2024
July 2
The Smart Materials and Systems Lab will take part in an INL LDRD project titled “All-Ceramic Wireless Sensors for High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Cores.” The objective is to develop a new wireless passive inductive-capacitive (LC) resonator sensor. This sensor will feature electrically conductive aluminum nitride (AlN) electrodes printed onto a dielectric AlN substrate, specifically designed for high temperature gas-cooled reactor core applications.
May 1
Dr. Deng’s team has been awarded a DOE Consolidated Innovative Nuclear Research (CINR) grant. This $1.1 million award, distributed over the next three years, will support a collaboration among researchers from Boise State, the Ohio State University, and INL. The team will focus on developing and testing innovative magnetostrictive acoustic sensors, which are aimed at advancing structural health monitoring in nuclear reactors. More details can be found at:
Boise State University Scientist Awarded DOE Grant for Nuclear Reactor Monitoring Innovation
April 20
Congratulations to Dr. Nicholas McKibben on receiving the Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy’s Innovations in Nuclear Energy Research Development Student Award of Excellence. Dr. McKibben, a former PhD student under Prof. David Estrada and co-advised by Dr. Zhangxian Deng, has been recognized for his pioneering work in aerosol jet printing of piezoelectric surface acoustic wave thermometers. His research contributes significantly towards advancing structural health monitoring in nuclear power plants.
March 29
Matt Zuzelski, a dedicated graduate research assistant, earned 2nd place and a $300 prize at the 2024 SPIE Smart Materials + NDE conference held in Los Angeles, California. His paper, titled “All-printed Multifunctional Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring of Inflatable Structures,”; represents a significant step forward in the monitoring and maintenance of deep space habitats. Zuzelski is on track to become one of the inaugural candidates in our newly-launched PhD program in Engineering. The paper is a collaborative effort with Isaac Little, a junior in the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. Little, also showcased his work titled “In-space Manufacturing of Morphing Electronics” at the conference. Both projects are sponsored by the NASA EPSCoR program.
January 6
Joy Morin has been awarded the INL Graduate Fellowship and has begun her role as a graduate fellow in material separations & analysis, under the supervision of Dr. Robert Fox.
2022
August 25
One of the NSF REU students in SMSL, Miranda Cardenas, is awarded the Virginia Lee Beecraft Scholarship.
August 16
A team of Boise State researchers led by Dr. Deng have been awarded an NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant. This grant will provide $685,034 over the next two years, which consists of $479,500 from NSF and $205,534 from Boise State cost share, to support the acquisition of a Polytec MSA-600-X/U micro analyzer
May 20
Sponsored by Center for Advanced Energy Studies, Dr. Deng completed a two-week long Summer Student COMSOL Workshop.
April 25
A team led by Dr. Deng is awarded a NASA Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) three-year grant of $725,000. With this grant, Dr. Deng will collaborate with two departments at Boise State, local industrial partners, and three NASA research centers to explore the on-demand manufacturing of electronics in space.
April 25
Amanda passed her master thesis proposal defense. Congratulations!
April 15
Nick passed his PhD dissertation proposal defense. Congratulations!
April 13
Amanda, Adam, and Alex participated in the SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation 2022 conference. They first-authored three conference proceedings, respectively.
March 1st
Dr. Deng presented his research progress on additive manufacturing of magnetostrictive materials on TMS 2022 Annual Meeting and Exhibition.
January 13th
Joy Morin from Materials Science and Engineering Department joined the SMSL as a PhD student.
2021
June 15
Shane Palmer presented his research progress on ultrasonic thermometer development in American Nuclear Society (ANS) annual conference.
June 9
Dr. Deng received the 2021 Idaho HERC Incubation fund (IF22-001). This grant will provide $100,000 in the next year to support the acquisition of an MTS thermo-mechanical testing system and partially support a graduate student in smart material characterization.
May 5
Dr. Deng was enrolled in the 2021 CAES Summer Visiting Faculty Program (CSVFP). In collaboration with researchers from INL MOOSE team, Dr. Deng will prepare a collaborative proposal targeting the development of a customized multiphysics finite element tool for magnetostrictive materials.
April 19
Alex Draper received a $7,500 scholarship from DOE Integrated University Program (IUP). This scholarship will support his research efforts in multiphysics modeling for the 2021-2022 academic year.
March 29
Dr. Deng received the Boise State COEN Seed Grant. This funding opportunity will support a few undergraduate researchers in printing shape memory polymers.
February 4th
Dr. Deng received funding from the DOE Advanced Sensors & Instrumentation (ASI) program. He will lead the research efforts in ultrasonic thermometer development and LVDF pressure sensor simulation.
January 1
Dr. Deng received the NIH COBRE pilot grant. He will focus on the additive manufacturing of smart materials and investigate the functionality of smart material in tissue engineering.