Contact: Guillermo Ramirez KU School of Engineering, (785) 864-2948; willy@ku.edu
LAWRENCE - Guillermo Ramirez, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Kansas, has received National Science Foundation funding to support his research in composite materials and development of learning tools that students will use to perform virtual tests of structures.
For the next four years, Ramirez will receive $50,000 annually as part of NSF's Faculty Early Career Development Program. The program supports junior faculty who show promise in research and education.
Ramirez will use the funds to research the use of composite materials in civil structures. His main research goal is to increase the understanding of how pressurized composite materials respond under impact loading. Ramirez is working with Richard Hale, KU assistant professor of aerospace engineering, to build a stronger program in composites at KU.
While the initial cost of anything made with composite materials is relatively high, Ramirez says the benefits are in performance and the material's strength-to-weight ratio.
"This results in lighter structures," Ramirez says, "so composites are excellent to use in offshore platforms where their tolerance to environmental damage is greater than that of steel."
For the award's educational component, Ramirez is developing analytical and behavioral tools that students can access through the Internet to look at properties of composite materials and to perform virtural testing of structures.
Ramirez is excited about the KU engineering faculty's enthusiasm for using advanced technology in the classroom.
"The next generation seems to be more able to accept using technology to understand and analyze rather than using written material," Ramirez says. "The thing that was so attractive to me in coming to KU is the large group of new faculty that is aggressive to this type of approach. It's good for students and faculty both."
Ramirez says there is statewide interest in composites, noting that the Kansas Department of Transporation has installed three experimental bridge decks that use composites and is studying their long-term behavior.