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Institute for Materials and Advanced Processes

I     M     A     P

The role of IMAP is to solicit, advocate, integrate, facilitate and disseminate programs in advanced materials and processes across the UI campus. Funding from external sources is a vital part of this process, with current support coming from a major grant from the State of Idaho, the U.S. DoE and NASA. The members of IMAP can come from any department or discipline; current members are from metallurgy and mining, engineering, geology, chemistry and physics.

The strong support from the State of Idaho, in the form of a three year research grant from the State Board of Education, is being directed to the area of nanostructured materials (1nm = 10 ^-9m). Although initial efforts are scientific in nature, the program goals are to develop "scaleable" processes for the production of materials with superior properties leading to commercialization.

The timing for such an institute is right -- not only to reach national goals -- but also industrial, regional and university goals. IMAP will infuse new technology into established and newly developing industry, strengthening the technological and economic base of the Northwest. The University, in turn, will benefit from its enhanced role in state and regional economic enterprises and from the enhanced educational environment.

EDUCATION

Education is a major part of IMAP's activities, and as our program is growing. We are introducing undergraduates into our activities as the graduate/research students of future years. Also, seminars and personnel exchanges with cooperating organizations are planned, as well as a Technology Advisory Broad consisting of high level managers from regional, national and international organizations.

 

IMAP's charter is broad, and expertise will be drawn under its umbrella as appropriate. Current and pending interactions of IMAP personnel include joint work with the Idaho National Engineering Laboratories (INEL); Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL); Pacific Northwest Industries such as Boeing (Seattle, WA) and Oremet (Albany, OR); US organizations such as Industrial Materials Technology (Andover, MA), Crucible Steel (Pittsburgh, PA) and Alcoa (Pittsburgh, PA). IMAP has international contacts in Russia, South Africa, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Beralus, England, Portugal, South Korea, Israel, Singapore, Thailand, China, France, Turkey, Spain, Ukraine, Venezuela, Italy and India. Technology transfer is a pervasive IMAP theme and we maintain close interaction with the Idaho Research Foundation.