Attempting to Use Old Technology

May 31, 2016 Today’s project was to get the mechanical stylus machine up and running again because it had not been in use for about 2 years since the department moved into the new engineering center. This machine dates back to the year 1996 so using it was a challenge. The first obstacle was that…

Graduate Research Conference

May 27, 2016 Graduate Research Conference Today we visited the First Graduate Student Research Conference that Oakland University has ever held. I was glad that we had the opportunity to go because it allowed us to see other students present their work like we will during the 5th and 10th week of this program. Because…

Meeting With TARDEC

May 26, 2016 Meeting With TARDEC Today we had the opportunity to learn about what research had already been done and what we would do over the next 10 weeks to further this research. While there, they dropped off the materials that we would be using such as the Zirconium Oxide (ZrO2) and the fuel…

Learning About Our Project

May 25, 2016 Discovering Information About Our Project After receiving our project assignments Wednesday, May 25 we had the opportunity to begin our research on what our project would entail will the goal of not only learning more about what we would be working with for the next few weeks, but also preparing the information…

REU Summer Program Opening Post

This blog will be used to document our experience in the REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) as we participate in tribology research that started on May 23 and will run until July 29, 2016. The project we were assigned was with Dr. Schall and was titled “Experimental Investigation of Antiwear Film Growth.” The purpose of…