Materials Engineering Department Cal Poly College of Engineering • Summer 2021
Engineering
RIDING PAST 60! Born as the Welding and Metallurgical Engineering Department in 1959, MATE continues to roar See Page 4
INSIDE: IBM executive Bill LaFontaine wants to inspire others who have benefitted from Cal Poly with a $50,000 matching gift
Engineering
message from the chair Trevor Harding Image of a praseodymium orthoscandate (PrScO3) crystal at 100 million times magnification. (Photo: Cornell University).
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hose of you who read Science might have seen an image of individual atoms within a crystalline lattice magnified 100 million times — the highest resolution image ever taken — produced by researchers at Cornell University using multislice electron ptychography.
This image was especially fascinating to me because it shows the importance of having the most advanced equipment — something we strive for here at Cal Poly’s Materials Engineering Department. It also reminds me of an impressive public art piece two MATE alums are creating, “Atom Shifter,” which represents the BCC and FCC arrangements of iron atoms enlarged 1.7 billion times. As you’ll see in this newsletter, “Atom Shifter” is being built to commemorate the department’s 60th anniversary. The idea for the art piece came to alumni Bob Adams and Steve Paterson during their recent 40th class reunion. During that virtual event, the participants decided they wanted to honor R.C. Wiley, who founded the department in 1959. Our initial plans to commemorate the anniversary were put on hold due to the pandemic. But, as we gradually return to something closer to normal, we are once again planning to celebrate six decades of MATE. Stay tuned for more information on that. Meanwhile, we will preview the anniversary here with a story on the history of our program, focusing on Wiley. Sixty years ago we didn’t have transfer students, but community colleges have opened a new path to our program for veterans, older students and those from
underserved communities. We’re convinced these students will find the same support from peers, faculty and alumni as our traditional students. Alumni, of course, have been crucial to our success, and in this newsletter we feature Bill LaFontaine, IBM’s general manager for intellectual property. Bill has created a matching gift program that will enable us to build several new labs, including a classroom dedicated to teaching students to use advanced software for modeling material behavior, a new electron microscopy lab, a laboratory for advanced materials manufacturing, and a new facility for developing conductive and chemically functionalized fibers. Alumni support has been especially helpful during the pandemic. With our donor-funded discretionary money, we were able to purchase laptops for students with financial needs to take classes remotely and to provide release time for a faculty member to support community building among students during this isolating time. Discretionary funds also help us remain current with technology. Some recent examples include renovations to our materials simulation and modeling classroom and new digital cameras and analysis software for metallographic microscopes. When Wiley founded the department six decades ago, the focus was on welding and steel. But today’s workplace features many engineering materials, which is why we need to adapt to new technologies. So as we reach out to you to celebrate our past, I’m excited to channel 60 years of knowledge to further the future. n
on the cover Richard (R.C.) Wiley, center seated on motorcycle, was the first chair of the Welding and Metallurgy Department when it was formed in 1959. Later known as Materials Engineering, the department recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.
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RECENT ADDITIONS
New equipment recently purchased by the department with the use of donor funds include a state-of-the-art Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) for measuring the viscoelastic properties of polymers and composites and a Simultaneous Differential scanning calorimeter and Thermogravimetric Analzyer (SDTA) for examining the heat flow in phase transformations in materials. Materials Engineering Department Chair Trevor Harding said the DMA, pictured above, is capable of measuring mechanical displacements of less than five nanometers in materials when loads of only 10 newtons are applied, and in addition, can oscillate these loads and sweep materials through either a temperature or frequency range. “This enables students to understand how the viscoelastic behavior of polymers and composites vary with temperature or load rate,” he said.
Engineering students Div Sharma, top, and Joey Velasquez work on their senior projects using new equipment purchased by the Materials Engineering Department using donor funds. Sharma is using a Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer while Velasquez places material in a Simultaneous Differential scanning calorimeter and Thermogravimetric Analzyer.
Harding said the SDTA , shown at left, heats material samples to more than 800° C so that any “phase transformations, oxidation and/or degradation can be evaluated. That allows students to understand the material’s behavior and calculate activation energies and reaction rates.” n MATE.CALPOLY.EDU | 3
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Photo from the 1960 El Rodeo yearbook showing the original group of professors in the Welding-Metallurgy Department in the year of the department’s inception.
MAN OF STEEL:
MATE celebrates its anniversary — and the department’s first chairsperson On Jan. 9, 1959, the El Mustang newspaper announced that Cal Poly’s St. George and the Dragon float had won the theme award at the Tournament of Roses Parade; a 260-pound tackle named John Madden had been drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles; and Richard (R.C.) Wiley had been tapped to head the new Welding and Metallurgical Engineering Department. Some 60 years later, the Cal Poly Rose Float team has recently enjoyed some of its greatest success, John Madden is an NFL Hall of Famer and video game icon, and that department Wiley began is now the Materials Engineering Department. At 250 students, enrollment in the MATE Department is much larger than it was when Wiley launched it. In fact, today it is one of the largest undergraduate programs in the country – and it has evolved to reflect a wide array of materials. “It is always important to acknowledge the history of an organization, especially an academic department like ours,” said Department Chair Trevor Harding. “The challenges, sacrifices and achievements of past members of our department are just as important as those of today.” Harding and the department had been planning on 60th anniversary celebrations when the COVID-19 outbreak prompted postponement. But two alumni from the 80s used the pandemic downtime to research the department’s origin and its founding chair. “We think it’s important because Wiley started the department we came to and created our professional lives,” said Steve Paterson, who graduated in 1980. “And we felt he was a very interesting individual.” Bay Area residents Paterson and Bob Adams both knew Wiley personally since Wiley chaired the department until 1983. But to get more information, they dug into old course catalogs and issues of the El Rodeo Yearbook, the El Mustang student newspaper and its offspring, Mustang Daily. They also spoke with Wiley’s son, Carson, and his wife, Karen. And, of course, they had their own memories. “He was kind of a grandfatherly type of guy,” said Adams, who graduated in 1981. “R.C. was soft spoken and generally listened
Cal Poly’s first graduating Metallurgical Engineering class, June 1962. Front row from left: Bob Fairbanks, Laurence H. Stone, William D. Gaw, Thomas M. Andrews and Dick Holmquist. Back row: R.C. Wiley, Bryant W. Chandler, Robert B. Schieve, Cecil C. Cutting, Donald Michael McGarr, A. Lynn Finney, and Ken Hannah. (Photo provided by the family of R.C. Wiley)
“The space race was started, and the dean came to him and said, ‘We need a Metallurgy Department.’ The first students started in ’59.” — Bob Adams on first MATE chair R.C. Wiley more than talked. He especially liked seeing anyone doing hands-on welding in the lab.” As a teacher, Adams said, Wiley told stories of industry, helped students visit companies and simplified complex topics. “R.C. was great at getting across the important, practical information without getting bogged down in esoteric mumbo jumbo,” Adams said. When he heard Wiley had passed away six years ago, Adams wanted to learn more about the man that had helped him launch his career. He and Paterson eventually decided to create a plaque and public art piece honoring Wiley. Continued on Page 6
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Engineering “The most significant change to the department has been the need to educate students in all the emerging fields of materials — polymers, composites, ceramics, glasses and electronic materials — while still providing a high quality education in metallurgy and its associated topics.” — MATE Chair Trevor Harding
“The space race was started, and the dean came to him and said, ‘We need a Metallurgy Department,’” Adams said. “The first students started in ’59.” Through the years, Wiley received many awards, and in a 1979 Mustang Daily article, Wiley noted that “Starting salaries for metallurgical engineers just out of school are ‘unreal,’” — averaging around $20,000 a year.
A 19-year-old R.C. Wiley with his motorcycle on a road trip in Idaho in 1935.
“It just kept tossing around in my head that we need to do something,” Adams said. According to the bio Adams compiled, Wiley was born in Mountain Home, Idaho, in 1916, and moved to Palo Alto with his family at age ten. His father, Walter, a former blacksmith for Union Pacific Railroad, became a welder on natural gas pipelines. Wiley eventually attended San Jose State University and Stanford and worked as a senior welding engineer and consultant for multiple companies. While he never earned a degree, he joined the Cal Poly faculty in 1946, heading the Welding Department. In San Luis Obispo County, where he and his family grew and sold avocados and elephant garlic, Wiley had a collection of steam-powered farm tractors and antique farm machinery. According to the department archives, in 1958, the School of Engineering dean, Harold P. Hayes, produced a plan to create additional engineering majors. Knowing the Russians had just launched Sputnik into orbit, knowledge of metallurgy and materials science was suddenly of great value. So Dean Hayes called Wiley into his office.
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By the time Adams and Paterson graduated, roughly a dozen students earned degrees from the program each year. And in 1983, George Murray replaced the retired Wiley as chair. As Wiley enjoyed a long retirement, his department became the Materials Engineering Department in the 90s. Adams and Paterson admit they remain “hardcore steel metallurgists,” but today’s MATE students take jobs working in aerospace, computers, biomedical devices, sporting goods and raw material processing, Harding said. Some attend law school or medical school or start their own businesses. “The most significant change to the department has been the need to educate students in all the emerging fields of materials — polymers, composites, ceramics, glasses and electronic materials — while still providing a high quality education in metallurgy and its associated topics,” Harding said. “This has also meant investing in and supporting a much wider range of equipment and resources, hiring new faculty and working with a wider range of industry partners.” As the department adapts to new technologies, though, Harding said it’s important to remember the men and women of steel — the R.C. Wileys, who reveled in fire, smoke and red hot metal, which is still an important feature of the department. “It’s also important for our current students to understand that the progress they are seeing today is built upon a foundation from years past.” n
MATE Alumni Create Unique Public Art to Commemorate Department’s History To get ideas for a public art piece that would best represent the Materials Engineering Department, Steve Paterson went back to school. “I went through all my old materials engineering texts looking for something iconic that would be something people would look at and get some joy out of,” he said. To commemorate the department’s 60th anniversary, Paterson and former classmate Bob Adams are creating a unique sculpture, along with a plaque acknowledging original chair R.C. Wiley. “The effort and creativity that Bob and Steve have put into the R.C. Wiley memorial is truly inspiring,” said current chair Trevor Harding. “I can only hope that when I have retired from Cal Poly that students feel I’ve made even half the impact on them that R.C. clearly did on Bob, Steve and so many other alums.” The sculpture, “Atom Shifter,” will entail two sides, each 6-7 feet high, Adams said, and will feature spheres connected by tubes. “The arrangement and spacing of the spheres will represent two of the common atomic arrangements of iron magnified by approximately 1.7 billion times,” Adams said. Paterson, who has worked on bridges, airplanes, power plants and more, creates art as a hobby. “I started out with small rock metal birds,” he said. “I did about a hundred of those. Lately, I’ve been doing horses’ heads. I’ve got Merlin the Magician in my yard.” The installation will be welded and artificially rusted at Paterson’s ranch in Watsonville, where he and Adams will also fabricate the 1,000-pound reinforced concrete slab which will anchor the sculpture’s metal base. Plans call for it to be installed near the Grant M.
Materials engineering graduates Steve Paterson, left, and Bob Adams displayed a half-sized model of a sculpture they are designing to honor the department’s 60th anniversary and first department chair R.C. Wiley.
Brown Building by late October. Tables will be added near the sculpture for outdoor seating. “The artwork will be a fascinating attraction for visitors to our department,” Harding said. “The seating will provide a great space near our building for students and faculty to congregate and work together. And the plaque memorializing R.C. will ensure that he and his impact are never forgotten at Cal Poly.” n
HELP FUND THE MEMORIal A GoFundMe page has been set up to help fund the memorial for R.C. Wiley, which will include a metallurgical-themed welded art sculpture, a bronze plaque mounted to a granite boulder, concrete tables with benches and a barbecue. Please visit the GoFundMe page HERE for the project to learn more.
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A PRACTICAL APPROACH
Materials engineering lecturer Desalegn Alemu Mengistie shows MATE student Vincent Guarino how to operate a scanning electron microscope in MATE 401 (Materials Characterization Techniques).
IBM executive Bill LaFontaine wants to inspire others who have benefitted from Cal Poly with a $50,000 matching gift
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s a teenager, Bill LaFontaine worked at a grocery store over 20 hours a week, knowing his family, with limited income and five children, wasn’t going to be able to pay for his college tuition.
helpful that support was — especially since his father was out of work at the time. And now he has stepped up his support of Cal Poly’s Materials Engineering Department with a $50,000 matching donation.
“My father told me early on that if I was going to go to college, I would have to figure it out,” LaFontaine said. “When I was a senior in high school, I got a $250 scholarship from the local Rotary Club. In 1980, that was enough to pay a year’s worth of tuition!”
The gift, which coincides with the department’s 60th anniversary, will help the department build several new labs, including a classroom dedicated to teaching students to use advanced software for modeling materials, a new electron microscopy lab, a laboratory for advanced materials manufacturing, and a new facility for developing conductive and chemically functionalized fibers.
Now a successful executive at IBM, LaFontaine hasn’t forgotten how 8 | CAL POLY MATERIALS ENGINEERING
“The Learn by Doing approach teaches one to deal with what is real, not what is ideal. That realism is how I think about most problems that show up on my desk. Having the experimental background, I know to question the source of the data that a decision is being made on.”— Bill LaFontaine
SUPPORT MATE To support the Materials Engineering Department and take advantage of matching funds, click HERE
“Materials engineering equipment is vital to the education of Day One Ready engineers,” said Trevor Harding, chairman of the department. “But that equipment is costly both to purchase and maintain.” LaFontaine, IBM’s general manager for intellectual property, said the MATE program helped him be practical, which, in turn, has helped him deal with practical challenges in industry. “The Learn by Doing approach teaches one to deal with what is real, not what is ideal,” he said. “That realism is how I think about most problems that show up on my desk. Having the experimental background, I know to question the source of the data that a decision is being made on.” LaFontaine chose Cal Poly for a practical reason — he knew the university’s Learn by Doing approach would help him land a career. “As the oldest of five kids, I knew I needed a degree that would result in a job and that I was on my own regarding my future,” he said. While at Cal Poly, LaFontaine began working for IBM as a co-op student, which helped finance his tuition. After earning his Cal Poly degree in 1985, he went to Cornell University. Upon earning his doctorate from Cornell in 1990, he returned to IBM and began to rise within the company. After holding numerous management positions at IBM, LaFontaine is now responsible for delivering more than a billion dollars annually in joint development, technology transfer, patent licensing and government income. He was recognized as having one of the largest jobs in the corporate patent world and he’s maintained IBM’s status as the leading recipient of U.S. patents for 28 consecutive years. As a result of his success, he has been able to pay for his two sons to
attend college. And, with his children grown, he also began thinking of ways to contribute more to the Cal Poly MATE Department. LaFontaine has donated smaller amounts to the department before, but he reached out to the department about six months ago, Harding said, seeking a way to motivate others with a matching gift. “He also has joined the MATE Department’s External Advisory Board, where he hopes to work with other board members and alumni to encourage more philanthropy and industrial support,” Harding said. As the university celebrates the impact of giving for its annual Poly Gives campaign, LaFontaine said alumni should be inspired to give back. “All of us have benefitted one way or another from our stay in San Luis Obispo, and we can help with extending the legacy of the Learn by Doing approach, which is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago when I showed up on campus,” he said. LaFontaine is also interested in helping underrepresented groups, women and students with limited resources. “Having been from a lower income family, I know what financial help, a job or grant can do to turn a dream into reality,” he said. “When I went to Cal Poly, it was possible to get a degree with some debt. That left the doors open for everyone. Now, the cost of college has exceeded a person’s capacity to earn enough working part time and summers.” While he has seen many changes on campus since he was a student – there are more buildings and students, plus interdisciplinary programs — the MATE program at 60 has changed even more since it evolved out of the Welding and Metallurgical Engineering Department. “These changes reflect both the interests of our students and the needs of industry and society at large,” Harding said. “The Cal Poly MATE Department strives to remain not just relevant but a leader in materials education throughout the U.S.” n MATE.CALPOLY.EDU | 9
Engineering
Transfer students find home away from home in MATE Students who started at the community college level often cite department’s friendly atmosphere. Says one transfer student, it’s like a “quirky family”
Cal Poly’s transfer students begin their postsecondary education at community colleges for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include greater flexibility, smaller class sizes and more affordable tuition.
Sixin Zhai became a Cal Poly materials engineering student after transferring from a community college.
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fter Sixin Zhai moved from China to California’s Central Valley, she spent a year learning English at an adult school before she began her postsecondary education.
Still working on her English, she decided to attend community college before transferring to Cal Poly. “At the time I attended community college, I had some basic English skills. However, my English writing and communication skills were not as polished as other college students who graduated from a local high school in the states,” she said. “Through my time in community college, I was learning English while taking other general courses that prepared me for the university.” 10 | CAL POLY MATERIALS ENGINEERING
“I wasn’t too keen on the idea of going into debt,” said Luke Doherty, who attended the College of Marin, where in-state tuition is around $1,500 per year. For Robin Payne, attending Santa Rosa Junior College in her hometown was also less expensive and convenient. And it provided a low-stress environment that allowed her to adjust to the speed of college-level courses. “While taking STEM classes, I was also able to explore courses that I was interested in that led me to choose engineering as my major,” she said. “After that I focused on taking all of the engineering support courses I would need to transfer to a 4-year institution.” In California, the transfer option is especially important for low-
“While taking STEM classes, I was also able to explore courses that I was interested in that led me to choose engineering as my major. After that I focused on taking all of the engineering support courses I would need to transfer to a 4-year institution.” — Transfer student Robin Payne income students, first-generation college students and students from underrepresented groups — all more likely to start their higher education journey in a community college, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Transferring makes bachelor’s degrees available for a more diverse population of students, providing them greater potential for economic mobility.
Community college students do have to adapt to university life, which often features a different pace, social setting and more.
“Encouraging transfer students allows Cal Poly to further its goal of fostering a diverse and equitable culture based in love, empathy and respect,” said Eric Mehiel, associate dean for diversity and student success in the College of Engineering.
“As a STEM major in a community college, the most important skill set I needed was being able to solve problems using math,” she said. “However this was no longer the case after I transferred to Cal Poly. At Cal Poly, I learned the importance of communication skills for scientists and engineers.”
“There are many pathways applicants take to becoming a Cal Poly student,” Mehiel said. “In our mission to serve the state of California, we strive to open as many of those pathways as possible with the goal of a student body that reflects the state of California. Opening those pathways, and the transfer student pathway in particular, contributes to a more inclusive admissions process and a more diverse campus community and culture.”
For Zhai, who previously attended both Fresno City College and Clovis Community College, the biggest adjustment entailed learning how to communicate with words instead of numbers.
For some transfer students, social interactions can be a challenge when entering a program where most students have known each other since their freshman year. But MATE’s small size offers more of a community feel to everyone. “The continuing students already knew each other, but everyone was still friendly and were quite accepting of us,” Doherty said. “I would say I was closest to all of the other transfer students, but that’s not to say I didn’t become close to students that came in as freshmen.” Doherty formed friendships through clubs, hiking and the Week of Welcome. Meanwhile, Payne met friends at the MATE lounge — her home away from home on campus, where she could study, eat, connect with other students and even nap. “One thing I love about the MATE Department is that it really feels like we are our own quirky family,” she said. “The students I met in my MATE classes were all friendly and welcoming, and that played a big part in my adjustment to Cal Poly.” The department hopes to be even more welcoming in the future. Nicole Johnson-Glauch, who is the department’s support faculty lead, has been organizing events to help foster community within the department. She plans to invite alumni to the events, helping them get to know students, including transfers. “I think interaction with alums benefits everyone as it gives students role models to look up to and examples of the different pathways into and through engineering.” she said. n
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College of Engineering Materials Engineering Department 1 Grand Avenue • San Luis Obispo, CA • 93407
CHARGE THE FUTURE MAKE A GIFT TO SUPPORT MATERIALS ENGINEERING LABS, PROJECTS AND CLUBS Click HERE to make a gift now, or contact Amy Blosser Spikes, assistant dean of advancement, at spikes@calpoly.edu or (805) 756-2163