EDEN PRAIRIE, MN -- SMTA announced Ben Stewart, a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been selected this year's Charles Hutchins Educational Grant winner.

The SMTA Grant Committee chose Stewart on the basis of his project titled Biaxial Inflation Test for Electromechanical Reliability Characterization and Optimization of Stretchable Body-Worn Bioinformatic Device.

Stewart expects to graduate in May 2021 with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech. He received a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2017. The same year, he cofounded a startup company in Albuquerque that specialized in the production of copper nano-inks as a cheaper alternative to silver nano-inks for inkjet printed electronics. While at UNM, Stewart also worked as a student intern at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, specializing in product definition and purchased product value streams for mechanical and electrical components.

Stewart's ultimate goal is to leverage his technical and business background to create a startup company specializing in the development of next-generation stretchable electronic devices for human health monitoring. He hopes his contribution to the proactive healthcare technology industry will make a positive impact in the lives of people all over the world. He desires to create a workplace for thousands of employees, and to create a leading company within the packaged electronics industry.

Stewart plans to attend business school at Georgia Tech to work toward a master's in business administration concurrently with his P.h.D, which he posits will lay the foundation in achieving his goals.

The $5000 grant Hutchins Grant, given in memory of Charles Hutchins, past president of the SMTA, was established in 1998 to encourage graduate students to pursue careers in the electronics industry, by developing closer ties between student research and the needs of the electronics industry. The grant, cosponsored by SMTA and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, has been awarded annually and is intended for the purchase of technical books and research materials, for participation in conferences related to electronics assembly and packaging, and for living expenses if necessary. $105,000 has been awarded to grant recipients since 1998.

The award will be presented at the SMTA Annual Meeting during SMTAI next month.

Register now for PCB West, the leading conference and exhibition for the printed circuit board industry! Coming Sept. 9-12 to the Santa Clara Convention Center. pcbwest.com

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