USC Advanced Composites Design Lab, advised by Prof. Bo Jin (University of Southern California (USC)), Dr. Frank Nguyen and Christian Moreno (The Gill Corporation, (TGC)), won one 1st Place, two 2nd Place, and one 3rd Place awards at the 2023 SAMPE (Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering) International Composites Contest held in Seattle, Washington, April 19, 2023.

The contest allows college students to design, build, and test structures in a real-world application, using various composite materials, within the boundaries of the contest’s rules. Students put their composite knowledge to use and innovate new techniques using common industry materials. This year, various materials and manufacturing methods, stemming from USC-TGC collaborations, earned the USC Advanced Composites Design Lab 4 awards across different contest categories such as bridge and fuselage design. The SAMPE International Composites Contest is an international student competition involving universities from around the globe, where students compete for prizes and the coveted SAMPE Student Champion trophy. Universities that attended the contest this year include USC, UCLA, University of Tokyo, University of Washington, University of Maryland, University of Tennessee Knoxville, University of South Carolina Columbia, Bellingham Tech College, Montana Tech, Gonzaga, University of Southern Mississippi, Edmonds College, University of Delaware, Western Washington University, Rowan University, UABC, University of Southern Maine, Union College, and Old Dominion University.