Tippur and Zhang awarded NSF grant to research structural nanocomposites

Zhang

Xinyu Zhang, assistant professor in the department, and Hareesh Tippur, McWane professor in Auburn's Department of Mechanical Engineering, have been awarded a three-year, $300,000 National Science Foundation grant for their research, "Novel Lightweight Syntactic Foams: Synthesis, Processing, and Characterization." They will investigate ways of making structural foams that are strong, energy efficient and energy absorbent for use in aircraft structures, windmill blades, automobiles and high-speed trains.