Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program

The Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP) is the consortium program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Its aim is to increase the number of Science, Technology, Education, and Math (STEM) students involved in the state of the art research that is aligned with the broad interests of the Department of Energy and to build a sustainable skilled workforce pipeline from HBCUs to meet the future DOE needs. This program brings excellent opportunities for HBCU students and faculty for working alongside the DOE personnel and for bringing together the existing resources at the HBCUs and DOE sites. Members of this consortium program led by North Carolina A&T State University include Alabama A&M University, Clark Atlanta University, Hampton University, Howard University, Lincoln University, Southern University of New Orleans, University of the District of Columbia, as well as the following DOE sites: NSC/Kansas City Plant, Y-12 Lab, and Oak Ridge National Lab.

The central topic of this consortium program is the applied research, education, and outreach in the field of Advanced Manufacturing and, particularly, the topics of Additive Manufacturing (AM). The AM (also known as 3D Printing) is the advanced manufacturing technology where the digital model of the component is used to produce an actual part by building up and depositing the material layer by layer and the recent advances in the AM techniques allow for a wider application of this technology nowadays.

Undergraduate students who participate in this program at Hampton get the opportunity to work with the faculty and learn basics of the AM technology and participate in the practical research conducting numerical modeling, simulation, and analysis of the AM components using the software available at Hampton. Students also get the opportunity to participate in other consortium programs such as the summer exchange program as well as summer internships at the DOE sites which can lead to future full-time employment prospects.

Some of the research topics of this program include:

1. Thermal and mechanical effects such as stresses and deformations are being studied using ANSYS modeling and simulation software package for parts produced by additive manufacturing;
2. Integrity of additively manufactured parts are assessed by non-destructive testing methods. Such parts may have different kinds of flaws compared to parts manufactured by conventional methods - porosity, lack of fusion, and micro-cracks are some of the issues; in addition, the surface is very rough and poses problems in employing conventional approaches to test them non-destructively. We develop techniques to overcome some of these issues;
3. Additively manufactured parts sometimes are heat-treated to improve their properties. One of the current efforts is to develop a technique to monitor the degree of ageing during the heat-treatment of aluminum 7075 alloys. To monitor the level of the heat-treatment and the microstructural changes, a non-contact type of instrumentation is being developed.

For more information or with any questions about this program, please contact Dr. Adeyinka Adeyiga at (757) 727-5289 or by email at adeyinka.adeyiga@hamptonu.edu.