Interview with a Material Science Professional (Glass Science)

Udaya Vempati is a Research Professional in Materials Science. He is currently working as a Research Scientist in Glass Science Division at Owens Illinois Inc in Perrysburg, Ohio, United States. Udaya was born in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India and never received any formal education in Materials Science in his early years. But he found himself lost in Materials Science and pushed him to apply for Ph.D in Materials Science. The following describes how Udaya pursued his passion in Glass Science, a subset of Materials Science.

- What is Materials Science?

Uday - Materials Science deals with the discovery and design of materials. Research in Materials Science generally involves studying synthesis, structure, properties and performance of materials. Materials can be anything from metals, ceramics, glasses, to polymers, biomaterials and more.

- What do you specialize in?

Uday - I specialize in glasses. When I say glass, the first thing that comes to mind are glass containers, window glass etc. But there are different types of glasses and I have dealt with chalcogenide glasses, metallic glasses and oxide glasses in my research.

- What are you currently working on?

Uday - I am currently working as a Research Scientist in Glass Science division within the Research & Development department at Owens Illinois Inc. (O-I). O-I is the world’s leading glass-packaging maker and makes billions of glass containers every year to serve a wide range of customers. My every day work at O-I involves design and execution of experiments that support, improve, and innovate the glass container manufacturing process.

- When and how did you first discover your passion for glass science?

Uday - When I was doing my Masters in Electronics & Computer Engineering, I became interested in the work of a professor on chalcogenide glasses. These glasses have many applications in electronics industry. They can be used in rewritable storage media such as DVDs or in fiber optics, for example. I did my Masters thesis on structure and properties of these glasses and just fell in love with glasses in general and glass science in particular.

Crystalline materials, such as aluminum, turn from solid state to liquid state at a sharply defined temperature known as their melting point (which for aluminum is at ~660C). But glasses slowly transform from a solid state to a liquid state upon heating. There is no clear demarcation in glasses, as in crystalline materials, of this phase transformation. When I first learned of this phenomenon, I was fascinated and knew I had to dig deep into glass science.

- How did you continue to pursue your passion in glass science?

Uday - I have realized during my Masters that there are outstanding problems/unanswered questions in glass science that I would be interested in exploring. I also found during my Masters that much of the research work on glass materials was taking place in Materials Science departments. These two factors motivated me to pursue a Ph.D. in Materials Science. I studied structure-property relationships of metallic glasses during my Ph.D and I used high-energy x-ray scattering as a characterization tool to relate peculiar mechanical behavior of these materials to their underlying microscopic structure.

- What challenges did you face in this career journey?

Uday - My undergraduate and Masters degrees (and coursework) were in Electrical & Computer Engineering. I did not have enough exposure to Materials Science (courses) until Ph.D. I had to quickly integrate myself into the Materials Science field during the first year of my Ph.D. and that posed a few challenges.

-How did you overcome these challenges?

Uday - I learned basics of Materials Science by taking numerous courses in the subject while doing my Ph.D.

- What advice and suggestions you have for young people?

Uday - I strongly urge young people to question how objects that they interact with everyday are made and how they work. For example, one could ask how are window glasses made? How are automobiles made? How are cellphones made? One can gain a tremendous amount of knowledge in several scientific fields, and Materials Science in particular, by just wondering about objects that they see and interact with every day.

Interview with a Mechanical Engineer(Heat Transfer)

Subbalakshmi Pisipati is a Mechanical Engineer and is currently working as Research Engineer at Electrolux, South Carolina, USA. Born in Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, India, Lakshmi found her way into becoming a Research Engineer at a very large Electronic Appliance manufacturing company. This is her career journey.

- What is Mechanical Engineering?

Lakshmi - It is about applying principle of engineering, physics and materials science for mechanical systems.

- What did you specialize in? Can you please explain your specialty?

Lakshmi - I specialize in heat transfer. Heat transfer is about studying how heat moves through vacuums, gases, liquids and solid objects.

Let me explain in a different way…As a mobile consumer, we always notice our mobile phones getting hot after long use. This is because of the excessive heat generated by components inside the mobile. When this heat becomes excessive, mobile device becomes inefficient. This is where I come in and help manufacturing companies make better appliances/electronic devices so that deleterious effects of heat transfer is limited.

- What are you currently working on?

Lakshmi - I work in Food Preservation division of Electrolux, manufacturer of electronic appliances. Electrolux manufactures appliances like refrigerators, cooking ranges, washers, dryers etc. I work in the R & D for refrigerators.

In refrigerators, there are multiple components like compressor, evaporator, fan etc. With proper design, assembly, making of these components, we get a well functioning refrigerator in which cool air flows uniformly. As a research engineer, I observe operation of several refrigerator models using a simulation software and see if the cool air flows uniformly and as per specifications. 

- Can you explain chain of tasks involved in your line of work?

Lakshmi - Our R & D Manager prioritizes work orders and assigns them to our team. Based on the work order specifications, CAD designers design the virtual object/3-dimensional refrigerator on the computer and I receive the geometry model. Using computational fluid dynamics software, I make the design simulation ready and run the software. I analyze the results, make a report and forward it to my supervisor and the person who requested the work order in the first place.

Minimal heat transfer/ uniform air flow implies well performing refrigerator. All this work is about manufacturing a well functioning and good quality refrigerator.

- When and how did you first realize your interest in mechanical engineering?

Lakshmi - I have always been very curious about how things work in real world. That’s what mechanical engineering is about right. I became very interested in automobiles during my 12^th grade and wanted to pursue a career in mechanical engineering and especially in automobile industry.

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- How did you pursue your passion in mechanical systems?

Lakshmi - I chose to major in Mechanical Engineering in Bachelors of Technology. And went on to specialize in Automation and Robotics in Masters of Technology from Osmania University, Andhra Pradesh, India. I then applied for Ph.D at State University of NewYork and received a doctorate from Watson School of Engineering and Technology

- What challenges did you face in your pursuit?

Lakshmi - I came from a very traditional family and was raised on the salary of a lecturer at Polytechnic College. It was hard to dream big and have high expectations.

One of my biggest challenges was to land a job after my Ph.D in US. Immigration status became the biggest obstacle and it was very hard to get a job offer with visa sponsorship. Luckily, all my hard work paid off and Electrolux offered me my dream job.

- How did you overcome these challenges?

Lakshmi - I have a very supporting family and they were always behind me in every step. Hardwork and passion really kept me focus on my goals.

- What advice and suggestions do you have for young children?

Lakshmi - I advice young children to discover what they are passionate about and they should run with it. As far as Mechanical Engineering field is concerned, look around you in this 21^st century and have zeal to explore and know the physics and mechanism behind every “machine”.

If you are already doing Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, training or experience in following software packages might give you an edge over someone.

CAD-CAM Packages: Pro/Engineer, Auto CAD, CATIA

CFD/FEA Packages: CFX, ANSYS, Flotherm, COMSOL Multiphysics, Star CCM +