c h e n n a i c h a p t e r - asm international

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C H E N N A I C H A P T E R

Essay on Student Outreach

The ASM International Chennai Chapter has made student outreach one of its primary goals.

It recognises the fact that there is a lack of awareness among school students regarding the

field of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science. Thus, since 2018, the chapter has

planned to organize a Materials Camp for School Students. This is a 3 day camp which

includes lectures and demos on various topics related to materials. The goal is to impress

upon the students the importance of materials in day to day life and the tremendous

possibilities in this area of engineering. The innovative programs held during this camp

excite the students and give a glimpse of the vastness of the subject and how they can make

a difference by taking up Materials Science as a career. The inter-disciplinary nature of the

subject is also brought out through experiments ranging from physics, chemistry, heat

treatment, metallography, strength of materials etc. Most of the students have reported at

the end of this camp that it was an eye opener for them and they were motivated to study

further in this area.

Following is a report on the Summer Camp on Materials Science organized on 16-18 May

2019 at Indian Institute of technology Madras, Chennai, India.

ASM International, Chennai Chapter in association with Department of Metallurgical and

Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras organized a three day event-

“Summer Camp on Materials Science” from 16 -18 May, 2019. The objective of the program

was to create awareness among the students about materials, their properties, application

and usage in various fields and also materials science as a possible career choice in

academics, industry, research or as an entrepreneur. The program was well attended by

school students from Chennai and its suburbs. A total of 22 students from 11 different

schools participated in the event.

Day 1 (16th May)

Mr. Shankar of Caterpillar welcomed the gathering and spoke on the objectives of the

program. Prof. Uday Chakkingal, Head, Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT

Madras and Prof. M. Kamaraj spoke at the inauguration regarding the importance of

materials. Dr. Madhu, Ex-chief scientist of Central Electro-chemical Research Institute was

the Chief Guest for the function and he spoke to the students regarding the advances in

Materials science and the exciting applications of new materials.

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The program started with a Lecture cum demo “Fun with materials” by Prof. M. S.

Sivakumar of the Dept. of Applied mechanics, IIT Madras. Prof. Sivakumar discussed through

several experiments the concepts of strength and stiffness and the importance of

mechanical properties.

This was followed by Dr. Shankar, Vice President, Mahindra & Mahindra who interacted

with school students on the topic “Alice in Materials Land- Exploring its Exotic world”. Dr.

Shankar discussed about scientific temper and history of many scientific discoveries

involving exotic materials and applications. He also displayed his collection of minerals and

gemstones showing unique properties such as double refraction.

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Afternoon lab visit presented an overview about heat treatment and demonstrated

quenching of a steel sample. The original and the quenched sample were used to explain

metallographic principles and the microstructure was developed and showed using an

optical microscope. The students also visited Scanning Electron Microscope lab and

observed few samples at large magnifications.

Day 2 (17th May)

The second day started with a lecture by Prof. B. S. Murty of Dept. of Metallurgical and

Materials Engineering, IIT Madras, who deliberated on “The Exciting World at the Bottom of

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Materials” and discussed about different aspects of the properties materials at micro- and

nano- scales. He also discussed the advances in microscopy and touched upon the concepts

such as resolution, magnification, crystalline and quasicrystalline materials and atom probe

tomography.

This was followed by Lecture cum demo by Prof. Sriram Kanvah of Dept. of Chemistry, IIT

Gandhinagar, who demonstrating some concepts of materials science by experiments. He

displayed several experiments using super adsorbent materials and liquid nitrogen.

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This was followed by a lecture on “Bio-mimicking” by Dr. Shantha Shankar, a materials

scientist and consultant. She demonstrated through several examples how nature engineers

some of the complicated structures having excellent properties.

The afternoon was spent visiting the SEM and LEAP (Atom probe tomography) facilities and

students were excited to see learn advanced sample preparation techniques and atomic

resolution techniques. Dr. Nagini, Anil, Revathy and Hari coordinated the visit.

This was followed by a “Hands on training” demonstration by Chennai Metco team which

included metallography, sample preparation and demonstration of microstructures on the

big screen.

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Day 3 (18th May)

The third day started with Lecture cum demo “Chemagic” by Dr. C. Shanmugam who is a

free lancer working for popularization of science among school children. He explained

various chemistry concepts in a simple and lucid style. The students seemed to really enjoy

the show. He demonstrated several impressive colour changing reactions which caught the

imagination of the students.

The event ended with address by Dr. T. Sundararajan, Chairman of ASM Chennai Chapter,

Mr. V. L. Sridharan, Chairman of India National Council of ASM, and Dr. Sushanta Panigrahi,

Co-convener of Materials Camp. The students shared their feedback and expressed their

happiness to be part of the camp. They were glad to receive a participation certificate.

Following this group photo was arranged.

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The Materials Camp was a grand success in bringing the student participants and esteemed

speakers together with the whole-hearted support of Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials

Engineering, IIT Madras.

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Participation Details

S.no Statistics

1 No of Students 22

2 No of Schools 11

3 No of Boys 11

4 No of Girls 11

5 Students from Chennai city 14

6 Students outside Chennai city 08

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ASM Materials Camp Programme

Venue: New Academic Complex @ IIT Madras

Day 1: Thursday, 16th May 2019

Time (Hrs) Event

8:30- 09:00 Inauguration. Intro-Shankar.

Prof. Kamaraj, Prof. Uday. Vote of Thanks- Dr. Bakshi.

9:00-9:45 Talk by Chief Guest- Dr. Madhu, Formerly Scientist, CECRI, Karaikudi

9:45-10:00 Refreshments, Tea

10:00- 11:30 Fun with Materials by Dr. Sivakumar (Dean, Students, IIT Madras)

11:30-12:30 Talk by Dr. Shankar, Vice-President (Technology & Innovation)

Mahindra &Mahindra.

12:30-13:45 Lunch Break

13:45-16:00 HT, Microscopy, Lab visits at IIT Madras

Day 2: Friday, 17th May 2019

Time (Hrs) Event

9:00-10:00 Talk by Prof. B.S. Murty, IIT Madras.

10:00-10:15 Break

10:15-11:30 Talk & Demo by Dr. Sriram, Dept. of Chemistry, IIT Gandhinagar.

(Venue: Physical Metallurgy Lab.)

11:30-12:30 Talk by Dr. Shantha Shankar (Materials Scientist, Indian Institute of

Science, Bangalore).

12:30-13:45 Lunch Break

13:15-17:00 LEAP/TEM @ IIT Madras / Chennai Metco’s Demo

Day 3: Saturday, 18th May 2019

Time (Hrs) Event

9:00-10:30 Chemagic by Dr. Shanmugam, Freelance consultant.

(Venue @ Physical Metallurgy Lab.)

10:30-11:30 Valedictory address- Dr. Sundar. Vote of thanks- Dr. Sushanth Group

photos and dispersal.

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