See the many ways excellence is recognized across multiple disciplines and the various ways innovation and research is acknowledged and celebrated.
The awards presented at Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation represent four categories of excellence across various disciplines:
Boeing LTS Inc. (United States)
Smart Structures and Materials (SSM)
Lifetime Achievement Award
Steven Griffin serves as Chief Engineer at the Maui Space Surveillance System. Dr. Griffin’s areas of expertise include optical/structural line-of-sight modeling, integrated structural acoustic modeling, vibration management, smart structures, composite structures, and structural health monitoring. Prior to joining Boeing, he served as an Air Force civilian and military researcher charged with spacecraft related composite structural research and structural/optical/acoustics research programs.
Univ. of California, San Diego (United States)
Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE)
Lifetime Achievement Award
Michael Todd received his Ph.D. from Duke University's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. Since 2003 he has been with the Structural Engineering Department at the University of California San Diego, where he serves as Distinguished Professor and Chair. His research interests are in ultrasonic and fiber optic structural health monitoring/NDE and decision analytics for SHM/NDE. He has published over 550 journal papers and proceedings. He was the 2005 SHM Person-of-the-Year Award, the 2016 SEM DeMichele award, and the 2021 SHM Lifetime Achievement Award. He serves on the Advisory Board to the UK Research Centre in Nondestructive Evaluation and is the Managing Editor of Structural Health Monitoring.
The Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication conference chairs choose the Best Student Presentation Award from their conference. This award is sponsored by an SPIE Fellow. A cash prize is given to the first, second, and third place winners.
Craig F. Bohren is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Meteorology at The Pennsylvania State University. An expert on atmospheric optics, his autobiographical paper will no doubt inspire many researchers, young and old alike.
The 2024 Craig F. Bohren Best Student Presentation Award Winners are:
1st place: Daniel Fisher, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas (United States)
SPIE Paper 12944-22: From bioimaging to artificial anatomy: 3D printing biomimetic marine life structures
2nd place: Jinho Kim, Korea Univ. (Korea, Republic of)
SPIE Paper 12944-7: Biomimetic quadrupedal soft robot using origami cylinder actuator
3rd place: Ana Álvarez-Yenes, CIC nanoGUNE (Spain)
SPIE Paper 12944-5: Advanced self-cleaning and antimicrobial organic-inorganic hybrid textiles achieved through Vapor Phase Infiltration (VPI)
The Health Monitoring of Structural and Biological Systems conference committee choose the Best Student Paper Award from their conference. Applicants then submit an extended abstract for review, and selected finalists present in a special session at the Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation meeting. A cash prize is given to the first, second, and third place winners.
The 2024 Health Monitoring of Structural and Biological Systems Best Student Paper Award Winners are:
1st place: Chengyang Huang, Univ. of California, San Diego (United States)
SPIE Paper 12951-63:Improvements on focused tactile feedback using time reversal mirror
2nd place: Matt Zuzelski, Boise State Univ. (United States)
SPIE Paper 12951-77: All-printed multifunctional sensors for structural health monitoring of inflatable habitats
3rd place: Pedram Bazrafshan, Drexel Univ. (United States)
SPIE Paper 12488-16: An entropy-based probabilistic model for acoustic emission RA value-average frequency data
Award Sponsor:
As part of the Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) conference, the EAP-in-Action Demonstration Session has been held over the past several decades. New electroactive polymer materials and application areas are continuing to emerge and this session offers up-close demonstrations of EAP materials and devices in action from industry and academia. There is never a dull moment at this session which features everything from early university prototypes to products. The demonstration format enables interaction between the developers and potential users as well as a “hands-on” experience with our emerging technology.
Award certificates are given to the best EAP-in-Action demonstrations. The judges assess the presenters’ performance as well as the quality and content of the demos.
The 2024 EAP-In-Action Demonstration Award Winners are:
1st place: Magdalena Skowyra, Danish Polymer Ctr. Technical Univ. of Denmark (Denmark)
Title: Towards artificial muscles using PDMS thin fiber actuators
Finalist: Shane Mitchell, Artimus Robotics (United States)
Title: Commercializing multi-channel high voltage amplifiers for electroactive polymers
Finalist: Qibing Pei, Univ. of California, Los Angeles (United States)
Title: Haptic devices for refreshable and dynamic tactile information communication
Finalist: Matthias Baltes, ZeMA gGmbH (Germany)
Title: Resonance-optimized dielectric elastomer pump demonstrator