 The US Army is on the hunt for new material science breakthroughs by working together with a researcher from Brazil. The US Army Research Laboratory has a cooperative research and development agreement with a university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Isabela Costa is pursuing a master of science degree. Since September, she's been working alongside an army researcher on basic research into thermal expansion. I've been exploring in Brazil a new system and we found the best composition, the optimal composition, by solid estate reaction and this composition is the one that we are working here. We can change a material that now we are using because we can use another one that we are developing to the same application which has better preparatory and our lower cost. The goal is to generally have a pellet this big. Discovery of new properties pushes the envelope of material science. We are focusing on how to synthesize these materials and how to change the chemistry of the materials in order to decrease the thermal expansion. If we decrease the thermal expansion we can improve the thermal shock resistance of these materials which can make them more effective in applications that require high temperature fluctuations and gradients. The laboratory has what's known as the open campus business model for fueling innovation through R&D collaboration. Officials said efforts like this helped to create a 21st century research culture that is agile and effective. And that's what we are trying to do here. It's really about putting us, all of us, this community at the center of a network and forming an ecosystem that allows us to partner in a brand new way. Open campus means sharing world class ARL facilities and research opportunities for all partners including international researchers. Collaboration is really important in science because it gives us an opportunity to stretch our minds and figure out exactly what is going on in a material system and to work on things that you're not familiar with, to work with people that have a different perspective on the work you're trying to accomplish. Costa said the experience has also motivated her career goals. After completing her master's degree she hopes to begin work on her doctorate. I really enjoyed this experience because I think that's something that nobody had. I'm sure that all the culture and all the knowledge that we shared can help me in the future and I also made a lot of friends. The month-long visit by the Brazilian postgraduate researcher will culminate with a joint paper and attendance at a materials science conference in Ohio. However, the partnership will continue. It's been a lot of fun working with Isabella. I certainly hope we'll be close partners for a long time and we're already drafting our first paper together. We've got a couple of presentations planned for the next six months and we've got research topics on the line that we want to conduct more experiments in the future. So it definitely looks like it's a relationship that's going to continue to grow.