Tevis Jacobs Lab

A few weeks ago, Tevis gave an invited talk at the Materials Science & Technology (MS&T) meeting2024_ titled “Adhesion and Stability of Nanoparticles” The symposium was titled “Controlled Synthesis, Processing, and Applications  of Structural and Functional Nanomaterials”. There were many fascinating talks, but if forced to pick just one, I would mention one by Oliver Diwald titled “Tribochemical Activation of Intergranular Sites Inside Nanoparticle Powder Compacts.” Super interesting work in the fundamental science behind powder-based metals manufacturing. https://lnkd.in/gPRa-b9C #nanoMechanics #InSituTEM #MechanicalBehavior #MaterialsScience #MS&T

The Fall brought us a new undergrad student to our group! Alexander Adams Alexander Adams is a first-year undergraduate engineering student studying mechanical engineering. Originally from the New York City Metropolitan Aera, Alexander conducted his pre-collegiate research primarily on aerospace systems, specifically radar absorbing materials in relation to military aircraft. Following his high school graduation, he joined the Jacobs Research Group in the fall of 2024 and started in his role of supporting the ongoing research endeavors of the lab. He enjoys playing lacrosse, going outdoors, and spending time with friends. #MaterialScience #Pitt #YoungScientist #SurfaceRoughness #SurfaceScience

Mark Malburg, President at Digital Metrology Solutions, Inc. spent a day with us interacting with our graduate students and their research. He also gave a riveting hour-long presentation about his company's advances and how they positively impact the real world.

Alexander Briese, an undergraduate researcher in our lab, is exploring how the topography of a surface influences its performance. By using surfaces with a known pattern, his research aims to uncover the role that surface features play in tribological interactions. 

This is a representative example of the optical profilometry scans we conducted this summer. George Yang our undergraduate summer research intern found the smooth samples with circular valleys particularly fascinating because they highlight the resolution limitations of each non-contact technique. It was interesting to see how these samples appear differently under different optical profilometry techniques. #tribology #roughness #opticalprofilometry #floortiles

New publication in Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties about evaluating scanning electron microscopy to measure small-scale topography! http://pi.tt/TJL24 Check out our newest publication by our PhD student Vimanyu Chadha. This study addresses the gaps regarding measuring small-scale roughness using scanning electron microscopy, validating the accuracy of this technique against other techniques. The key finding was the validity of the simple generalizable method for revealing small-scale topography.

Last week George Yang completed his undergraduate summer research internship under the MEMS FIRE program with our research group. We hope he had fun learning and researching and wish him all the best for the future.