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For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Bill Noxon Contents of this News Tip:
GRADUATE ENROLLMENTS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING CONTINUE DOWNWARD MOVEFollowing 15 years of consistent gains, graduate enrollments in science and engineering for 1996 declined for a third straight year, according to a newly published National Science Foundation (NSF) Data Brief. The NSF figures show that enrollment of women in graduate science and engineering (S&E;) programs, which rose consistently since 1980, went up again by about one percent over the 12-month period ending in the fall of 1996. Meanwhile, graduate S&E; enrollments for men, which started downward in 1992, continued its slide, down 3.3 percent from 1995 to 1996. Another telling figure in the data brief is that for the 1995-96 period, there was a drop of nearly 7,000 graduate enrollments in S&E; among white men. Overall, there have been more than 20,000 fewer S&E; graduate enrollments from 1993 to 1996. Enrollments have declined consistently in the physical sciences (three percent) and in engineering (four percent). The data brief is produced by NSF's Division of Science Resources Studies. For more information see: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm [Bill Noxon] MIT ENGINEERS MAY HAVE FOUND WAY TO CREATE CRACK RESISTANT SURFACESResearch engineers at MIT have found a way to test, then confirm, a mathematical theory about properties of graded materials. The theory could lead to new materials with exceptional properties for everything from dental implants to military armor. The research, conducted in part with support from NSF, is reported in several engineering journals internationally. Graded materials are those made of two or more materials mixed together, with the proportions of each differing at the surface versus different depths. Subra Suresh, MIT professor of materials science and engineering, along with visiting scientist Antonio Giannakopoulos, had formulated a mathematical theory for determining properties of graded material, but they needed "clean mathematical solutions involving quantities which can accurately be measured by experiments," Suresh said. The scientists were unable to do these experiments, however, because standard measures used on other materials, nano-and macroindentors, didn't work in the size-scale range of many graded materials. The scientists came up instead with an intermediate "microindentor," at a cost of about $5,000, using off-the-shelf parts. Their tests with the new microindentor not only validated their theory on properties of graded materials; the device has also been patented for other industrial uses (such as quality control of case-hardened surfaces). Meanwhile, their experiments have led to insights into how new graded materials may be developed for less susceptibility to cracking and wear. These insights may apply to items as small as dental and orthopedic implants and as large as military tanks. "NSF has an interest in creating novel materials that provide properties beyond current capabilities," Kesh Naranyanan, group leader for industrial innovation, said. NSF funds new materials research through the directorates of engineering, math and physical sciences, and computer and information science and engineering. [Bill Noxon] SCIENCE BOARD APPROVES UTAH GRAPHICS/VISUALIZATION CENTERThe National Science Board, NSF's governing body, has approved a 48-month grant worth almost $13 million for the Center for Graphics and Visualization at the University of Utah, an NSF Science and Technology Center. The board approved the measure at its February meeting. The center is distributed among five universities, including the Utah site, and also Brown, Cornell, Cal Tech and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The center was established in 1991, and has received continued funding totaling nearly $28 million overall -- nearly $21 million of that from NSF. The center has four core missions in computer graphics and scientific visualization, including modeling, rendering, interaction and performance. Research in the four core areas is centered on two applications: telecollaboration and visualization. The center's telecollaboration research is directed at the pacing problem of remote design and manufacturing. This focus spans the entire center and includes the four core research areas as well as scene acquisition and reconstruction, and design of display devices. [Bill Noxon]
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