SAMPE 2012

Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering

www.sampe.org

I had the pleasure to attend Sampe2012 located in Baltimore.  The Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) is an international professional member society. Dassault Systems has a long history of attending this conference.  This is my first time attending and SAMPE bridges the gap between industry and academia in development, test, simulation, mfg of special materials. These developments directly impact the public in the way of automotive, aircraft, bio-medical, and renewable energy developments, among many others.  The main topic of interest is composites. You do see other stuff like metals, ceramics, fabrication processes, polymers, reinforcements, adhesives, testing and analysis, and environmental issues.

SAMPE had over 5,000 attendees and boat load of exhibitors reaching over 300. 

I saw Abaqus used in many of the sessions.  So, I looked in the proceedings and Abaqus is used more than any other Simulation software.

University of Maryland: The coolest application I saw was Gamera self powered helicopter.  Sikorsky has offered a \\\$250k prize in 1980 if anyone can build a self powered helicopter that can lift of and hover for 60 seconds.  Nobody has come close to this mark.  Only three helicopters have achieved lift off.  University of Maryland developed the first generation helicopter called Gamera I.  The width of this helicopter is larger than commercial helicopters and only weights 100lbs!  The pilot is 140lbs and is only able to produce 1hp and 0.6 Hp for 1 minute.  Very interesting problem huh.  Gamera I lifted off for 4 seconds and achieved a world record.  They are building (test this summer) Gamera II and it only weight 72lbs.  The professor is Dr. Darrell Pines. 

Some pictures from the SAMPE conference: