LENS® and SFF: Enabling Technologies for Optimized Structures

Optimized, lightweight, high-strength structures are needed in many applications from aerospace to automotive. In pursuit of such structures, there have been proposed analytical solutions and some specialized FEA solutions for specific structures such as automobile frames. However, generalized 3D optimization methods have been unavailable for use by most designers. Moreover, in the cases where optimized structural solutions are available, they are often hollow, curving, thin wall structures that cannot be fabricated by conventional manufacturing methods. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Rhode Island teamed to solve these problems. The team has been pursuing two methods of optimizing models for generalized loading conditions, and also has been investigating the methods needed to fabricate these structures using Laser Engineered Net Shaping™ (LENS®) and other rapid prototyping methods. These solid freeform fabrication (SFF) methods offer the unique ability to make hollow, high aspect ratio features out of many materials. The manufacturing development required for LENS to make these complex structures has included the addition of rotational axes to Sandia’s LENS machine bringing the total to 5 controlled axes. The additional axes have required new efforts in process planning. Several of the unique structures that are only now possible through the use of SFF technology are shown as part of the discussion of this exciting new application for SFF.Mechanical Engineerin

‘I’m paying for my son’s upbringing with other people’s wages’. Community psychology praxis in a Sure Start Children’s Centre: The Great Yarmouth Father’s Project

THE GREAT YARMOUTH Father’s Project (GYFP) is presented as a community psychology example of ‘formulation beyond therapy’. A co-produced formulation is described that attempts to broaden under- standing of father’s experiences of early-years child and family services

Influences on students’ attainment and progress in Key Stage 3: academic outcomes in English, Maths and Science in Year 9

The Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education Project (EPPSE) has investigated the academic and social-behavioural development of approximately 3,000 children from the age of 3+ years since 1997. This Research Brief focuses on the relationships between a range of individual student, family, home, pre-, primary and secondary school characteristics and students\u27 academic attainment in English, maths and science in Year 9 at secondary school (age 14). It compares the latest findings with those found for students\u27 attainment at younger ages. It also highlights the influences of secondary school on students\u27 attainment in the core curriculum areas and studies their academic progress across Key Stage 3 between the ages of 11 and 14

Effective pre-school, primary and secondary education project (EPPSE 3-14): students’ reports of their experiences of school in Year 9

The Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education Project (EPPSE) has inves tigated the academic and social behavioural (+ in the later stages the affective) development of approximately 3,000 children from the age of 3+ years since 1997. This report presents the results of analyses related to student’s experiences in Year 9 (age 14), with the purpose of creating measures of both school and classroom life as experienced by students. These measures have been used in the analysis of academic and social-behavioural outcomes as well as dispositions to investigate whether a student’s reported experience of school can significantly predict outcomes in other areas. The findings highlight the importance of the ‘student voice’ and provide an insight into the experiences of teenagers in the first decade of the 21st Century