At the UTRGV Edinburg campus, a dedicated laboratory facility for 3D printing, polymer engineering, materials engineering, manufacturing processes, and machine shop are available for this project (>17,000 sq ft. are available for UTRGV junior faculty in Material Science and Engineering (MSE)). This space is distributed between nine main laboratories (assigned to Engineering Centers and faculty participants). The space is equipped with anechoic chambers, freezers, large fume hoods, and glove boxes. Newly allocated space to the PhD program includes three more labs and a large room where PhD students will have their workstations, as the program is highly interdisciplinary, students will convene in this doctoral student office space near the High-Bay area where most MSE labs are housed.
Major Equipment:
The UTRGV materials science and engineering laboratories are currently equipped with:
• FTIR, XRD, XPS, UV-Vis, mass, and Raman and photoluminescence spectrometers
• Surface area and porosimetry analyzer (BET)
• Polymer processing systems
• Thermal analysis suite (DMA, TMA, DEA, DSC, TGA)
• Electrical conductivity testers
• EMI shielding effectiveness testers
• Nanofiber making systems (electrospinning, Forcespinning®, wet chemistry set up)
• FE-ESEM with nano manipulator, EDAX, and optical and confocal microscopes
• Mechanical testing apparatus and newly NSF MRI funded TEM
• Photonic lab equipped with a variety of laser/light sources, optical tables, and spectrum analyzers
• Atomic force microscopes
• Stereolithography units,
• Battery testing facility equipped with a DC probe station and an RF probe station
• Field Assisted Sintering Technique (FAST)
• Solar simulator
• Multi-functional instrument Cryogen-free Cryocooler-based Physical Property Measurement System
EverCool–II
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer
• Ultrasound homogenizer
• Spark plasma sintering
• Hydrothermal rectors
• Oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, oscillators, and impedance analyzer systems
• Real-time PCR, thermal PCR cycler, SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis, and immunoblotting equipment,
• RNA/DNA electrophoresis equipment, pH meters, balances, freezers, table-top centrifuges,
• microplate reader, table-top shaking incubator, Leica microtome machine
• Motion analysis Vicon MX, force plates AMTI-OR6, and EMG Delsys Trigno 8-channel
• Wireless Electromyography (EMG)/Accelerometer System to record muscular activity