May 2022 Newsletter
Greetings!

Today marks my first day as the director of our AMIC community and research services engagement manager at the Corporate Relations Office in the College of Engineering (CoE) at UW-Madison. I am really looking forward to leading all the existing and facilitating new interactions with industry partners like you as it relates to research services offered by the CoE.  

I have had broad experience working with scientists, researchers, or external partners throughout my professional journey. After my graduation from CoE at UW-Madison in 2000, I became a process engineer in the semiconductor materials research division of Agilent Technologies based in Silicon Valley. Collaborating with R&D scientists, I designed and built a data warehouse to store wafer test data for scientists to improve the semiconductor materials growth yield and process optimization. Upon returning to Wisconsin in 2006, I continued to work with researchers in the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene where I built electronic reporting systems and conducted data analysis for environmental and clinical research projects.  

It was at the Wisconsin School of Business (WSB) that I began to fully grasp the importance of external relations to the University. They are critical to research collaborations, student placements, and the Wisconsin Idea as a whole!

I have coordinated a team of five IT developers to build a CRM system that meets WSB's Leads & Admissions as well as External Relations needs. I also managed WSB's professional MBA redesign initiative so that the hybrid curriculum can attract more busy professionals to WSB, making its educational resources more accessible to people in Wisconsin and beyond. I am grateful for my experiences at WSB. There I was able to recruit industry sponsors, build student consultant teams, and mentor students as they worked side-by-side with industry partners on real-world projects.  

My new role in CoE brings me back to my home discipline in engineering and provides an opportunity to engage with industry partners, and to make CoE's research resources more accessible to you all. I look forward to learning from you and leveraging various skills acquired through my professional journey to serve you in the years to come! 
Thank you, and On, Wisconsin!  

Sincerely,

Jane


Xiujuan Jane Zhang
Director, Advanced Materials Industrial Consortium
University of Wisconsin–Madison 
2022 AMIC Annual Meeting
The 2022 AMIC Annual Meeting took place on the UW-Madison Campus on April 1st. Attendees represented a range of different perspectives and included people from area companies as well as university faculty, staff, students, and postdocs.

Attendees were treated to presentations on various topics including a keynote from Panther Program Director, Christian Franck who spoke about traumatic brain injury prevention research through the UW’s PANTHER program. Other ongoing research was highlighted at the afternoon poster session.

The AMIC Annual Meeting brings together industry and academic researchers, students, and experts in the materials science field. Attendees get to learn about the synergy of combined resources from the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), Advanced Materials Industrial Consortium (AMIC) and the Wisconsin Centers for Nanoscale Technology (WCNT).
Seed Project
AMIC Sponsored Research Project Furthers Understanding of a New Material as a Replacement for Oil-Based Plastics
Understanding how the crystal structure of a new polymer material affects its usefulness as a replacement for a common oil-based plastic was the focus of a research project recently completed by a University of Wisconsin–Madison team.

“We have developed a method using transmission x-ray diffraction experiment and precise data analysis to study the crystalline structure of PET and PEF films,” said Rui Liu, a postdoc in Paul Evans’s lab in the UW Materials Science and Engineering Department who managed the project. Liu is referring to the polymers PET poly(ethylene terpthalate) and PEF poly(ethylene-2,5-furanoate), which are, respectively, a widely used packaging material made from oil and a promising replacement.
2022 AMIC Board Meeting
Following the Annual Meeting on April 1, members of the AMIC Industrial Advisory Board met for the Annual Board Meeting. Incoming Director, Xiujuan Jane Zhang facilitated the discussion, which largely focused on gauging AMIC members’ interest in various AMIC activities and services.

Key Feedback and Outcomes

About the AMIC Annual Meeting:

  • Speed-networking activities with students are valuable, and companies would like to speak about their hiring needs to a larger group of students
  • Future meeting themes should reflect industry trends
  • Holding the meeting during the semester to attract more students to the event will be explored

About WCNT Facilities and the Facilities Days Open House:

  • Currently, there are not enough WCNT facilities staff to perform fee-for-services tasks for companies
  • Experiential learning credit opportunities for graduate students will be explored as a way to encourage students conducting work for companies
  • Other ways to attract students/postdocs to these sorts of projects will also be explored

About Industry-University Collaboration:

  • The student-led Seed Projects are a great opportunity with two projects completed in 2021.
  • Recently completed Seed projects provided an opportunity to learn areas where students can be prepped to step into that consulting role
  • Opportunities for AMIC member companies to interact on campus are valuable and may include:
  • Invited guest classroom speaker
  • Company site visits

About AMIC Communications

  • Email Newsletters will continue but will be increased to monthly 
  • New LinkedIn group created for AMIC
AMIC Member Advantages
  • Reduced rates at Wisconsin Centers for Nanoscale Technology (WCNT)
  • Increased visibility on campus
  • Targeted student recruitment
  • Direct contact with faculty and staff
  • Access to cutting-edge research
  • Annual meetings and facility events
  • Facilitated engagement with UW–Madison
  • Hosted campus visits
  • Student and postdoc research projects
  • Sponsored research
  • Industrial Fellow program