One of my first projects in the first year was competing in the Junior Glider competetion. The goal was to build a glider in order to hand throw it and cover as much distance as possible. Here are some pictures and videos of my first glider which was built out of foamboard and balsa wood:
In my first year (second semester), having successfully finished a material science course, I was granted a government award - Undergraduate Student Research Award University Student Research Assistant (NSERC USRA). Since summer 2022, I have been heavily involved into the material science research. After finishing a summer internship in my first year, I was hired for a part time job during the semester. In summer 2023 I received NSERC USRA award again and continued my full time work at the Centre for Near-net-shape Processing of Materials (CNPM).
I would like to express sincere gratefulness to my supervisor - Comondore Ravi Ravindran.Thank you so much, Professor, for your constant support, guidance, and dedication to fostering a positive working and learning environment for me. Your expertise and encouragement have been invaluable in shaping my academic journey and personal growth. I am truly grateful for the impact you've had on my education and development.
Additionally, I would like to sincerely thank to Payam Emadi, Bernoulli Andilab, Adam Belcastro, Alan Machin and Raja Roy for their constant support and guidance in my professional career.
Here is a photo of Professor Ravindran (from the right), Bernoulli Andilab, myself, and Raja Roy at CNPM lab:
At work, thanks to people I mentioned, I have been taught a lot about material science, and professionally trained on proper casting procedures and techniques according to industrial standards. I am heavily involved into castings and characterization of lightweight Aluminum and Magnesium alloys. During two years of my work at the research field, I got a chance to work on many research experiments and contribute to research papers. One of the projects that I was involved into, was focused on a synthesis of Graphene Nano Particles with a matrix of cast Aluminum-Silicon-Copper alloy (A319).
At CNPM, I am having various amount of responsibilities, varying from castings, perfect grinding, polishing of samples to the use of expensive microscopes (Electron Scanning Microscope, image analysis), tensile, hardness machines, Optical Emission Spectrometer (OES), X-ray diffraction machine, lathe, milling machines, etc. My job is to analyze the mechanical behaviour of the novel synthesized alloys and characterize its' microstructures. Subsequently, all the results and content collected during the analysis phase, will be written, summarized, structured well, and then published to a scientific research paper.
That's pretty much a full cycle of my work: getting a stock ingot, casting the alloy, characterizing and writing about the work. I am glad that I was able to find myself in the research field and contribute to the scientific work, as this gave me tremendous amount of technical knowledge and hands on experience related to castings and material science overall.
Here are some pictures of microstructures of modified Al-Si-Cu alloys, as well as videos of lost foam castings that I was involved into:
In December 2023, my first scientific paper about the "influence of GNP additions on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and electrical conductivity of cast A319 aluminum alloy", in which I was co-authered, was published in the International Journal of Metalcasting. Massive thanks to Bernoulli, Dr. Ravi and Payam for involving me into this fabulous research work:
Currently, I am working on another project related to a "Retention of the mechanical properties of aluminum A319 alloy with Sr additions post remelting and recycling". Here are some photos and videos from my current progress:
I will be continuing working at CNPM and learning more about material science!