Graduate Student Justus Ndukaife received the Best Poster Award at the ASME 2015 IMECE Conference student poster competition, which was held in Houston on November 17, 2015. His poster was titled "Hybrid Electroplasmonic Nanotweezer: Shaping the Future of Nanomanipulation". His work has been done in collaboration with Professor Steve Wereley of Purdue. The award comes with a certificate and a cash prize of $500.

ASME's International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) is the largest interdisciplinary mechanical engineering conference in the world. IMECE plays a significant role in stimulating innovation from basic discovery to translational application. It fosters new collaborations that engage stakeholders and partners not only from academia, but also from national laboratories, industry, research settings, and funding bodies. Among the 4,000 attendees from 75+ countries are mechanical engineers in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, advanced energy, fluids engineering, heat transfer, design engineering, materials and energy recovery, applied mechanics, power, rail transportation, nanotechnology, bioengineering, internal combustion engines, environmental engineering, and more.

Justus is co-advised by Professor George Nnanna of Purdue University-Calumet and ECE Professor Alexandra Boltasseva.