Achievement

Materials engineering student Micah Casteel (during the 2011-2012 academic year) met with the IGERT trainees approximately bi-weekly to discuss current research progress, help diagnose research problems and combine resources to accelerate progress on current research initiatives. This continual communication enabled trainees to utilize both intellectual and physical resources usually unavailable to them. This synergy was demonstrated when one trainee needed to gold electroplate a series of current collector plates for use in his research. Normally, this requires a relatively expensive and long lead time to contract with an external vendor. However, due to research performed previously by another trainee the gold plating was accomplished in house, for a substantially lower cost than if it would have been done commercially in less than two days using equipment designed and built for a different IGERT project.