SAMPE Journal - January/February 2017 - 18

Europe News
Gary Turner
European Section Editor
gt@ttrc.de

Unfinished Business: Full report on the 31st SAMPE Europe Students Seminar 2016

As indicated in the last Journal issue, here is the "rest of the story" including brief background and history of SAMPE
Europe's student seminars. Some thirty years ago, they were initiated by Fokker's Robert Schliekelman in 1986.
They were meant to introduce European M&P science or engineering students to SAMPE, with an eye to eventual
membership, while creating the nucleus of a future M&P network in Europe. This included an annual European-wide
competition, preceded by individual national competitions in each country. Winners receive a SAMPE Students Grant
providing each recipient with travel expenses, board and lodging as well as participation fee for the international
SAMPE Europe Conference.
Beginning on Sunday, 11 September, student national SAMPE chapter contest winners from across Europe (plus one
from the USA) gathered in Liege, Belgium, the weekend prior to SAMPE Conference 16. These MSc and PhD students
are selected for their excellence in the M&P field. Sunday evening they met at the Hotel Husa de la Couronne, followed
by a welcome dinner in the restaurant "Brasserie Liégeoise".
Student paper presentations began on Monday morning and continued throughout the day. Lunch was followed by
an industry overview presentation by SAMPE Technical Director Scott Beckwith on markets and applications. Tuesday
morning continued the competitive presentations, with a review of student posters after lunch. This was followed by
a visit to the Centre Spatial de Liege, and the SAMPE Europe Conference welcome reception at the Palais des Congres
conference venue. Organizing Committee and Judges for the student competition were Adrie Kwakernaak, Christian
Weimer, Jim Johnson, Scott Beckwith and
Philippe Briant.
Wednesday morning the students built up
their poster display near the exhibits area,
prior to the official conference opening,
then joined the regular conference activities
Wednesday and Thursday. At the conference
gala dinner Wednesday evening, Adrie
Kwakernakk and Philippe Briant made official
announcements of the two proud student
competition winners of the Schliekelmann
Award. They were Erik Kraemer from the
University of Twente - Netherlands, and
Sarianna Palola from the Tampere University of Technology - Finland. Erik will participate in the Student Leader
Experience during SAMPE Seattle 2017 (22-25 May), while Sarianna will take part in the 2017 SAMPE University
Research Symposium during CAMX, in Orlando Florida, 10-14 September 2017.
Notably, SAMPE Europe represents more than 1,500 advanced materials professionals and students throughout the
entire European region. On 13 March, the next SAMPE Summit will be held in Paris. The next SAMPE Europe fall
conference - in the same format as Liege - will be on 14 - 16 November in Stuttgart, Germany. Here the focus will be in
particular on the automotive sector, with excursions planned to car manufacturing plants such as Audi and Porsche.

Attention please:
The SAMPE UK & Ireland Chapter will hold its annual seminar on 23 February, 2017, at Cranfield University.
Topic is Maximizing Composite Value by Innovation.

SAMPE Journal, Volume 53, No. 1, January/February 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAMPE Journal - January/February 2017