UD-CCM wins 2024 SAMPE Organizational Excellence Award

The University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials (UD-CCM) has been named the winner of the 2024 SAMPE North America Organizational Excellence Award.

Building a Bright Future: Introducing Our New Leadership

Prof. Srikanth Pilla named next Director of the University of Delaware, Center for Composite Materials
University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials is pleased to announce Srikanth Pilla, Ph.D., as the next Director beginning August 1, 2023.

Prof. Pilla follows Prof. John W. Gillespie, Jr., who has led the center for 30 years. Under Prof. Gillespie’s leadership, UD-CCM has become arguably the nation’s top center of its kind. He has been an outstanding mentor to countless faculty, students, and researchers.

Prof. Pilla is one of the world’s leading experts in advanced lightweighting and sustainable composites. His current research is focused on engineering advanced, multifunctional structural polymers and foams for various applications, including in the automotive, aerospace, defense, and specialty component industries.

Before joining UD-CCM, Prof. Pilla held the ExxonMobil Employees Endowed Chair at Clemson University Dept of Automotive Engineering and was the founding director of the Clemson Composite Center. He has also held positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, SC Johnson and Son Inc., and SuGanit Bio-renewables Inc.

Srikanth’s research is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, US Department of Agriculture, NASA, and several automotive OEMs and suppliers. He is the associate editor of the SAE International Journal of Materials and Manufacturing series and editor of Polymer Science and Plastics Engineering at Wiley-Scrivener. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Renewable Materials. In addition to serving as the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials Director, Prof. Pilla will hold a primary faculty appointment with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and joint appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

TuFF Talk By Tierney

John Tierney, Ph.D., lead scientist on TuFF Technology speaks to WDEL Radio.
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Diastron Synthetic Fiber Case Study – University of Delaware

The University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials (UD-CCM), founded in 1974, has been internationally recognized as a center of excellence for interdisciplinary research, education and technology transfer in the science and engineering of composites. Utilizing over $25M in state-of-the-art equipment housed in 52,000 sq. ft. of laboratories, UD-CCM is a leader in university, industry and government partnerships that innovates new materials, synthesis, and characterization methods, processes, and automated manufacturing methods, including design and prototype development using modelling and simulation software tools. Read More

internal Wound Rapid Automated Placement (iWRAP) system, delivers and places new high stiffness-strength composite multilayer feedstock inside existing legacy pipeline.

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A Composite Legacy

A founder of CCM in 1974, Prof. Tsu-Wei Chou’s pioneering approach of coupling mechanics with materials has played a key role in the advancement of composite materials in the last half century.

Congratulations Prof. Chou on receiving ASME’s highest honor. Read More

UD-CCM & NASA’s IMAGINAVIATION

Learn how TuFF technology is inspiring, invigorating, and impacting the aviation community.

TuFF Material Q&A Session with Taka Kubota & Steve Crimaldi at NASA’s IMAGINAVIATION.

Great things happening in Automated Composite Manufacturing at the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials! Check out our video on integrated ATP machine for automatic placement of dry, thermoset and thermoplastic tape.