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Our relationships with industry and national laboratories are at the heart of the MRL Technology Outreach Program. The overarching goals of the Program are to develop real and sustainable links to industry and national laboratories to help us guide research and identify new emerging areas of interest. These collaborations have, and will continue to significantly impact both the research and educational mission of the MRL. A range of initiatives are planned that include; (i) establishing joint research programs and exchanges to enhance the research experience of our students and and post-docs, (ii) facilitate industrial interactions through use of the MRL facilities, (iii) stimulate interactions with industry and national labs that promote MRL/UCSB activities and capabilities in the broadest sense, and (iv) enhance unrestricted financial support of MRL research programs and the establish graduate fellowships. Highlights of these activities include: Materials Research Outreach Program (MROP) This annual 3-day program is held in late January to showcase the materials research capabilities of UCSB.
The MROP has evolved from a polymer-focused program to a broad materials-themed event over the past 6 years,
and features a combination of “latest and greatest” research presentations by UCSB senior students, post-docs,
and faculty as well as featured guest speakers from Industry and National Laboratories.
Highllights of MROP 2008
 Photos include acceptance by Dr. Anthony Cheetham of the first annual Cheetham Lecturer Award recognizing his outstanding contributions to the study of inorganic materials.
Industrial Outreach Program We actively seek unrestricted gift support from industry and national labs to leverage the NSF funding of the IRG and Seed projects and to collaboratively bring this cutting-edge research to the marketplace. The high profile of the MRL and the excellence of the research programs combined with the annual MROP event and other technology outreach efforts, have proved extremely successful. This impact has also led to the establishment of the Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advance Materials (MC-CAM) at UCSB and the Complex Fluids Design Consortium (CFDC) which is described below. Complex Fluids Design Consortium (CFDC) The CFDC is a recent MRL initiative to create an academic-industry-national laboratory partnership aimed at developing computational tools for designing soft materials and complex fluid formulations. The tools are based on the field-theoretic models and computer simulation techniques developed by Associate Director, Glenn Fredrickson, who also serves as Director of CFDC. An annual meeting of the CFDC is held in conjunction with our Materials Research Outreach Program. The CDFC 2007 Annual Review and Workshop was held on January 23. |
