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2018 ASC 33rd Technical Conference Recap – Seattle, WA

By Navid Zobeiry, Communications Editor, American Society for Composites, Last updated: April 15, 2025

The 33rd Annual Technical Conference of the American Society for Composites (ASC) was held from September 24–26, 2018, in Seattle, Washington. The conference was chaired by Professor Anthony M. Waas and co-chaired by Professors Mark Tuttle, Mostafa Rassaian, Jun Koyanagi, and Adam Sawicki. Hosted in the heart of the Pacific Northwest, the event welcomed researchers and practitioners from across academia, industry, and government laboratories.

With a record-breaking 282 technical papers presented, the 2018 ASC Conference marked the highest number of papers ever featured at an ASC event. The technical program spanned over 25 tracks and highlighted a wide range of cutting-edge research topics, including ICME, impact dynamics, fatigue, additive manufacturing, and machine learning applications in composites.

For more details, you can access the full conference program and the list of papers below:

Plenary and Keynote Highlights

The conference featured several distinguished plenary and keynote speakers:

  • Dr. Greg Hyslop (The Boeing Company) – “Aerospace and Composites: Together, We Change the World”
  • Professor Nobuo Takeda (University of Tokyo, JAXA) – “Integrated In-Process Monitoring of High-Rate Production CFRP Structures for Material Quality Assurance”
  • Professor Daniel O. Adams (University of Utah) – “Crashworthiness: The Next Frontier in Composite Mechanics” (Wayne W. Stinchcomb Memorial Lecture)

Keynote luncheon speakers included:

  • Dr. Khaled Shahwan (FCA) – “Automotive Composites – 30 Years of Challenges, Collaborations, Innovations and Advanced Developments”
  • Professor Anoush Poursartip (UBC, Convergent Technologies) – “Digital Manufacturing of Composites: Past, Present, and Future”
  • Professor Paul Weaver (University of Limerick) – “Design and Testing of Thermoplastic Composite Wingbox Structures”

The banquet keynote was delivered by:

  • Mr. Steve Chisholm (The Boeing Company) – “Smarter Testing”

Recognizing Excellence

The conference recognized numerous contributions across the composites field, including the Solvay Student Competition, a special session in honor of Dr. T. Kevin O’Brien, and several student poster sessions. The awards ceremony was held during the banquet evening on Tuesday.

By the Numbers

  • Over 200 technical presentations across 26 tracks
  • 7 plenary and keynote talks
  • 3 luncheon speakers and 1 banquet keynote
  • 1 special session in honor of Dr. Kevin O’Brien
  • 1 student competition and poster session
  • International participants from Japan, Canada, Europe, and the U.S.

Sponsors and Support

The success of the event was made possible thanks to generous support from:

  • Boeing (Major Funding)
  • Altair (Gold Sponsor)
  • Tohoku University / University of Washington Academic Open Space (Gold Sponsor)
  • ANSYS, Convergent Manufacturing Technologies, ESI Group, Janicki Industries, and Toray CMA (Silver Sponsors)

Organizing Committee

  • Conference Chair: Professor Anthony M. Waas (University of Washington)
  • Conference Co-Chairs: Professor Mark Tuttle, Dr. Mostafa Rassaian, Dr. Jun Koyanagi, Dr. Adam Sawicki
  • Local Organizing Committee: Professors Marco Salviato, JK Yang, Dwayne Arola, Fumio Ohuchi, and Ms. Debra Bryant