National Science Foundation awards grant to VSU's Dr. BarryHojjatie for work in support of Georgia's pulp and paper industry

Valdosta State University's Dr. Barry Hojjatie has received a $12,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to design and construct research equipment to study dimensional instability problems in paper products. Hojjatie, who is the Coordinator of the VSU Pre-engineering program, is collaborating on the project with SoniSys, Inc., an ultrasonic instrumentation company based in Georgia Tech.

"The pulp and paper industry is a very important industry in the state of Georgia and the paper and wood manufacturing work force represents more than ten percent of our state's total manufacturing work force," said Hojjatie. "Based on feed-back from Georgia Tech, VSU has a successful engineering transfer program and undergraduate research activities are highly encouraged in our program."

Hojjatie said the NSF grant provides research training to two VSU pre-engineering students. Under Hojjatie's supervision, these students will study the role of ultrasonic stiffness properties on failure mechanism of paper materials.

"Grants and scholarships of this type will make it possible for us to recruit and retain outstanding pre-engineering students from local high schools and other counties in Georgia, further develop our engineering laboratories, and to better serve Georgia's manufacturing industry," said Hojjatie.