2007 News Item

• November 29, 2007:  The program and downloadable registration forms for the 2008 "39th Annual Short Course: Advances in Emulsion Polymerization and Latex Technology" is now available. The course will be again be held at Lehigh University from Monday, June 2 through Friday, June 6, 2008.
   
• August 2007: Provost Mohamed S. El-Aasser, Professors Andrew Klein and Cesar Silebi, and  Principal Research Scientist, Eric Daniels presented lectures at the 30th Annual Short Course: "Advances in Emulsion Polymerization and Latex Technology" that was held at the Hotel Belvedere in Davos, Switzerland, August 6-10, 2007. Click here for more details.
   
• July 2007: Professor Andrew Klein represented the Institute at the 2007 Gordon Research Conference on Polymer Colloids that was held in Tilton, New Hampshire, June 24-29, 2007. In addition, 3 EPI students, Jinmo Hong, Megan Casey, and Li Zhang presented Posters on their work at the same meeting. Jinmo's poster was entitled: "Effect of Agitation in Emulsion Polymerization- Curious Coagulum Formation" (Co-authors: Eric Daniels, E. David Sudol and Andrew Klein). Megan's poster title was "Study of Monomer Droplets in Miniemulsions" (Co-authors: E. David Sudol and Mohamed S. El-Aasser). Li Zhang's poster was entitled: "Formation of P(NIPAM)/PS Core/Shell Particles" (with Co-authors Eric Daniels, Victoria Dimonie, and Andrew Klein.
   
• July 2007: Summer CHOICES (Charting Horizons and Opportunities In Careers in Engineering and Science), an annual engineering summer camp for middle school girls was held at Lehigh for the fourth time this summer (July 9 – 13) with a large complement of EPI students serving as mentors. Two week-long projects, developed for the camp by Dave Sudol, engaged and challenged the girls. In one project, four teams of five girls learned to design and build an O-scale railroad truss bridge each using one of four materials: paper, wood, plastic and pasta. The girls first did computer simulations of truss bridges and then chose a design for their team. They then learned to create blueprints containing the compression and tension members connected by gussets. Next, they fabricated the bridge components and glued them together forming first the separate trusses and then the entire bridge. This last part required all hands to work together including the mentors. Finally, the bridges were tested by running a train through (or over) them and then doing some static load testing. All bridges survived! Bridge mentors included undergraduate summer student Casey Parker, graduate students Megan Casey and Samantha Braganza, and research scientist Victoria Dimonie.

  
  
   

   

   

   

   

   

  The second week-long project, a Rube Goldberg challenge, was less structured requiring more creativity and collaboration. The girls were divided into four new teams of five and were given the task of designing a multi-step engineering marvel with the the goal of lighting a light bulb. The project is designed to introduce the girls to various aspects of engineering and incorporates components reflecting various branches of engineering (mechanical, electrical, chemical and materials). On the final day, the teams presented their designs and demonstrated the operation of their contraptions for their families. It’s safe to say that this was the highlight of the camp. Mentors for this project once again included Casey Parker and Victoria Dimonie along with graduate students Lisa Spagnola and Öznur Saygı.

   Lisa also led a team of mentors in demonstrating the Chemical Engineering portion of the camp, namely Funny Putty. Appropriately for the EPI, the funny putty comprised Elmer’s white glue (PVAc latex containing PVOH) crosslinked with Borax. The girls were first introduced to the world of polymers and colloids and then made funny putty using two different formulations (red and blue colored) to determine which would be the better choice for a kid’s toy.

   

• June 2007: The Institute held its 38th Annual Short Course, "Advances in Emulsion Polymerization and Latex Technology", at Lehigh University, June 4-8, 2007.
   
• March 2007: 3 EPI students, Li Zhang, Lisa Spagnola, and Megan Casey won Poster Awards at the Institute's 2005 Annual Review Meeting. Click here for more details.
   
• March 2007: The Institute held its Annual Review Meeting on March 21 and 22, 2007 at Lehigh University.
   

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