As the Bulldogs prepare to take on the Ragin’ Cajuns in Joe Aillet Stadium Saturday, researchers from Louisiana Tech University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette are collaborating off the field on projects ranging from energy assessments to assisting on future NASA missions.
While both teams will meet as Sun Belt Conference opponents for the first time in years, their prospective researchers have well-established partnerships that combine expertise to address global challenges.
“I am thrilled to see the steady expansion of research collaborations between Louisiana Tech and our Sun Belt rival,” Dr. Ramu Ramachandran, Louisiana Tech interim VP for research, said. “These collaborations have resulted in funded projects in the areas of energy, materials, and advanced manufacturing. Other collaborations between us are rapidly maturing and will soon successfully compete for external funding.”
One partnership is the Louisiana Materials Design Alliance (LAMDA), a National Science Foundation-funded project directed by the Louisiana Board of Regents. With the partnership also including LSU and Southern University, the vision for LAMDA is to develop a design framework for new complex concentrated alloys and thermoset shape memory polymers for additive manufacturing.
This project uses a machine-learning-guided approach to navigate expansive compositional spaces and identifies materials that meet specific design goals.
"LAMDA was not our first collaboration with UL Lafayette, nor by any means will it be our last,” said Arden Moore, associate professor of mechanical engineering and associate dean of research for the College of Engineering and Science. “Through this $20 million-dollar multi-year project, we were able to work with our counterparts to do some outstanding and impactful science that will continue to pay dividends for Louisiana and the nation. The connections between our researchers and theirs have grown significantly through this work, and it is a great strength to have such collaborators just a phone call or text away when a new idea or opportunity strikes."
Through another partnership with the MALT Industrial Training and Assessment Center (MALT-ITAC), funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Louisiana Tech and UL Lafayette are provided no-cost, on-site energy assessments with recommendations for energy and water savings, wastewater treatment and management, cybersecurity, resiliency planning, decarbonization, and more.
MALT-ITAC also provides undergraduate and graduate students with hands-on experience and professional training using energy assessment tools, technology, and techniques.
“I am extremely grateful for the generous time and attention of researchers like Dr. Solomon Yin and Dr. Jim Lee at UL Lafayette for sharing their expertise and rolling up their sleeves for the heavy lifting required to sustain the operations of the MALT Industrial Assessment Center,” said Dr. Henry Cardenas, professor of mechanical engineering and director of MALT-ITAC.
Extending far beyond the gridiron and into space, researchers are partnering with NASA.
The grant, “Development of Solid-State Electrolyte for Safe and Ultra-High Capacity Batteries for NASA’s Future Missions,” involves a collaboration between computational scientists at Louisiana Tech and experimentalists at UL Lafayette. Their goal is to gain fundamental insights into the design of safe and high-capacity, all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries that eliminate the use of liquid electrolytes. The team is developing a physics-informed framework to predict the performance of the proposed batteries.
“UL Lafayette and Louisiana Tech bring complementary strengths, expertise, and research capabilities to Louisiana’s innovation ecosystem,” UL Lafayette Interim VP for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development Kumer P. Das said. “The two universities of the UL System have various collaborative research projects funded by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. We are both committed to expanding this collaboration in defense, AI, health, and other areas. Strong university-to-university partnerships ultimately strengthen not only our research enterprises but Louisiana’s capacity to compete, innovate, and improve the lives of its citizens.”
No matter the rivalry for the Bulldogs and Ragin’ Cajuns, these researchers are demonstrating that some challenges are better tackled together.