GE Teams Up With USM for Composite Materials Research

JACKSON, MS — A $2.4 million state grant will be used by a General Electric Co. subsidiary and the University of Southern Mississippi for research on composite materials for an engine to power the Boeing 787 and 747-8 aircraft.

Gov. Haley Barbour was on the Hattiesburg campus Monday to announce the partnership between USM's School of Polymers and High Performance Materials and GE Aviation, which has a plant in Batesville producing composite-material parts for jet engines.

The project will last one year. The announcement had been expected for some time. Barbour alluded to the partnership in a speech to Chinese delegates in May.

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