FeMET Initiative's Design Grants Awarded; Two Universities Granted $47,500 Each for Design

AISI and the Association for Iron & Steel Technology Foundation's (AIST Foundation) "Ferrous Metallurgy Education Today," or FeMET Initiative, which is aimed at attracting top talent to the North American steel industry, has awarded its design grants for 2006. Teams of materials science engineering students and their professors from Carnegie Mellon University and University of Missouri-Rolla have been granted $47,500 each to put toward their efforts in addressing an industry technological problem or "challenge" by working collaboratively to determine how the problem is best solved. Their proposals included exposure to important problems in the steel industry, as well as learning various technical and economic aspects in creating a solution.

The winning proposals from the universities will tackle the 2006-2007 design theme, "Comparative Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Assessments of Steel Products." In response, Carnegie Mellon University will address the problem in the project, "An Environmental Life Cycle Comparison of Steel Versus Wood in Residential and Commercial Construction." The project to be taken up by the team from University of Missouri-Rolla is titled, "Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Comparison of Steel With Other Materials."

"The universities are addressing one of steel's most important attributes—sustainability—and we look forward to seeing the progress the teams and projects make in the coming year," said Andrew G. Sharkey, III, president and CEO of AISI. "The Design Grant Program, a part of FeMET, will expose metallurgy and materials science students and professors to real-life issues and enable them to acquire better knowledge of the North American steel industry."

According to Ronald E. Ashburn, AIST Foundation executive director, "Not only will this segment of the FeMET Initiative bring a practical, working knowledge in ferrous metallurgy to these students, but it will also bring the industry insight into how steel competes with other materials with respect to environmental sustainability."