2020 Charles Hutchins Educational Grant Winner Announced

Minneapolis, MN – SMTA is honored to announce Chidinma Imediegwu, a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Charles Hutchins Educational Grant.

The SMTA Grant Committee selected Chidinma’s project entitled “Transient Liquid Phase Bonding and the Development of a Cu-Al Binary System Solder Employed for Durable and Thermally Efficient Electronic Packages.” She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2013, and a Master’s degree in 2015 from Southern University, Baton Rouge. Following completion of her doctoral program at Georgia Tech, Chidinma plans to leverage her technical and research background working in Surface Mount Technology on the fabrication and reliability assessment of electronic packages.

The Charles Hutchins Educational Grant, co-sponsored by the SMTA and Circuits Assembly magazine, was established in memory of past SMTA president, educator, mentor, and industry colleague, Dr. Charles Hutchins. The $8000 grant has been presented annually since 1998 to a full time graduate-level student pursuing a degree and working on thesis research in electronics assembly, electronics packaging, or a related field.

The award will be presented in person at the 2021 SMTA Annual Meeting during the live SMTA International Conference.

The SMTA will begin accepting applications for the 2021 Charles Hutchins Educational Grant in early 2021. View details at the website: https://smta.org/page/hutchins-grant