Dominick J. Demichele Scholarship Award

Dick DeMichele worked very hard to make the International Modal Analysis Conference (IMAC) accessible to everyone.  He understood the importance of the discussion and sharing of new ideas in a conference setting.  He felt it was especially important to get students in the experimental mechanics field involved in IMAC.

The purpose of this award is to honor and memorialize the generous spirit of Dick DeMichele by providing financial assistance to students traveling to present papers at an IMAC. 

The Award Consists of:

(1) Reimbursement of all (student-rate) IMAC conference fees paid by the recipient(s).

(2) Reimbursement of all reasonable travel expenses incurred by the recipient(s) in attending the IMAC conference where the presentation is made.

(3) Recognition of the recipient(s) through presentation of a framed certificate at the Conference Luncheon and Awards Ceremonies conducted in conjunction with the IMAC at which the presentation is made.

Criteria for Selection:

The recipient shall be a student in good standing at a recognized college or university.

The recipient shall be the designated presenter of a paper that has been accepted for presentation at a forthcoming IMAC.

The recipient shall preferably be a first-time presenter at an IMAC.

Nominations for the Award: 

Nominations of potential recipients should be made to the IMAC Program Planning Committee by SEM Members and/or the student’s major professor. The nomination shall consist of a letter; a brief resume of the student; a short discussion of the relevance of the paper topic to the IMAC conference; and a statement detailing why the nominator believes that the nominee should receive the award. Send nominations to IMAC Program Planning Committee, c/o Tom Proulx, Managing Director, SEM, 7 School Street, Bethel, CT 06801, (203) 790-6373, fax: (203) 790-4472, email: director@sem1.com.

Donations to Scholarship fund

Recipients of the award:

2012 Dominick J. DeMichele Scholarship Award: Siavash Dorvash

Siavash Dorvash is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Lehigh University. He earned his B. S. from Isfahan University of Technology, Esfahan, Iran in 2003 and his M. S. from the K. N.Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2006. Dorvash’s research area focuses on system identification of structural systems using wireless sensor technology. His Ph.D. research has contributed to several vibration-monitoring projects conducted by the Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) at Lehigh. Dorvash’s current research examines a new algorithm that uses the on-board processing capability of wireless sensors to distribute the system identification process among sensing nodes of the network.