPI for 2 years.

Raul Correia graduated in May 2005 from WPI with a BS in Chemical Engineering and a Minor in Materials Engineering. After taking the courses in his major and minor, he decided to persue a MS in Material Science.

Brian Dewhirst Received his BS from WPI in Physics in 2002. In the Fall of 2003, he returned as a graduate student in Materials Science and Engineering. In 2004, he joined the ACRC MPI as a Research Assistant and completed his requirements for his Masters in the Fall of 2005. Brian is continuing his research project in the Metals Process Institute as he completes his PhD program.

Xiaoshu Dai arrived in August from Beijing China. She graduated from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, majored in polymer engineering and received her BS in Material Science and Engineering. She received her Master's Degree in May 2006 and now is pursuing her PhD in Materials Science at WPI. She was our Stoddard Fellow for 2006/2007.

Shelley received her BS from the University of New Hampshire Durham in 2005. During her undergraduate years at UNH she conducted polyer research for Dr. Durant in the Nanostructured Polymer Research Center. When she is not studying she enjoys hiking, waterskiing in the White Mountains during the Summer and skiing, snowboarding in the Winter.

Huanan Duan is pursuing his PhD in Materials Science at WPI, with his research interests focused on nanofabrication, nanomanufacturing, and novel properties of nano-sized materials and structures. Huanan became a member of MTE family July 2005, immediately after he received his Master Degree of Engineering at the College Metallurgical Science and Engineering of Central South University in China, where his research was studying anti-corrosion behavior of cermets in high-temperature cryolite melts. With these interests as the guiding star, he promises to be a credit to the team.

Selected publications and thesis information:

• Abstract of Master Thesis "On the electrolytic corrosion behavior of Cu-Ni-NiO-NiFe2O4 cermets in cryolite-alumina melts"
• Effect of NiO content on the corrosion behaviour of Ni-xNiO-NiFe2O4 cermets in Na3AlF6-Al2O3 melts. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China. 2004, 14 (6): 1180-1186.
• On the corrosion behaviour of Ni-NiO-NiFe2O4 cermets as inert anodes in aluminum electrolysis. TMS 2005 134th Annual Meeting, Page 529-534.

Leigh Duren of Belgrade Lakes, Maine graduated from Messalonskee High School in Oakland, Maine in 2002. On May 20, 2006 she received her Bachelor Degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Materials Science and Engineering. In her senior year she began to explore options after school and has a real interest in recycling and reusing of materials. Her Masters thesis will be done through an industrial internship with wTe Corporation, a recycling company of Bedford, MA. More specifically she will be working on technology for in situ sorting and identification of molten metal. Ideally, this technology will be used world wide to improve efficiency by reducing the time used to sample and test melt composition, as well as encourage the use of scrap metal by providing unambiguous composition data.

Patrick Hogan graduated from WPI in May 2006 receiving a BS in Mechanical Engineering, with a concentration in Materials Science. He worked with Prof. Qingyue Pan on the CRP reactor last summer and conducted research for his MQP. He will be studying die soldering and continue his Industrial Internship with SPX Contech Metal Forge.

Olga Karabelchtchikova is an engineer-physicist in Physical Metallurgy and received degree from Lipetsk State Technical University (Russia) in 2002.
She continued her graduate work in Industrial Engineering (Texas Tech University) working with x-ray diffraction and modeling of the residual stresses in steels. By combining these two disciplines, her current research area is in the field of materials characterization and process modeling and optimization of industrial gas carburizing as she pursues her PhD.
Beginning June 2006 she is an industrial intern with Caterpillar where she works on various industrial projects and continues her dissertation research.

Information regarding her Award and MS thesis:

• 2007 HTS/Bodycote Best Paper in Heat treating Award
• Chet Inman Award 2005
• "Modeling of multipass grinding effect on residual stresses distribution and surface integrity of d2 thread rolling dies"

Chris received his B.S. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2005 in Physics. His undergraduate research was concentrated in Nanotechnology and nanomaterials. He began studies towards his M.S. at WPI in the fall of 2007 Materials Science. His interests outside of WPI include being outdoors, long distance running and swimming, and cooking.

Shimin Li graduated from Dalian Jiaotong University in 2000 with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering. She received her M.S. in Materials Engineering at Beijng Polytechnic University in 2003. She is now pursuing her PhD in Materials Engineering with a Research Assistantship with Prof. Apelian in the Metals Processing Institute.

Wendi (Andy) Liu graduated in Material Engineering from Shanghai University in 2005. He joined the Materials Science Engineering in 2007 and works with Professor Sisson on the research project "Characterization, Evaluation and Removal of Surface Contamination from Pre and Post Heat Treated Parts".

Jonathan Longabucco graduated in May 2006 from WPI with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. After taking the first Materials Science course he knew that was the field he wanted to pursue. He returns to WPI this fall to continue his studies in Material Science at the Masters level.

Kevin Shepardson was accepted into the BS/MS Degree program in June of 2003. Kevin graduated from WPI with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in May 2005 and will continue his research this year towards his Master's degree in Materials Science. His M.S. thesis topic is "heat treatment of nickel-boron coatings".

Kimon Symeonidis joined the Materials Science Engineering in January 2005. He comes to us from Athens, Greece where he graduated from the National Technical University of Athens. He is a Teaching Assistant in the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Ning Sun arrived at WPI in Aug, 2007 from China. She graduated from Hefei University of Technology, majored in Materials Processing and Controlling. After receiving BS degree in China, she come to WPI pursuing her MS degree in Materials Science and Engineering.

Tracey received an MEng in Electronic Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Scotland. She has worked for Barry Industries since 2003 and is currently looking at process and product development for the HTCC materials line. Since 2005 she has divided her time between Industry and pursuing a PhD in Materials Engineering; specifically investigating the correlation between material surface characterization and RF loss. She is our Stoddard fellow for 2007/2008.
Information regarding publications:

• "Unloaded Quality Factor of Junction Circulators"
• "Examination of Surface Roughness Effect on Insertion loss at Microwave Frequencies using Conventional Surface Roughness Parameters within LTCC Structures"
• "LTCC Materials Selection for the Realization of 10GHz Interdigital Filters"

Xiaolan arrived from China this Spring to pursue her MS in Materials Science. She graduated from the Zhejiang University in 2004 and was able to gain valuable working experience at Centrix-EG., Ltd. for 1 year after graduation before she came to WPI.

Virendra arrived at WPI in August 2001 from Pune, India to pursue a Masters Degree. He is working on his research with Prof. Mahklouf in the Advanced Casting Research Center. His current projects are:

• 3-D Modelling and Computer Simulation of the Rotating Impeller Particle Floation Process.
• Inclusion Removal from Molten Metals by Particle Flotation: A Mathematical Model and Computer Simulations
• Modeling the Heat Treatment Response of P/M Components

Chang-kai (Lance) Wu graduated from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 2004 with a B.S. in Polymer Engineering, and arrived at WPI in August 2006 from Taipei, Taiwan. He is working on his research with Prof. Mahklouf in the Advanced Casting Research Center.

Dawei Zhang arrived at WPI in Aug, 2007 from China. He graduated from Tongji University in Shanghai, majored in Materials Science & Engineering. After receiving BS degree, he came to WPI to pursue his MS degree in Materials Science & Engineering.