Sweta Baruah, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, won second place at the 3rd annual University of Tennessee Postdoc Research Symposium on March 25.
“It feels fantastic, especially since they were all great presentations based on incredible work the postdocs here at UT are doing,” said Baruah, who conducts research under MAE Associate Professor Bradley Jared.
The annual Postdoc Research Symposium is hosted by the Postdoctoral Association to showcase the significant research contributions postdocs make at UT. Postdocs whose abstracts are accepted have only seven minutes to present their work, making the event double as a public science communication challenge. The presentations are judged on clarity, engagement with the audience, comprehension, and aesthetics.
Baruah presented her research on how to make advanced manufacturing economically competitive. She had created a novel cost-performance benchmarking framework, then implemented it across a series of hybrid manufacturing sequences, which include additive manufacturing, 3D scanning, and post-process machining. Baruah conducted the project as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Hybrid Autonomous Manufacturing, Moving from Evolution to Revolution Engineering Research Center (HAMMER ERC), a research alliance led by The Ohio State University in which UT is a core partner.
“This was a truly interdisciplinary project in terms of the sheer number of processes used, personnel working on various aspects, and institutes involved,” Baruah said. “I am genuinely elated to be a part of it and to have had the opportunity to present it to the broader research community at UT.”
Baruah was the only postdoc from the Tickle College of Engineering to present at this year’s symposium, but Ivonne Vidal Pizarro, the assistant dean for the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, hopes that Baruah’s top placement encourages more postdocs to enter the symposium in years to come.
“It would be a delight to have more postdocs and faculty at these symposia,” Vidal Pizarro said.
Participating in the symposium gives postdocs more than just bragging rights; it increases understanding and cohesion between researchers of multiple fields and academic generations.
“As postdoctoral researchers, we are involved in very different kinds of research, and in most cases, we only get to share this with peers in the same field at conferences and meetings,” Baruah said. “Personally, I loved having the opportunity (through this symposium) to hear about the diverse fields my colleagues from other departments work in. It is a one-of-a-kind opportunity where the entire university postdoctoral community comes together to learn about each other’s work.”
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