News & Updates
Official Election Results - Congratulations to our chapter leaders!
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We are pleased to announce the results of the 2019 SAMPE Carolinas Chapter Board of Directors elections:

Chapter Chair: Brian Gardner
Chapter Vice-Chair: Jim O'Donnell
Secretary: Kristin Hardin
Treasurer: Elizabeth Cates
Chapter Director: Tom Haulik
Chapter Director: Eric Smith
Upcoming Events with SAMPE Carolinas
August Event: TopGolf
Join your SAMPE Carolina's Chapter at TopGolf on Thursday, August 29, 2019 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm. Dinner and drink tickets will be provided in addition to two hours of game time.

Announcing the SAMPE 2019 Materials Expo
Join us for the 2019 SAMPE Carolinas Materials Expo event, bringing together suppliers and customers from the composites industry. The event will once again be held on the hangar deck of the Yorktown aircraft carrier at the Patriots' Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, SC.

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Announcing the Student Scholarship Award
The SAMPE Carolinas Board of Directors has established a scholarship program over the last several years to support all aspects and diverse areas of higher education. The scholarship is open to candidates from the SAMPE Carolinas student membership or children of active chapter members. This year, the Carolinas Chapter has voted to award two scholarships. 

William Recher of Waxhaw, NC was awarded a $2,000 scholarship. William attended Central Academy of Technology and Arts in Monroe, NC and will be enrolling at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in August where he plans on majoring in Aerospace Engineering. 

Madeline Thomas of North Charleston, SC was awarded a $1,000 scholarship. Madeline attended Bishop England High School in Charleston, SC and will be enrolling at Clemson University in the fall where she plans on majoring in biochemistry. 

We would like to congratulate both William and Madeline and wish them continued success as they pursue their educational and professional interests and goals.  
SAMPE 2019 & Golf Tournament in Review
The SAMPE 2019 conference and exhibition in Charlotte was co-hosted by the SAMPE Carolinas and the Baltimore-Washington chapters, co-chaired by Kevin Ahlstrom (Carolinas) and Stephen Scarborough (BW). The event, held for the first time in the Charlotte Convention Center, drew 252 exhibitors and more than 3300 attendees, placing it on par with the Long Beach conference location. By all metrics, the conference was successful, and Charlotte is now the preferred East Coast location for the technical conference.

One of the benefits of hosting the SAMPE technical conference is that the sponsoring chapter(s) receive a portion of the proceeds from the conference registrations. The Carolinas chapter co-sponsored its first national conference in 2014, co-hosting with the Seattle chapter in Seattle, and paired up with the Seattle chapter again in 2017. The Carolinas chapter uses the proceeds from these events to offset the costs of the Carolinas chapter local events and to fund student scholarships and student chapter activities, typically planning on realizing about 3 years of financial support from sponsorship of the national conference.  

“ We really did make a great impression on the SAMPE NA staff and dignitaries. We netted nearly a nice profit, had a great conference and golf event, and no one got locked up or ended up in a pond! SUCCESS!!”
– Kevin Ahlstrom, co-chair

The Carolinas chapter also sponsored a golf tournament in conjunction with the SAMPE technical conference this year, which raised almost $10,000 to support the Carolinas chapter student scholarship program, the many student chapters within our Carolinas region, and the SAMPE Foundation. More than 125 golfers participated in the tournament, held at the beautiful Ballantyne Resort course. A Carolina-style pig-picking rounded out the evening at the Ballantyne Lodge. Many thanks to Brantley Bass for spearheading the sponsorship drive for the golf tournament, and to the sponsors for their generosity.
Notable Student Activity at SAMPE Charlotte:
  • Furkan Ismail Ulu, Research Assistant, North Carolina A&T State University, was awarded a SAMPE Young Professional Emerging Leadership Award

  • The University of Tennessee – Knoxville team won Second Place in the Bridge Poster Competition

  • The University of Tennessee – Knoxville team also won Third Place in the Bridge Competition category E (Square beam, glass fiber)

  • The University of South Carolina team won Second Place in the Bridge Competition category G (Open design)
Fuselage Design Competition Results
SAMPE 2019 was a massive success for the SAMPE Fuselage program. The program is designed to allow new colleges/universities engage in SAMPE events and engage the new colleges in a small atmosphere.

Overall, we engaged three universities and 15 students at University of Tennessee, University of South Carolina, and North Carolina A&T State University during our initial pilot program year. All three universities were able to design and build a Fuselage that met the loading requirements. Each university had a unique design ranging from weight optimization, to using silica nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. The schools also did their own tooling with one school designing a 3D printed mandrel that would dissolve post fabrication. - Mark Kaufman
Jacobs Space Tech Challenge
Jacobs is sponsoring a competition to identify new technologies or technical innovations that will achieve game changing/breakthrough results in support of the NASA Exploration Program. The winner will be presented with $10,000.