Purpose: The Research Committee is a standing committee in the SEM organization, responsible to the Executive Board through the Technical Activities Council.  The primary responsibility of the Committee is to provide a forum for research level work (or work in progress) as well as novel topics not covered by other committees but beneficial to the SEM as a whole and presented at SEM National Meetings.

Bylaws

RESEARCH COMMITTEE - Updated 25 April 2007

Chair:  Hugh Bruck, University of Maryland

Vice-Chair:  Mike Jenkins, University of Washington

Secretary:  Ioannis Chasiotis, University of Illinois 

The Research Committee is a standing committee in the SEM organization, responsible to the Executive Board through the Technical Activities Council.  The primary responsibility of the Committee is to provide a forum for research level work ( or work in progress ) as well as novel topics not covered by other committees but beneficial to the SEM as a whole and presented at SEM National Meetings. The Committee periodically reviews the research work going on in the field of experimental mechanics and determines that the papers received, for presentation at National Meetings, are representative of the current research efforts.  If a particular area is not being covered on the program at National Meetings, the committee can take action to determine why this is happening.  The Committee can then recommend a course of action that might be taken to alleviate the discrepancy.

 This year, the research committee has been very active promoting new research activities within the society. The list of accomplishments include: 

• A new committee secretary, Prof. Ioannis Chasiotis of the University of Illinois, was appointed.A short article, “Biological systems and materials: a review of the field of biomechanics and the role of the Society for Experimental Mechanics” prepared by Eric Brown, Jane Grande-Allen, and Mick Peterson of the Bio TD appeared in a 2006 issue of EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES describing the research activities of the TD.
• A new “best paper” award proposed by the Research Committee was approved by the Honors and Awards Committee, and awards were made at the 2005 Annual Meeting. It was awarded by the MEMS TD for the 2006 meeting, and it is hoped to continue this for the 2007 meeting with all the Tracks and Symposium that were organized being involved.

 For 2006-2007, the Research Committee is pursuing the following action items:

• Establish a new session for young faculty development. In concert with the education committee, the development of a session at the 2008 annual meeting will be pursued that is specifically directed at student members (and possibly younger faculty members as well) to provide them with information on how to identify emerging research areas, establish their credibility in these areas, and then locate appropriate funding sources. The motivation for this session comes from the many active SEM members were once student members who received their PhD and are now in academic positions. The success of these students in these academic positions is of paramount importance to the future of the society. However, many students who enter academic positions are not fully aware of all of the research activities and opportunities that exist in the area of mechanics and materials because of the transient nature of the current research environment. The  session would be entitled, “Science and Technology in the U.S. Senate”, and Dr. Jonathan Epstein of Senator Jeff Bingaman’s office has tentatively agreed to deliver it provided that there is not a bill on the floor of the Senate that he has to attend to.
  
  
• Continue FreshPerspectives and Research in Progress sessions. The former has not been included in this year’s meeting, but the latter has. The future of these sessions may change based on the growth of the poster session and the new Fall meeting.Developing a series of articles on SEM committees and TDs. Four consecutive articles (one for the Technical Advisory Board and one for each of the committees) will be written and distributed to the SEM membership via the website or technical journals to explain the new thrust and mission of these entities.
  
  
• Continuation of Fall technical meeting. This year, the Fall technical meeting was not held after two successful years in Springfield, Massachusetts, with topics in the Computation/Analytical/Experimental Measurements area and in the Biological/Bioinspired Materials and Systems area. The next meeting could focus on Dynamic Failure, which seem to be areas of interest to many members of the society.
  
  
• Establishment of a Sensors TD: There is expanding interest in the sensing area, especially through Biological Systems and MEMS. This TD could unify and focus interest from a number of TDs within the society. The research funding and technologies in this area are rapidly expanding, and the society should make an effort to support the establishment of the TD. In the past, the society has had significant participation from the Fiber Optics Sensing community, through efforts promoted by Jim Sirkis. This community could serve as the foundation upon which the Sensors TD could be established. Contact has been made with two individuals in this area, Chris Baldwin at Systems Planning and Analysis in Lanham, MD and Miao Yu at the University of Maryland, who could take the lead for establishing the TD.
  
  
• Presentation of Overview Papers at the Annual Meeting: The Biological Systems and Materials TD submitted a paper to EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES describing its research activities. The Committee has asked the Composites TD to present and prepare the next paper.
  
  
• Identification of Emerging Research Areas. Some new research areas that may be promoted by the society include:

• Complex Fluids
• Aeroelastic Structures
• Materials by Design
• Multifunctional Materials and Structures
• Microscale and Nanoscale Metrology
• Nanostructured materials
• MEMS reliability