Join us on Monday, November 4th, 2024!
- Materials are ubiquitous across multiple disciplines, departments, and colleges. These include metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, and geo-materials to name a few.
- The University of Alabama has robust research opportunities in materials research offered in a variety of different academic units.
- The Alabama Materials Institute, in coordination with the Graduate School, invites you to a preview day on our campus, Monday, November 4th, 2024.
- Visitors will be able to tour their interested departments ,and see world-class laboratories for their degrees as well as engage with potential faculty mentors and current graduate students.
- In-person attendees will be granted a $65 graduate application fee waiver
2024 Schedule
10:00 a.m.: Check-in opens
10:30 a.m.: Welcome
11:00 a.m.: Tour 1 – Tour of facilities or walking tour of campus
12:00 p.m.: Lunch
12:30 pm – Q&A Panel with Current UA Graduate Students
1:30 pm: Tour 2 – Tour of facilities or walking tour of campus
2:30 p.m: Admissions and Funding Overview
2:45 p.m.: Graduate Coordinator Panel
3:15 p.m.: Networking Social – Chat with UA Faculty and Current Students
4:30 p.m.: Conclusion
Tour Options:
Please select two tours you would like to attend when registering.
Tour 1: Alabama Materials Institute Facilities
The Core Analytical Facility
The Core Analytical Facility is housed in the Alabama Materials Institute and contains a multitude of electron, ion, and X-ray instrumentation. These instruments provide more than a million orders of length scale characterization, from the atom to several hundred microns with the imaging offered in multiple spatial dimensions. This user facility provides a truly unique opportunity to graduate researchers to connect the physical and chemical structure of materials to properties. As part of this tour, you will see the Local Electrode Atom Probe (LEAP), the only such instrument for universities in the southeast as well as an aberration corrected transmission electron microscope that provides direct atomic imaging.
Tour 2: Affiliated Research Center Facilities
Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Design Integration
The Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Design Integration or CAMMDI houses multiple metal-based processing equipment, include a dynamic cold spray unit that deposits powder particles at supersonic velocities, additive friction stir deposition for solid state of material builds, automotive welding units, as well as a gas atomization facility to make custom powders.
Poly-Soft Materials Center
The Poly-SM center has a centralized user facility of various polymer testing units including gel permeation chromatography (polymer molecular weight and polydispersity index), differential scanning calorimetry (polymer glass transition temperature, melting temperature, and crystallization temperature), a universal testing machine (polymer elongation/tensile and compression stress-strain curves, tensile strength, elastic modulus), advanced 3D printing capabilities, ITC, DMA, TGA-Mass Spec, and other instruments.
Tour 3: Materials Engineering Laboratories
Engines and Combustion Lab
UA’s Engines and Combustion Laboratory (ECL) is a modern laboratory with 12,000 sq-ft space to conduct combustion and engines research. Since its inception in 2012, ECL has emerged into a leading platform for fundamental and applied studies on diesel and gasoline engines, gas turbines for power generation and propulsion, and industrial/household burners
Large-Scale Structures Lab
The large scale structures lab (LSS) has extensive capabilities for a variety of materials research including an earthquake shake table capable of 10G accelerations with up to 60,000 lb structures, a full-scale fire simulation setup capable of applying the same heat loads and durations for catastrophic fire events, and a geotechnical soil pit that can contain up to 1000 ft3 of soil in any moisture or loading condition.
Tour 4: The University of Alabama campus
This walking tour will showcase the various academic buildings on campus including the President mansion, the ‘quad’ for student gatherings, the student center, and other campus-life facilities.
Transportation
The closest international airport is the Birmingham International Airport located in Birmingham, Alabama, approximately 63 miles or one hour from UA’s campus.
Local shuttle services are available to and from the airport and UA’s campus.
Hotel Accommodations:
A block of rooms has been reserved at Hotel Capstone, UA’s hotel on campus, for Sunday and Monday night. Once registered, you will receive a link in your e-mail to book and pay for your room. Reservations must be made before October 22nd.
Covered Expenses:
- Shuttle to and from Birmingham airport
- Shuttle to and from Capstone Hotel to event on Monday
- The following meals on Monday:
- Breakfast at Hotel Capstone (only for those who stay)
- Breakfast snacks during check in
- Lunch
- Light snacks during concluding mixer
Expenses Not Covered:
- Flights
- Hotels (attendees get discounted rate at Hotel Capstone)
- Mileage
- Any other expense not listed under the ‘covered expenses’ list above