posted: 02/05/2018
Saturday, February 3rd, 2018 saw the 8th annual Philly Materials Science and Engineering Day, a day-long festival hosted by Drexel University Materials Science department and the Penn MRSEC. This event has been held annually since 2011 with an average annual attendance of approximately 1,000 people. This year, volunteers taught Materials Science concepts to elementary and middle school-aged students and their families with hands on demonstrations and workshops. For example, MSE professor Eric Stach performed feats of levitation using high temperature superconductor materials while PhD candidate Lisa Mariani, from Kevin Turner’s MEAM lab, explored soft materials’ properties using everyday materials like strips of scotch tape. Nearly half of the Philly Materials Day demo tables were staffed by 65 graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty from 12 LRSM-affiliated groups.
Other demonstrations included:
- Magic Liquid Crystal: Is it a liquid or a crystal? (Shu Yang, MSE)
- Tribology: principles of friction, wear and lubrication (Robert Carpick, MSE)
- Chemical tools for tackling neurodegenerative disease (E. James Petersson, Chemistry)
- Shrinky Dink Polymers (Karen Winey, MSE)
- Bouncy Balls & Borax: Polymerizing Glue (Eric Schelter, Chemistry)
- Diving Into Different Dimensions (Marija Drndic, Physics)
- The surprising behavior of soft matter (Arjun Yodh, Physics)
- Muggle Magic (Fakhraai, Chemistry)
- Light and Color: From Molecules to LCD Screens (Lee Bassett, ESE)
- Non-Newtonian Fluids (Steve Szewczyk, MSE)
Read the Penn Current Article
more information
List of Demonstrations:
“Bouncy Balls & Borax”
Faculty Member: Eric Schelter, Chemistry
“Chemical tools for tackling neurodegenerative disease”
Faculty Member: E. James Petersson
Volunteers:
John Ferrie, Graduate Student
Taylor Barrett, Graduate Student
Buyan Pan, Graduate Student
Itthipol Sungwienwong, Graduate Student
Chloe Jones, Graduate Student
Yu Wu, Graduate Student
Kristen Fiore, Graduate Student
“Diving Into Different Dimensions”
Faculty Member: Dr. Marija Drndic
Volunteers:
Jothi Priyanka Thiruraman, Graduate Student
Paul Masih Das, Graduate Student
Chen-Chi (Francis) Chien, Graduate Student
Yung-Chien (Killian) Chou, Graduate Student
Sarah Friedensen, Graduate Student
Adriana Dropulic, Undergraduate Student
“High Temperature Superconductor Levitation”
Faculty Member: Eric Stach
Volunteers:
James Horwath, Graduate Student
Alexandre Foucher, Graduate Student
“Light and Color: From Molecules to LCD Screens”
Faculty Member: Lee Bassett
Volunteers:
David Hopper, Graduate Student
Alex Breitweiser, Graduate Student
Raj Patel, Graduate Student
Henry Shulevitz, Graduate Student
Sam Trossman, Undergraduate Student
Ana Lujan, Undergraduate Student
“Magic Liquid Crystal: Is it a liquid or a crystal?”
Faculty Member: Shu Yang
Volunteers:
Jiaqi Liu, Graduate Student
Yuchong Gao, Graduate Student
Rui Yin, Graduate Student
Yuchen Wang, Graduate Student
“Muggle Magic”
Faculty Member: Zahra Fakhraai
Volunteers:
Sarah Wolf, Graduate Student
Connor Woods, Graduate Student
Aixi Zhang, Graduate Student
Victoria Barber, Graduate Student
Yi Jin, Graduate Student
Shivajee Govind, Graduate Student
Haonan Wang, Graduate Student
“Non-Newtonian Fluids”
Staff Member: Steve Szewczyk, MSE
“Sticky materials”
Faculty Member: Kevin Turner
Volunteers:
Ranny Zhao, Graduate Student
Lisa Mariani, Graduate Student
Aoyi Luo, Graduate Student
Xing Gao, Graduate Student
Saurya Vankayalapati, Graduate Student
Will Johnson, Undergraduate Student
“Shrinky Dink Polymers”
Faculty Member: Karen Winey
Volunteers:
Eric Bailey, Graduate Student
Nadia Krook, Graduate Student
Katie Rose, Graduate Student
Zhengdong Wu, Graduate Student
Drew Wang, Graduate Student
Mike Boyle, Graduate Student
Benjamin Paren, Graduate Student
Lizhu Zhang, Graduate Student
James Pressly, Graduate Student
Sarah Seeger, Undergraduate Student
Teddy Kurkoski, Undergraduate Student
Demi Moed, Undergraduate Student
“The surprising behavior of soft matter”
Faculty Member: Arjun Yodh
Volunteers:
Sophie Ettinger, Graduate Student
Wei-Shao Wei, Graduate Student
Analisa Hill, Graduate Student
Chandan Kumar Mishra, Postdoc
“Tribology: principles of friction, wear and lubrication”
Faculty Member: Robert Carpick
Volunteers:
Lu Fang, Graduate Student
Joel Lefever, Graduate Student
Zac Milne, Graduate Student
Alex Bennett, Postdoc
Yi Jin, Graduate Student
Shivajee Govind, Graduate Student
Haonan Wang, Graduate Student