This award supported efforts to accelerate the optimization of processing methods for engineering alloy, by developing a new apparatus for studying thermomechanical processing real-time in a scanning electron microscope. . In conjunction with the company Kammrath and Weiss, instrumentation was developed that enabled the ability to heat and stress samples under conditions relevant to commercial metal alloy processing, combined with the ability to measure local mechanical properties using an integrated nano-indenter.  System specifications included heating to 1100 degrees Celsius, and applying stresses up to 1 GPa.  The required design conditions were successfully met, and the apparatus was the foundation of a subsequent DMREF project on adaptive control of microstructural evolution in Ti-6%-Al-4%V  The graduate students involved in the project received training in designing, simulating and building complex instrumentation.