College of Engineering
Happy summer everyone! I just wanted to take a minute as our summer classes start to congratulate our MEPE grad from spring 2024, Jeremy Williams! Jeremy works for Eastman in Tennessee and entered the program in 2021. Congratulations to him and best of luck in all future endeavors!
Kristoffer Stokes, an instructor for our Polymer Engineering master’s degree, was recently honored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council. His company, Geisys Ventures, in collaboration with the Costanzo lab at Cal Poly, received an award for work on D-Glue, a revolutionary eco-friendly adhesive platform. The Adhesives and Sealants Council (ASC) honored D-Glue as the second …
We all know that polyolefins are incredibly versatile materials that have application in many kinds of packaging and other products. However, they are hydrophobic and it can be difficult to compatibilize their surfaces with other materials or interfaces. This is one reason that additives for polyolefins are used. For example, British company Polymer Interfaces’ series …
For some years now, it has been known that plastic pollution is increasingly collecting in bodies of water (salt and fresh) and elsewhere in our environment. In most locations where they look, scientists find plastic; from car tires wearing down, from agriculture, from our laundry, and just from trash being dumped in bodies of water. …
Earlier this month, a train derailment in Ohio caused a number of chemicals to be released into the environment. Those chemicals included 3 monomers; vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, and ethyl hexyl acrylate that are used to make materials ranging from pipes to adhesives. These monomers (like most vinyl monomers and acrylates) do pose health risks, …
We are excited to spotlight the instructor for EPD 640, Introduction to Polymer Rheology, Dr. Bob Weiss. Dr. Weiss has had a long career as a polymer physicist and rheologist and as an educator. After starting professional life as a chemical engineer working at ExxonMobil, Dr. Weiss decided to move back to academia. He has …
Many of us have become accustomed to seeing newspaper headlines about the alarming presence of microplastics – small particles of plastic with a dimension less than 100 microns – in our environment. First microplastics were being reported in the water, fresh and salt, then soil, then even in the rain and snow. Microplastics (or more …
This fall, MEPE launched its updated curriculum, which includes two new core courses EPD 640 Introduction to Polymer Rheology and EPD 650 Introduction to Polymer Processing. For both of these courses we have brought in prominent experts in these areas as instructors. One of the benefits in having an online degree is that not only …