John Mayo, a former student of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was awarded the Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Mayo graduated in May 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering.
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated potential for significant achievements in science and engineering. The students are selected through a national competition. The fellowship provides three years of financial support within a five-year fellowship period ($32,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the graduate institution) for graduate study that is in a field within NSF's mission and leads to a research-based master's or doctoral degree.
Mayo’s proposal that earned him the award was to create a methodology for designing resilient systems using shape memory alloy (SMA) technology. Resilience, unlike reliability, not only accounts for the system surviving adverse events, but also the encompassment of adaptability to different circumstances. Through a study of probability analysis for failure causes, topology optimization algorithms, and engineering analysis tools for SMA, he proposed to improve upon existing design techniques for SMA applications to create new methods that factor in resilience. The research proposal is aimed to create a general algorithm for developing resilient SMA systems.
Mayo worked on the proposal with mechanical engineering professor Dr. Richard Malak, who specializes in optimization and design methodologies and has experience applying these techniques to systems that use SMAs.