Recent News

The Pier of the Future

It is one thing for a student to get hands-on experience in field construction and another to be a project manager overseeing construction of Maine’s first wood composite commercial pier. University of Maine graduate student Melanie Bragdon is involved in fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite research. Her work has taken her from UMaine’s state-of-the-art Advanced Engineered Wood […]

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Space-age gavels

In the latest session of the Maine legislature, at least nine wooden gavels were broken in the House of Representatives by House Speaker Michael Saxl as he pronounced votes on bills and other matters. That’s when a legislative colleague turned to The University of Maine for a solid solution to a problem of smashed gavels that, […]

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Composite Strength

Editorial Voters who two years ago supported the state’s first attempt to fuel its university system with money for research and development now can see their investment in action. The University of Maine’s new wood-composite lab melds Maine’s traditional natural- resource-based economy with a high-tech future. At UMaine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center, wood products […]

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The State Of Composites

Materials Made By Combining Several Others, Are Becoming Big Business In Maine  By L. Mercedes Wesel David Patch imagines a town in Midcoast Maine known not for lobster, loons or moose, but as a living laboratory for modern construction materials. In Patch’s vision, the bridge leading into town is made of a material that is […]

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Making Magic with Wood

By Susan Young, Bangor Daily News  Carefully perched on a rock, Habib Dagher tapped away at the keys of a laptop computer balanced on steel rods protruding from a small wooden bridge. A piece of plastic shower curtain, decorated with a colorful children’s motif, shielded him from the pouring rain.    Not exactly the glamorous […]

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Making magic with wood UM professor engineers feats with composites

By Susan Young Carefully perched on a rock, Habib Dagher tapped away at the keys of a laptop computer balanced on steel rods protruding from a small wooden bridge. A piece of plastic shower curtain, decorated with a colorful children’s motif, shielded him from the pouring rain. Not exactly the glamorous life some would expect […]

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