Montana State senior wins prestigious Fulbright internship

BOZEMAN - A senior in Montana State University's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering has been awarded a competitive Fulbright Canada-Mitacs Globalink research internship that will help him further pursue his interest in shrinking certain industrial processes to smaller scales.

Tristan Sampley, who is majoring in mechanical engineering and French, will spend this summer developing methods to test microturbines at the Université de Sherbrooke, a French-language public research university in Quebec, Canada.

Sampley, from Eugene, Oregon, said that although he has yet to work specifically with microturbines - power-generating devices that are smaller than a shirt button - the internship blends his two primary academic interests: mechanical engineering and French.

The internship is part of a competitive program that connects students with research internships hosted by Canadian academic institutions in a variety of academic disciplines, from science, engineering, and mathematics to the humanities and social sciences, according to the website of Canadian nonprofit Mitacs Globalink, which co-sponsored the internship.

"The Fulbright internship provides a life-changing opportunity to exchange ideas and new perspectives through academic and professional cross-culture dialogue," said Dilpreet Bajwa, head of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.

The primary objective of Sampley's project will be to test and analyze the operating parameters of microturbines. His findings will guide design modifications to improve the performance and efficiency of the microturbines.

"I think this is a unique opportunity," Sampley said. "I will gain exposure to the academic research side of things, in contrast with my previous industry experience. I also look forward to working in a French-speaking lab and honing my fluency."

Sampley is currently working on his senior capstone project. Capstone projects are design projects that all engineering students undertake to solve real-world engineering challenges.

"I'm working on a plasma alloy separator," he said. "The sponsor is an entrepreneur looking into recycling metals from electronics."

Because metal alloy separation processes consume large amounts of resources and require lots of space, the capstone project is aiming to bring this process down to a tabletop scale that is more commercially applicable, Sampley said.

Sampley will continue exploring scale-reduction during his forthcoming internship, this time with microturbines. Like many turbines, these machines create usable energy from steam, except on a micro scale.

"At a base level, microturbines are power-generation units that are driven by a temperature difference," Sampley said. "They are micro heat engines powered by steam. The steam spins tiny blades in the turbine, generating electricity or mechanical movement." 

At the micro scale, these heat engines can be used as an alternative to batteries by taking advantage of more energy-dense fuels or using a process' heat exhaust.

Sampley previously interned with Montana Space Grant Consortium's BOREALIS Program at MSU, which uses high-altitude balloons to study gravity waves in the upper atmosphere during solar eclipses. He also interned with the Naval Nuclear Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he worked with an interdisciplinary group of engineers and technicians on a project pertaining to spent nuclear fuel.

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