International summit to feature contributions of School of Engineering dean

Each year a group of international experts gather at the Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit (SIPS) to present research on how science and engineering contribute to sustainable development. The international event is also an opportunity to highlight and honor the work of a prominent figure in the field of engineering.

Dean Mark Horstemeyer speaks at an Engineering School Convo Select during Fall 2020.

This year’s SIPS will include the Horstemeyer International Symposium on Multiscale Material Mechanics and Sustainable Applications, a tribute to the lifetime achievements of Liberty University School of Engineering Dean Mark Horstemeyer and his prominent work with Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME), a computer modeling tool that analyzes the construction and performance of materials and creates simulations for optimizing their design.

“ICME helps us understand how materials behave under certain conditions,” said Horstemeyer. “It’s become a ubiquitous modeling framework in solving engineering problems for industry, and the symposium is the scientific community recognizing the contributions of ICME in the area of sustainability.”

The annual summit gives scientists, students, colleagues, and researchers the opportunity to discover and pursue new research and participate in panels, presentations and an exhibition on sustainability and ICME. This year’s event, scheduled for Nov. 29-Dec. 3 in Phuket, Thailand, will feature presentations from nine Nobel Laureates.

“This event is all about international experts gathering to discuss how to use ICME in the content of sustainability … how we move to the next level of design, of analysis, the next level of manufacturing processes to design the next-generation material or structure,” Horstemeyer said.

In his work with ICME, Horstemeyer has helped optimize the design of automobiles to reduce crash-related deaths and is currently developing a football helmet design that reduces concussions.

SIPS is organized by FLOGEN Stars Outreach, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to achieving sustainability through science and technology.