SOAR Program Accepts New Student
John Li, a rising senior in Mechanical Engineering, has been accepted into the prestigious
SUNY Summer Opportunities for Academic Research (SOAR) program. John will be conducting
research in the Materials and Mechanics Laboratory under the guidance of Professor
Kedar Kiraneand Ph.D. student Wanru Miao.
The SOAR program supports academically talented SUNY undergraduates—especially those who are first-generation college students or from economically disadvantaged backgrounds—by offering hands-on research experiences.
This summer, John will spend over two months working on a Department of Defense–funded project through the Office of Naval Research. His work will focus on characterizing compressive failure in woven composite materials, particularly around circular holes—common features in structural applications. Through open-hole compression (OHC) testing, John will help generate valuable data on strength reduction and failure mechanisms like fiber kinking and delamination, contributing to the safe design and certification of advanced composite materials.