UTARI has welcomed students, Sharmin Akter and Monjur Morshed Rabby, as research assistants under the “Dr. Robert E. Schafrik Endowment for Materials Engineering Research”. The research assistants will be working with UTARI’s Institute for Predictive Performance Methodologies (IPPM).
Akter will focus research on structural battery. Rabby’s research will focus on recycling or repurposing of fiber-reinforced composite waste.
In 2019, Mary Schafrik, the wife of the late Dr. Robert Schafrik, established an endowment at UTARI to support student research in areas of advanced materials. Dr. Scharik, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, was a world expert in materials and manufacturing. He was also the Presidential Distinguished Professor of Industrial, Systems and Manufacturing Engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington.