History of the USAMI

The USAMI is a virtual institute that was crated in 2003 with sponsorship from the Division of Materials Research of the National Science Foundation. Since then we have organized over 40 visits by African materials researchers to work with their counterparts in the U.S. We have also sponsored visits by U.S. researchers and students to work with their counterparts in Africa, and also attend workshops or conferences in Africa.

So far the USAMI has helped with the organization of U.S./Africa workshops in Arlington, VA and Princeton, NJ, MRS meetings in Johannesburg, Dar-es-Salaam, Monastir, Marrakech, Akure, and Safaga. We have also assisted with the creation of the African MRS chapters in Northern, Eastern, and Western Africa. These workshops have helped to promote the African Materials Network which is now an independent self-sustaining network.

USAMI researchers have done work in the following areas:

  • Metallic thin films/MEMS structures and organic electronics (MEMS, microelectronics, alternative energy)
  • Biomaterials (BioMEMS, nanobiomaterials, cell/surface interactions and adhesion)
  • Materials for affordable housing (natural fiber-reinforced materials, earth-based materials, passive solar approaches)
  • Thermostructural materials (refractories, cellular materials, water filters, structural materials)

Our objective is to do research that can lead to new discoveries that can provide global solutions to the problems of energy, health, housing, water, and affordable materials processing from recycled products and industrial or agricultural wastes.

USAMI has produced web-learning courses in 10 key areas of materials and Design:

  • Introduction to materials science and engineering
  • Materials selection and design
  • Engineering design
  • Structural materials
  • Theory of alloys
  • Introduction to bioengineering and biomedical devices
  • Advanced composite materials
  • Fatigue and fracture
  • Lab techniques in materials science
  • Advanced solid mechanics

Beyond the web-learning courses we have also organized educational workshops in Cape Town, South Africa and Princeton to promote education in materials at all levels. At the K-12 level, we have co-organized summer institutes and academic year programs for minority students in the Princeton area. We have also organized summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs at Princeton as well as in Africa. These are activities that have engaged a diverse group of U.S. students to work on exciting topics in materials whilst developing an informed international perspective.

At the graduate level some of our students have graduated and gone on to become Assistant Professors at Rice University (Jun Lou) and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (Kaustubh Bhalerao). We have also supported African Ph.D. students that received their Ph.D. degrees from Makerere University (Sam Obwoya), Cheikh Anta Diop University (Magatte Diagne) and the Obaferni Awolowo University (Grace Oparinde). Finally one of our post-docs (Jikou Zhou) has gone on to a position at National Labs and other universities.