This past fall, Dr. Hartl and a small group of students had the pleasure of meeting for several hours with Larry Schueckler, an accomplished full-time sculptor residing in the College Station area, to discuss the integration of shape memory alloy elements into artworks and architectural creations.
Accomplished sculptor Larry Schueckler meets with Visiting Scholar Larissa Maciel and others to discuss the potential for integrating shape memory alloys into sculptures and other artworks.
This meeting was also attended by Boeing Technical Fellow and SMA expert Jim Mabe and his wife, Chris, a retired music educator and SMA enthusiast in her own right. Topics such as the properties and capabilities of SMAs were discussed and several creative ideas were exchanged. A follow-up meeting at the Hartl residence included hands-on demonstrations of SMA shape setting and shape recovery under loads consider sheets/films. Only time will tell what novel kinetic objects result from these preliminary conversations.