PhD Candidate Maruf Billah, a member of Associate Professor Pinar Acar’s research team, has won a best paper award at the AIAA Science and Technology Forum (AIAA SciTech 2025). The award was presented at the Hyatt Regency Orlando on January 10, 2025.

The paper, “Design of Functionally Graded Inconel 718 Alloy Structures by Developing Material Property Closures,”  was given the top honor for a student paper in the area of structures. Their study included research into the microstructure of a nickel-based superalloy. Proposed designs with optimized microstructures demonstrated significant improvements, including greater mechanical stability compared to other configurations. The findings also revealed that functionally-graded materials (FGMs) can achieve comparable performance by strategically varying material properties.

“In this paper, we introduce a novel strategy for materials design," said Acar. "We developed the 'material property closure approach' to map the full operating envelope of metallic alloys, identifying all possible combinations of their mechanical properties through microstructure design. Furthermore, we adapted this approach for designing FGMs, demonstrating its versatility and significant potential for aerospace applications."

The AIAA award is given following evaluation of both the full paper and the student's presentation at the conference, with the best of both factors determining the top honor.