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ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES • MAY 2014 61
HIGHLIGHTS... Profile of a Volunteer ASM
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future, their city offers healthy beachfront living. Cities were
judged on the students’ vision of what kinds of advanced ma-
terials would be used, as well as the variety and use of mate-
rials in their models.
Hartford’s Students Shine
The winning team, shown accepting the award from James
Boileau (back row) of the ASM Detroit Chapter includes (left to
right): Quiana Long-McCrory (mentor), Adriana Ayala, Adan
Tostado, Nadia Zavala, and Linda Keteyian (teacher).
Congratulations to Priest Elementary/Middle School!
Chapter Volunteer Honor Roll Nominations
The ASMVolunteerismCommittee is
looking for your chapter champion
volunteers. The Chapter Volunteer
Honor Roll will recognize chapter
volunteers whose performance is
considered exemplary to the suc-
cess of ASM. We invite all chapters to
nominate one volunteer from their
Chapter for the Honor Roll. Chapter Executive
Committees should select a member who is currently serving the
chapter as a volunteer in an ongoing capacity. These names will
appear in an “ASM Volunteer Honor Roll” article in this section
of the August issue and each volunteer will receive an ASMMVP
tie or scarf in recognition of their contributions.
Please submit your volunteer’s name by June 15 by visiting
. The nomination form link can be
found on the About Local Chapters page. This is a unique way
to celebrate your most valued volunteers. We look forward to
your submissions.
Three students presented their research on April 8 during the
ASM Hartford Chapter’s Student Night. Shown, from left, are
Mauricio Andres Gordillo, Rainer Hebert (vice chair), Chechen C.
Wang (who gave the first-place talk “Accelerating Materials
Property Predictions Using Machine Learning”), and Zheng Ren.
Alpha Sigma Mu, CT Alpha Chapter 2014 Inductees were also
recognized during the ASM Hartford Chapter’s Student Night.
From left to right: Harold Brody (Chapter advisor), Jordan Parley,
Pamela Dyer, Alexandra Merkouriou, Alexander Reardon, Ben-
jamin Bedard, Shannon Gagne, and Timothy James. Not shown
is Douglas Hendrix.
VOLUNTEERISM COMMITTEE
Profile of a Volunteer
Steven Ashlock
Ceramic Engineering Senior
Missouri University of Science
& Technology
One minute can change a life. That’s
what happened to Steven Ashlock his
first day on the campus at Missouri Uni-
versity of Science and Technology. “I enjoyed chemistry in
high school and thought I wanted to be a chemical engineer,”
Ashlock recalls. But he spoke with a professor in Ceramic
Engineering and changed his major that day. “I like working
more with my hands in the lab—seeing what you can pull
out of the earth and making it useful.”
Now a senior, Ashlock is giving his own time to “change
a life.” He is president of the Keramos ceramic engineering
society, a delegate for MS&T, and vice president of his uni-
versity’s ASMMaterial Advantage Chapter. “Older students
helped me with homework and introduced me to profes-
sors,” he explains. “Now I want to be a mentor to younger
students.” He regularly gives demos to high school students
and promotes STEM education. “Getting them excited
about science is very rewarding,” says Ashlock. He’s pleased
to say that several students joined the Ceramics Depart-
ment after these visits.
Ashlock finds ASM helpful in a changing industry and
says, “I love keeping up on newer technologies and using the
journals for help with papers.” He also learned collaboration
and leadership skills in the student professional societies.
“Being involved helped me come out of my shell and pre-
pared me as a future leader in the industry. It makes me a
better engineer—because that’s the ultimate goal.”
As he prepares to join the workforce, Ashlock plans to stay
involved in ASM and serve as a contact for MS&T students.
“It doesn’t take that long to volunteer or even just talk about
ASM in daily life. You may mention something that inspires
someone to say ‘I want to do that for a living.’ Never under-
estimate the power of your words.”