SPE recognizes winners of ACCE and Rehkopf scholarships

The organizing committee for the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE, Bethel, CT, US) Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (ACCE) at the SPE ACCE conference (Novi, MI, US) on Sept. 5-7 recognized the winners of the group’s annual SPE ACCE scholarships sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (Lansing, MI, US) and the Dr. Jackie Rehkopf scholarship from an endowed fund that has been set up to honor the long-time SPE ACCE committee member, SPE Automotive Division board member, and automotive composites researcher.

ACCE scholarship winners are required to present the results of their research at the next year’s SPE ACCE event, Sept. 4-6, 2019.  Rehkopf scholarship winners are required to either present the results of their research at next year’s SPE ACCE or publish them in an SPE journal.  Both scholarships are administered as part of the SPE Foundation (Bethel, CT, US). 

The Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) is sponsoring a total of $8,000 USD in scholarships, for four awards for students pursuing advanced studies in a composites-related field. “We’re proud to support the ACCE program held in Michigan annually, helping to grow the automotive sector and advancing lightweighting with composites technology, bringing 900 attendees from five continents and 15 countries seeing Michigan as a leading resource for engineering talent and development,” says Eric Shreffler, MEDC Managing Director, Automotive Office. 

The four winners of the SPE ACCE scholarships ($2,000 USD each) are Mr. Preetam Giri, a PhD student at Michigan State University, (Lansing, MI, US), Mr. Eric Schmid, a PhD candidate at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) supported by the Composites and Polymer Engineering (CAPE) Lab (Rapid City, SD, US), Mr. Zhaogui Wang, a PhD student at Baylor University, (Waco, TX, US) and Mr. Daniel Pulipati, a MSc graduate and PhD candidate also from Baylor University. 

The winner of the Rehkopf Scholarship is Ms. Barbara DeButts, a PhD candidate in Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (commonly known as Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, US).