October 29, 2009 - Vol. 6 Num. 17 Wichita delivers for SAMPE Fall Technical Conference The Fall Technical Conference and Exhibition for the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) was a historic success, drawing 1,372 attendees to a sold-out exhibit hall and an unparalleled conference program. The record fall-conference turnout last week at the Century II Convention Center in Wichita far-exceeded turnout projections for the conference and exhibition.   The conference included six panels, two keynote lectures and 175 paper presentations in 41 sessions.   The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University (WSU) was a key player in the event, providing personnel including three conference chairs, three session chairs and a dozen volunteers. NIAR also offered a Thursday afternoon tour of its facilities and joined more than 100 material suppliers, machinery and equipment vendors, part fabricators, and engineering and consulting firms in sponsoring a booth at the exhibition, along with material suppliers, machinery and equipment vendors, part fabricators, and engineering and consulting firms. NIAR/WSU participants included researcher/professor Melanie Violette, NCAMP associate director Yeow Ng and NIAR marketing manager Tracee Friess as conference chairs; NIAR research engineers Waruna Seneviratne and Yulia Kostogorova-Beller and NCAMP statistician Elizabeth Clarkson as session chairs and presenters; researcher/professor Suresh K. Raju as a panelist and presenter; graduate research assistant Juan Acosta as a presenter; and NIAR communication coordinator Laura Rhoades, research engineers Michelle Man and Andrea Meyer and NIAR/NCAMP student assistants Diego Diaz Puentes, Alfredo Gimenez, Darko Komadina, Troy Lake, Wes Lambert, Pratap Nandakumar, Francis Nguyen, Jorge Santos-Pinzon, Justin Sula and James Winkel as session volunteers. SAMPE's attendees included engineers, scientists, technologists, educators and students from throughout the materials and processes industry. The National Institute for Aviation Research is a prestigious state-of-the-art aerospace research and development laboratory with global reach and expertise in research, design, testing, and certification. The Institute’s clientele includes many of the world’s aerospace manufacturers, NASA and the FAA. It is the largest aviation R&D academic institution in America.  The National Institute for Aviation Research is an unincorporated division of Wichita State University.