Student overcomes technical difficulties to place in competition

March 31, 2008

A Bagley College of Engineering student overcame many obstacles including technical difficulties and a language barrier to place in technical competition.

Jun Wang, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, earned fourth place honors and $200 by presenting a technical paper based on her recent research activities. This student night competition was hosted by the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) as part of their annual conference. This was the Wuhan City, China native’s first presentation since arriving in America.

Though her presentation was to be broadcast over the Internet to facilitate interaction between SAMPE members from across the country, weak signal strength and low bandwidth caused technical difficulties for Wang and her audience. She explained that after concluding her presentation, it was discovered that the other participants had been unable to establish a visual connection with MSU. In addition, she was unable to hear the questions posed by the other participants.

“I was nervous about this competition because I had not made a presentation in English before,’ Wang said. “I was excited when I finished, but we found out that they hadn’t been able to see my presentation and I couldn’t hear their questions. We had to complete onsite troubleshooting to get everything fixed so I could finish the competition.”

Wang is a second year doctoral candidate working with Dr. Judy Schneider, an associate professor in mechanical engineering. Her paper detailed her research in the effects of core-shell rubber nanoparticles on the fracture toughness of an epoxy resin at cryogenic temperatures.

This technical competition was held in conjunction with the Baltimore/Washington professional chapter of SAMPE, which sponsored the Mississippi State student chapter when it was founded in 2004. SAMPE is an international professional society seeking to provide information on new materials and processing technologies through scholarly research and education.