Andrea is the first Global Fellow awarded a TraVERSE (Trans-Atlantic Visiting Engineering Research Scholarship Experience) scholarship to further his research for his final project of his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico of Milan in Italy. Arriving at the start of February, before the border closures due to COVID-19, Andrea was planning to stay at Purdue until the end of May. However, with the quickly developing restrictions from the CDC, his research was cut short, and he departed in mid-April.

TraVERSE is a new program from the offices of the Dean and of Graduate Studies, overseen by GEPP. European students who are in the final stages of their Master’s program are invited to apply, and awards are competitive. During his time at Purdue, Andrea worked with Dr. Fabio Semperlotti, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Together with Research Assistant Ting-Wei Liu, they were developing numerical models of SMA engineered composites. Andrea was looking forward to working within Herrick Laboratories when the decision to continue the research remotely was made. Andrea commented, “I was attracted by the reputation of Purdue as a worldwide prestigious university. In addition, the collaboration with project field experts as Professor Fabio Semperlotti stimulated my will to apply for this project.”

Before heading back to Milan, Andrea was able to make some progress on his project. “I started my project consolidating my background on different constitutive models available in literature about Smart Materials Modeling. From that, I focused on the development of such models to generate an analytical damping function, embedding all the different dissipation contributions, trying to characterize in it all the particular SMA features,” he noted. With the quick spread of COVID-19 during the research period, the group had to reconstitute the path that the research would follow. Andrea affirms that the project is still on going, even though he has returned to Milan. Like many others, the project group meets remotely and Andrea is able to continue his work on the numerical part, working most of the time on his laptop. After graduation in October 2020, Andrea will consider the possibility of working either in Italy or abroad.

On his overall experience in West Lafayette, Andrea added, “I really loved being part of such a great community of Boilermakers, even if for a shortened period. I really felt the unity between students and the university. Purdue will always hold a special place in my heart.” Andrea would like to thank “all the kind people I have met throughout my stay—from university personnel to roommates, professors, and other students.”

TraVERSE is an on-going initiative in the College of Engineering, created to incentivize cooperation between Purdue and European students and their home institutions.