NSW Branch Report

Source: Alan Todhunter - NSW President

2023 has been a year for adjusting to new committee members and President. This has resulted in less activity than anticipated with renewed enthusiasm for 2024. We will soon be planning our events for next year and engaging with NSW members in face-to-face meetings and online events.

NSW Student Presentations

On Wednesday, 29th November 2023, NSW students from undergraduate degrees in materials-related courses had the opportunity to present their final year research projects to a panel of judges. For the first time the presentations were held at Western Sydney University Engineering Innovation Hub located in Parramatta CBD. This was a hybrid event allowing a wider audience to view and give commentary on the presentations. There were two sessions, presentations supported by PowerPoint and a poster session using physical posters and digital posters on screens.

Our branch was very fortunate to receive sponsorship for student prizes with many thanks to Alan Hellier who not only contacted and facilitated sponsorship but as always ensured a rigorous rubric was in place to judge the students.

For the oral presentations the judges geometries of additively manufactured Ni-based superalloy Inconel 718. (Dr Sam Moricca, Gravitas Technologies: $600)

Second place was presented to Sreekanth “Chenna” Didugu, UNSW Mech Eng and ANSTO on Carbon-Carbon composite microstructural modelling. (Hassan Kanji, United Steel: $500)

Third place was presented to Frederick M.C. Zhang, UNSW Materials and ANSTO: Dissolution Mechanisms of Calcium Perovskite (CaTiO3) for SYNROC Waste forms (Hassan Kanji, United Steel: $400)

Fourth place was presented to Ratan Venkatesan, UNSW Materials and ANSTO: Pyrochlore Wasteforms for Immobilising Fluoride-Containing Nuclear Waste (Hassan Kanji, United Steel: $300)

Fifth Place was presented to Paul Saliba, WSU: Compressive Strength of Magnesium Oxychloride Cement (MOC) Based Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composites at Ambient and Elevated Temperatures. (Frank Soto, SOTO Consulting Engineers: $200)

Other speakers with notable research presentations were:

Matthew Gigliotti, UOW: MuscleInspired tough, strong hydrogel artificial

Synthesis of MAB Phase Fe2AlB2

Following the oral presentations, the poster sessions were judged while having afternoon tea sponsored by Frank Soto, SOTO Consulting Engineers.

First Prize: Paul Saliba, WSU: Compressive Strength of Magnesium Oxychloride Cement (MOC) Based Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composites at Ambient and Elevated Temperatures (Frank Soto, SOTO Consulting Engineers: $300)

Second Prize: David “Kaito” Callan, UNSW Mech Eng and ANSTO: Investigation of mixed uranium valences in nuclear materials using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (Dr Sam Moricca, Gravitas Technologies: $200)

Third Prize: Kimiko Trinidad, USYD: Developing Atom Probe Tomography for Bone Tissue and Bioceramic Scaffolds (Professor Anna Paradowska, ANSTO: $100 gift card)

Another poster of interesting research was displayed by Haomin (Larry) Lyu, Microstructure Evolutions of a DualPhase High-Entropy Alloy Produced by Powder Arc Additive Manufacturing. The student presentations closed with great expectations for our next generation of materials researchers.