An interdisciplinary Drexel team has been recognized by the National Science Foundation as the winners of its 2013 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. Kristy Jost, Babak Anasori, and Dr. Majid Beidaghi, advised by Prof. Genevieve Dion and Prof. Yury Gogotsi, developed the poster entitled “Wearable Power” which depicts research in turning carbon materials into wearable energy storage devices.
“It was a true challenge to visually explain all the details of our work. I am so proud to have taken part in this competition with such a great team,” said Jost, whose entry has won First Place and the “People’s Choice” award in the posters and graphics division of the contest.
“Wearable Power’” not only depicts the necessary science needed to create smart garments, it also points to the numerous challenges designers face in the implementation of such concepts, highlighting the need for multidisciplinary team work,” Said Dion, Director to the Shima Seiki Haute Technology Laboratory
However, neither Jost nor Anasori are new to winning competitions focusing on science, art and communication.
Anasori, advised by Prof. Yury Gogotsi and Prof. Michel Barsoum of the Materials Science and Engineering Department, previously won the “People’s Choice Award” in 2011 for their image “The Cliff of the Two-Dimensional World,” which depicted a colorized scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a MXene material. The American Ceramic Society also awarded Anasori the Roland B. Snow Award for “Best in Show” in 2012 and 2013 for his stunning SEM images. http://ceramics.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/babak_anasori_green-mxene-turtle.pdf
Jost, who attended the prestigious Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting for Chemistry over the summer, previously won the NSF-IGERT Video and Poster competition for her entry “Energy Textiles.” She and her team won awards in all categories, including the Judging Award, the IGERT Community Award, and the Public Choice Award.
The theme of this poster focuses on Jost’s doctoral work, combining diverse backgrounds in fashion design and materials science as part of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, directed by Yury Gogotsi, and the Shima Sieki Haute Technology Laboratory, directed by Genevieve Dion. In the nanomaterials lab, Jost works to design and test supercapacitive yarns. Digital knitting machines in the Shima Seiki Haute Technology Laboratory have allowed Jost to turn her materials research into full fabrics that can store energy. Her previous work has been published in Energy and Environmental Science, (Vol. 4 (2011) p.5060).
“As an engineer my goal is to find the combination of materials that will allow the textile to store the most energy. As a designer, I’d also like the smart garment to be aesthetically pleasing,” Jost said. “The beauty of making my own materials and working in the Haute Tech Lab is that I have the unique ability to see our new yarns made into real wearable devices.”
The combined expertise of design and engineering was a recipe that garnered yet another prestigious award in recognition of ongoing research at Drexel University. A version of the poster “Wearable Power” will be published in the Feb. 7 edition of Science Magazine recognizing the winners of the competition.