Internship

Job Title: Internship

Organization: Consortium for Innovation in Manufacturing and Materials (CIMM) program
Deadline: March 8, 2019
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The Consortium for Innovation in Manufacturing and Materials (CIMM), an NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 project, solicits proposals for CIMM Seed Funding Track 3: Internship Opportunities to support student research projects in partnership with industry. The current Science and Technology Thrusts (STTs) of CIMM address underlying technologies in two areas: 1) STT1 (Multiscale metal forming and replication) addresses challenges in high-throughput manufacturing of components with functional features ranging from microns to millimeters and beyond with high fidelity and repeatability; 2) STT2 (Laser-based 3D metal printing) focuses on adaptive manufacturing of application-specific structures with a high degree of geometric and microstructural complexity and variability. The unifying scientific challenge for these STTs is the multiscale nature of the underlying phenomena, which span multiple length scales (nanometers to millimeters and beyond) and time scales (nanoseconds to hours). A major challenge in multiscale forming is that well-established macroscale manufacturing methods cannot be simply scaled down to the relevant dimensions. To address this, STT1 tightly couples experimentation with modelling and simulation on multiscale plasticity and physics and mechanics of interfacial regions, with focus on mechanical size effects and engineered interfaces. A major challenge in laser-based 3D metal printing is that an understanding of the complex interplay between multi-physics and multiscale phenomena—which are required for tailoring composition and microstructure of printed parts—is presently incomplete. To address this, STT2 couples experimentation with hierarchical modeling and simulation tools, with a focus on laser printing processes and custom powder synthesis. Experimentally validated models and simulation tools, developed through this effort, will lead to advancement of scientific understanding and acceleration of further technology development. CIMM’s research program also includes the development of data handling and workflow management capabilities to support material and process development within the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) framework. CIMM has established an ecosystem of User Facilities at LSU and Louisiana Tech to support advanced manufacturing research and development, and is expanding this network of user facilities where CIMM-affiliated users are given access at the same rates charged to the on-campus users. Collectively, these are called CIMM Core User Facilities (CIMM-CUF). Additional information about CIMM can be found at http://www.lsu.edu/eng/cimm/index.php.

Eligibility Guidelines

Students at any Louisiana public institution of higher education, or at any Louisiana higher education institution that is a member of the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, are eligible to participate. Students may travel independently but must be sponsored by a tenured or tenure-track faculty member, who will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI). Senior investigators who are currently funded by CIMM are eligible to apply. Recipients of Track 1: Faculty Research Awards and Track 2: Industrial Collaboration awards are also eligible to apply. Seed awards are to be single-investigator. While co-PIs are allowable, one and only one individual must be listed on the cover sheet as principal investigator. The student intern should be identified in the proposal, and the industry partner (host) for the intern should also be identified.

Award Information

• Duration of the visits must range from a minimum of two (2) weeks to a maximum of ten(10) weeks
• Will provide up to $1,000.00 per week for subsistence (based on established per-diemand hotel rates for the location) and up to $800 to cover travel (air fare, rental car, etc.), not to exceed a total of $10,000. Travel is only allowable for students who live more than 50 miles from the host laboratory.
• Letter of support from industry is required. The letter should identify the industry and individual mentor/partner, willingness to host the intern, and describe any other pertinent commitments.
• The applicant is expected to spend the entire duration of the visit at the facility.
• Restricted to domestic industries, international travel is not allowed
• Participation from women and under-represented minorities (URM) is encouraged

The Seed Funding Track 3: Internship Opportunities program will be administered through the BoR’s Office of Sponsored Programs and will operate under the guidance of the State’s EPSCoR Committee. The awards are anticipated to be up to $10,000. Payment of stipends is not permitted. Only expenses that qualify for travel reimbursement under the current state general travel regulations (Policy and Procedures Memorandum #49) are allowable. Funds will be made available by contract from the BoR to the Principal Investigator’s (PI) institution. Institutions are strongly encouraged to waive the F&A on these awards so as to maximize the impact of the seed grants.

Award Conditions

Successful applicant is expected to participate fully in the activities of CIMM including providing materials needed for reports, contributing data to the CIMM ICME hub, participation in CIMM meetings (two meetings per year in Baton Rouge; anticipated to be in April and July), responding to data collection requests by the CIMM External Evaluator, and reviews by the CIMM External Review Board. All publications and presentations resulting from the seed grant should acknowledge support from NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Co-operative Agreement OIA-1541079 and Louisiana Board of Regents.

To document successes and justify continuing support for the program, participants are required to complete a questionnaire approximately one year after the completion of their internship to determine if the investment generated positive results. The questionnaire will address whether the program yielded any of the following: 1) grant proposals/awards; 2) research publications, 3) presentations at regional, national, or international conferences, 4) research accomplishments, and 5) other research nuggets. Submission of an application and acceptance of an award commits the individual awardee and awardee’s institution to fully comply with this requirement. Once this information is provided, the awardee’s responsibilities are fulfilled. Failure of an awardee to comply with these requirements will result in declination of future LA EPSCoR awards
to that individual until such time the delinquent report is received.