Samueli School Hosts Mexican Research Collaborators
April 11, 2018 - The Samueli School’s Mexico Graduate Research and Education Program, founded in 2016 to facilitate research and academic collaborations between the U.S. and its neighbor to the south, last month hosted several scientific research delegations from prominent Mexican research institutions.
The visitors, representing three Mexico Research Centers of Excellence, were at UCI March 21-22 because of a new partnership between UC Irvine’s Institute for Design and Manufacturing Innovation (IDMI) and Mexico’s CIDESI (Center for Engineering and Industrial Development). The collaboration is funded by a grant from Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology, known as CONACyT. Investigators from research organizations in both countries are studying the design and manufacturing of nickel and titanium-based cellular materials using direct metal laser sintering.
The guests, from CIDESI, CIO (Centro de Investigaciones en Optica) and CINVESTAV (Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados), met with UCI Vice Chancellor Pramod Khargonekar, lunched with Samueli School Dean Gregory Washington and had dinner with Provost Enrique Lavernia. They also toured several facilities and laboratories, discussing projects with UCI researchers. Among the stops on the tour, which included CALIT2 and IMRI, were labs specializing in MEMs, optics and sensors, micro- and nanofluidic chips, materials science, photovoltaics, and ionic circuits and fluids.
Lorenzo Valdevit, UCI mechanical and aerospace associate professor, IDMI director and UCI’s principal investigator on the CONACyT grant, said the visitors were especially interested in additive manufacturing, which could provide fodder for new research proposals.
“Overall, this is a great opportunity to start a line of collaborative work with excellent research centers in Mexico,” he said. “CIDESI and CIATEQ in Queretaro have exceptional facilities in manufacturing and materials characterization and very good scientists. This project leverages our mutual interest and expertise in additive manufacturing, and combines their experience in metallurgy of nickel and titanium alloys and my expertise in optimal design of mechanical metamaterials.”
-- Anna Lynn Spitzer
