33rd UIA Symposium 2003

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The meeting was opened with a welcoming address from UIA President, Ron Manna. The first session on Industrial Processes included EWI’s Dr. Karl Graff continuing work in drawing superconductor wire, followed by presentations on various types of transducers and piezoelectric materials by Dr. De Liufu from Piezotech, George Bromfield of Morgan Electro Ceramics and Dr. Mitch Thompson who currently manages new product development for the Piezo Film group.

During the afternoon session Edgar de Vries of OSU presented his work on ultrasonic metal welding followed by Andrea Cardoni who presented work done in collaboration with Dr. Margaret Lucas of the University of Glasgow on ultrasonic cutting system analyses. Tom Kirkland of Dukane presented a paper on the use of crush foils in piezoelectric transducers and Janet Devine of Sonobond gave an overview of the uses of ultrasonic energy in assembly of plastics and synthetic fabrics. Monday evening gave all attendees the opportunity to mingle and network at a Wine and Cheese reception in the University Center’s Sports Gallery.

Tuesday’s session was led by Dr. Kenneth Suslick of the University of Illinois at Urbana and was devoted to Sonochemistry. Several of Dr Suslick’s graduate students presented fascinating papers on various applications of sonochemistry.

The graduate student award was presented to Gustavo Gonzalez for his entry on the use of ultrasonic energy in tenderizing beef. Gustavo, who received his PhD from Iowa State University in August, presented his paper after our business luncheon. Dr. Mark Schafer, UIA Treasurer and Board Member presented Dr. Gonzalez a plaque and a check for $1,500 from the UIA.

At the business luncheon, our incumbent President, Ron Manna was unanimously re-elected for another year.

Tuesday afternoon we were privileged to tour the Image Science Center of the University Department of Radiology. This is a brand new and very impressive facility with some equipment still in the process of being unpacked.. A second tour of Piezotech Inc’s facilities was organized by UIA Board Member and Membership Committee Chair Adam Morris of Piezotech,and we all enjoyed the tour of a modern ceramics facility and the hospitality of the staff at Piezotech. Naren Sanghvi invited our group to visit Focus Surgery Inc., which we did enthusiastically. Focus Surgery Inc. designs and manufactures high intensity focused ultrasound surgical devices. Naren personally showed us the equipment he is using (much of it from Misonix) and shared his findings in the treatment of prostatesurgery using HIFU. Many thanks to all who helped to orchestrate and organize these great tours.

Wednesday was a half-day session on Medical Uses of Ultrasound chaired by Naren Sangvhi and Mike Phillips. Our distinguished speakers included Dr. Leon Frizzel, a professor of Electrical, Computer and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois, Dr. Larry Crum, Director of the Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound at the University of Washington, our own Ron Manna, Vice President of Misonix, and Naren Sanghvi of Focus Surgery.

The UIA appreciates the work done by our President, Ron Manna, Symposium co-chairs Janet Devine and Ron Staut, Session Chairs Jeff Frantz, Tom Kirkland, Dr. Kenneth Suslick, Dr Mark Schafer, Naren Sangvhi, and Mike Phillips and all our presenters for making this a memorable meeting.

Our thanks also to the many students who submitted papers for the Graduate Student Award and our congratulations to Dr. Gustavo Gonzalez, the award winner.

The UIA recognizes the contribution of our sponsors including, APC International, Branson Ultrasonics Corp., Dukane Intelligent Assembly Solutions, Misonix Inc., Piezo Technologies, Sonobond Ultrasonics and Zevex Inc.

-- Janet Devine, Symposium Co-Chair