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Points of Interest:
>Department News
>Scholarship Recipients
>Professor Spotlight
>Projects and Research
>Alumni/Student News
>Society Updates
Inside this issue:
Winter 2010/2011 Edition
The Cutting Edge Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering Department Newsletter
Highly motivated: Team conducts experiments on zero-gravity flight
During the week of Sep-
tember 27 through October
1, Mechanical & Aerospace
Engineering Department
professors Dr. Daniel R.
Kirk and Dr. Hector M.
Gutierrez led a team of Flor-
ida Tech students to Hous-
ton, Texas, to fly experi-
ments on the ZeroG research
aircraft for the NASA Facili-
tated Access to the Space
Environment for Technology
(FAST) program. Out of 52
applicants for the program,
only 17 teams were selected,
of which 10 were university
teams, including Purdue,
Cornell and Stanford.
The research project was
dedicated to studying the
behavior of liquid dynamics
in reduced gravity to mimic
the behavior of rocket pro-
pellants in a space environ- Mechanical Engineering doctoral student Ran Zhou experiences weightlessness
aboard the ZeroG research aircraft for the NASA Facilitated Access to the Space
Environment for Technology program. Ran and other Florida Tech students con-
ducted a research project on the behavior of liquid dynamics in reduced gravity.
Zero-Gravity Research 1
AIAA Scholarship 2
ASME Scholarship 2
Yarosh-Wiles Scholarship 3
Dr. Lee receives NSF Grant 4
Professor named ‘the best’ 4
Alum works for Air Force 6
ASHRAE Student Chapter 7
ASME Student Chapter 7
Continued on Page 3 ...
Page 2 MAE Department Newsletter
Projects and Research
Florida Tech Part of New FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood recently announced that the
Federal Aviation Administration has
selected New Mexico State University
in Las Cruces, NM, to lead a new Air
Transportation Center of Excellence
for Commercial Space Transportation.
The center is a partnership of acade-
mia, industry, and government, devel-
oped for the purpose of creating a
world-class consortium that will ad-
dress current and future challenges for
commercial space transportation.
Florida Institute of Technology is a
core university of the center. The Flor-
ida Center for Advanced Aero-
Propulsion, a partnership of Florida
universities, is also core to the center.
FCAAP-involved institutions include
University of Florida, Florida State
University and University of Central
Florida.
Other key supporters who will be
integral to the center’s success include:
Space Florida, the NASA Kennedy
Space Center, the NASA Glenn Re-
search Center, Virgin Galactic,
SpaceX, Qinetiq North America/
Analex, Florida Turbine Technologies,
the International Space University and
Starfighters.
“The Obama Administration is
committed to making sure the U.S.
remains the world leader in space de-
velopment and exploration,” said Sec-
retary LaHood. “This new center un-
derscores that commitment, and will
ensure that the commercial space com-
munity can meet our current and future
space transportation needs.”
The Obama Administration recently
released its new National Space Policy,
which recognizes opportunities and
advancements in commercial space
transportation and lays out specific
ways to use commercial capabilities.
“Commercial space flight is ready
to play a greater role in the nation’s
space program,” said FAA Administra-
tor Randy Babbitt. “Universities work-
ing with industry partners will fuel the
research necessary to help keep us in
the forefront of both technology and
safety in space.”
The research and development ef-
forts at the new center will include four
major research areas: space launch op-
erations and traffic management;
launch vehicle systems, payloads, tech-
nologies, and operations; commercial
human space flight; and space com-
merce (including space law, space in-
surance, space policy and space regula-
tion).
The FAA will enter into 50-50 cost-
sharing cooperative agreements to es-
tablish the partnerships, with plans to
invest at least $1 million per year for
the initial five years of the center’s op-
erations.
NMSU Las Cruces will lead a team
of colleges and universities throughout
the country. Other core universities
participating include: Stanford Univer-
sity, New Mexico Institute of Mining
and Technology, University of Colo-
rado at Boulder, and University of
Texas Medical Branch.
Congress authorized Air Transpor-
tation Centers of Excellence under the
Federal Aviation Administration Re-
search, Engineering and Development
Authorization Act of 1990. This legis-
lation enables the FAA to work with
universities and their industry part-
ners to conduct research in environ-
ment and aviation safety, and other
activities to assure a safe and effi-
cient air transportation system. With
the establishment of this center, re-
search will extend to cutting-edge
technologies and infrastructure for
private human spaceflight and orbital
debris mitigation.
The United States’ space program
has three sectors — civil, military
and commercial. The FAA’s Office
of Commercial Space Transportation
is responsible for licensing, regulat-
ing and promoting the commercial
sector space industry.
Since the office was created in
1984, the FAA has issued licenses
for more than 200 launches, has li-
censed the operation of eight FAA-
approved launch sites known as
spaceports, and has helped ensure
that no loss of life or serious injury
has been associated with these ef-
forts. For more information on
FAA’s commercial space transporta-
t ion act ivi t ies , visi t h t tp: / /
www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/
news_story.cfm?newsId=11559.
The FAA has established eight
other centers of excellence, focusing
on air cabin environment, noise and
emissions mitigation, airport pave-
ment technology, operations re-
search, advanced materials, aircraft
structures, airworthiness assurance,
and general aviation.
For more information about the
FAA Centers of Excellence program,
visit the web page at http://
www.faa.gov/go/coe.
Download a .pdf copy of this newsletter and more on the Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering section of the College of Engineering Website: http://coe.fit.edu/mae
Page 3 Winter 2010/2011 Edition
Scholarship Recipients
Florida Institute of Technol-
ogy student David Becknell has
been selected to receive the
American Institute of Aeronau-
tics and Astronautics (AIAA)
Foundation Senior Scholarship
for the 2010-11 school year.
“This is the living of a child-
hood dream,” said David, a self-
described “non-traditional” stu-
dent who moved his wife and
daughter to Florida from Co-
lumbia, S.C., to attend Florida
Tech with the help of a Phi
Theta Kappa Honor Society
Scholarship. “Originally, I gave
up going to school to help raise
my brother when I was 15.”
David, who left a job at the
American Red Cross when he
hit a professional “brick wall”
five years ago, worked full-time
and attended school full-time
prior to making the move to
Scholarship helps Aerospace Engineering student fulfill l ifelong dream
Aerospace Engineering student David Becknell conducts research on one
of several Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department projects.
David was awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro-
nautics Foundation Senior Scholarship for the 2010-11 school year.
Members of the Florida
Tech student chapter of ASH-
RAE (the American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers) joined
Spacecoast ASHRAE to con-
gratulate Nick Avery, the re-
cipient of the first Yarosh-Wiles
Scholarship.
Named for mechanical engi-
neering pioneers Marvin
Yarosh, founding member of
Spacecoast ASHRAE, and Jack
Wiles, one of the earliest mem-
bers of the Canaveral Section of
ASME and the Cape Canaveral
Technical Society, the endowed
scholarship was created through
Top: David Poetker, left, immediate past-president of Spacecoast ASHRAE,
and Dr. Pei-feng Hsu, Department Head of Florida Tech’s Mechanical &
Aerospace Engineering Department, congratulate Mechanical Engineering
student Nick Avery, the first recipient of the Yarosh-Wiles Scholarship.
Spacecoast ASHRAE chooses first Yarosh-Wiles Scholarship recipient
a joint effort from Spacecoast
ASHRAE and Canaveral Sec-
tion of ASME.
ASHRAE president Kevin
Messer and past president
David Poetker congratulated
Nick Avery, and pledged to
continue fundraising so that
someday, the endowment will
generate two scholarships per
year.
Nick, who is also president
of the ASHRAE student chap-
ter, outlined the ambitious plans
of this year's chapter. For more
information about ASHRAE
activities, or joining the local
chapter, can contact Nick Avery
Florida as a transfer student from Midlands
Technical College in Columbia.
“I had reached the top of where I could go
(working for the Red Cross). I had the intention
of going to the University of South Carolina to
major in mechanical engineering when I got a
letter from (Florida Tech) that I tossed aside,”
David said. “My wife opened it up and said I
ought to have a look at it. I got the Phi Theta
Kappa Scholarship, and after a
long discussion, my wife and I
decided to move here (to Mel-
bourne) with no jobs. We’ve
been living on faith.”
The AIAA Foundation
awards 30 undergraduate student
scholarships ranging from
$2,000 to $2,500 each year to
student members who are sopho-
mores, juniors and seniors.
David is a junior in the Aero-
space Engineering program and a
member of two honor societies:
Phi Theta Kappa and Tau Beta
Pi, an engineering honor society.
David has worked for Stephanie
Hopper in the machine shop, Dr.
James Brenner in the nanotech-
nology lab, and is currently
working for Dr. Daniel Kirk as a
research assistant for mechanical
and aerospace engineering pro-
jects on campus while maintain-
ing his academic standing.
Page 4 MAE Department Newsletter
tational experiment or physical
measurement, a careful characteriza-
tion of the evolution of uncertainties
is essential in many scientific and
engineering problems. But, the cur-
rent existing techniques, such as the
Monte Carlo method, require exten-
sive computational loads, and they
cannot be applied for complex dy-
namic systems.
The proposed interdisciplinary
research unifies computational geo-
metric mechanics, geometric numeri-
cal integration, and non-commutative
harmonic analysis in applied mathe-
matics with stochastic dynamics the-
ory in engineering, to obtain mesh-
free, coordinate-free methods for the
numerically stable long-time propa-
gation of uncertainties. Due to the
structure-preserving properties of the
proposed approaches, they will be
particularly useful for non-trivial,
aggressive maneuvers of complex
dynamic systems. These represent
significant advances over current
computational methods that are re-
stricted to moderate trajectories, sim-
ple dynamic properties, and short
propagation times.
Aerospace Engineering professor awarded National Science Foundation grant
Professor Spotlight
Dr. Taeyoung Lee, assistant pro-
fessor for the Mechanical & Aero-
space Engineering Department, re-
ceived a research grant from the Di-
vision of Civil, Mechanical, and
Manufacturing Innovation at the Na-
tional Science Foundation. The pro-
p o s e d r e s e a r c h , t i t l e d
“Computational Geometric Uncer-
tainty Propagation for Hamiltonian
Systems on a Lie Group,” addresses
fundamental properties of dynamic
systems, namely, how uncertainties
are propagated along nonlinear flows
of a complex system.
A mathematical model of dy-
namic systems must account for a
certain level of uncertainties, which
can arise from multiple sources, such
as un-modeled dynamics, parametric
uncertainty, and uncertainty in initial
conditions. As they cannot be com-
pletely eliminated from any compu-
Dr. Fleming chosen as MAE Department’s ‘Best Teacher’
Download a .pdf copy of this newsletter and more on the Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering section of the College of Engineering Website: http://coe.fit.edu/mae
(From left) Dr. David
Fleming, Phil Salois, Dan
Markey and Juan Aven-
dano, student chapter
2009-10 presidents of
ASME, ASHRAE, and AIAA,
respectively.
On April 23, 2010, during the annual
ASME banquet, Mechanical & Aerospace sen-
ior and junior students recognized Dr. David
Fleming as the best teacher in the Department.
His dedication, passion, and desire to teach
made him one of the students’ favorite profes-
sors. This award came from the initiative of Dr.
Hsu to hear students’ opinions. With the help
of AIAA, ASHRAE, and ASME, the Mechani-
cal & Aerospace Engineering Department
asked for the input of every junior and senior
student. After the votes came in, Dr. Fleming
was chosen as best teacher, followed closely by
Dr. Daniel Kirk and Dr. Mark Archambault.
Dr. Taeyoung Lee
Page 5 Winter 2010/2011 Edition
Projects and Research
Download a .pdf copy of this newsletter and more on the Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering section of the College of Engineering Website: http://coe.fit.edu/mae
ment, Dr. Kirk said.
“We were highly successful
in collecting valuable data,
which will be used by scientists
and engineers at NASA and
commercial companies to
benchmark and validate numeri-
cal models of liquid sloshing
inside of rocket propellant tanks
in micro-gravity,” he said.
The team, which was the
largest college group present,
consisted of four undergraduate
students and one Ph.D. student:
Brittany Essink (AE, class of
2012); Torin Crandall (AE,
class of 2012); Richard Schul-
man (AE, class of 2012); David
Becknell (AE, class of 2012);
and Ran Zhou (ME, doctoral
student to defend Ph.D. in De-
cember).
“Hector and I are very ex-
cited about providing a truly
unique experience for some of
our very best students to fly in
zero-gravity and to be part of a
cutting-edge research program,”
Dr. Kirk said. “We would like
to use this success as an exam-
ple to showcase Florida Tech’s
unique opportunities, both in
research as well as world-class
educational experiences, to po-
tential students.”
Highly motivated: Team conducts experiments on zero-gravity flight
… Continued from Page 1
Top: (From left) Richard Schulman,
Dr. Daniel Kirk, Ran Zhou, Dr. Hector
Gutierrez, Torin Crandall, Brittany
Essink and David Becknell repre-
sented Florida Institute of Technol-
ogy’s Department of Mechanical &
Aerospace Engineering at the NASA
Facilitated Access to the Space Envi-
ronment for Technology program’s
ZeroG flight in Houston, Texas.
Right: Aerospace Engineering
student Brittany Essink experiences
weightlessness while participating in
a research project dedicated to
studying the behavior of liquid
dynamics in reduced gravity to mimic
the behavior of rocket propellants in
a space environment.
Alumni and Student News
These Receive Suites provide in-
telligence, UAV feeds (video and
imagery), maps, weather fore-
casts, and operational orders to
our nation’s combat forces in gar-
rison, in transit, and deployed
within global combat zones.
Mandy is currently working on
developing the follow-on Receive
Suites to replace those currently
fielded, as well as a lightweight,
portable version to maintain re-
ceive capabilities within a fraction
of the traditional footprint.
Mandy Rohrbach graduated
from Florida Institute of Technol-
ogy’s Mechanical & Aerospace En-
gineering Department with a bache-
lor’s degree in Aerospace Engineer-
ing in May of 2008.
She now works as a civilian for
the United States Air Force as the
chief engineer for Global Broadcast
Service (GBS) Receive Suites.
GBS provides worldwide, high-
capacity, one-way transmission of
video and data to GBS Receive
Suites from Department of Defense
and commercial satellites.
Florida Tech alum works as civi l ian for United States Air Force
Page 6 MAE Department Newsletter
Mandy Rohrbach
Mechanical Engineering student awarded ASME Scholarship
Cessna 441.
More than $100,000 in academic scholarships is awarded
annually to ASME Student Members who are enrolled in an
ABET-accredited, or substantially equivalent, engineering
degree program. The program is a collaboration between the
ASME Center for Education and the ASME Foundation. In
2009, 35 students were awarded scholarships in amounts
ranging from $1,500 to $10,000.
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engi-
neering student Carolina Penteado was recently
awarded the ASME Foundation Scholarship for 2010
-11.
Carolina Penteado was born and raised in Brazil,
where she attended the American School of Campi-
nas and graduated with a dual diploma in 2007. She
then moved to Florida, where she is currently a sen-
ior at Florida Tech seeking her bachelor’s degree in
Mechanical Engineering. She was recently accepted
to Florida Tech’s Fast Track program, and will pur-
sue a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering with
a specialization in Structures and Materials in order
to fulfill her lifelong dream of working in the com-
mercial aviation industry. Carolina currently holds a
4.0 GPA, which has earned her a spot on the Dean’s
List since her first semester at Florida Tech. Along
with Tau Beta Pi, she is also a member of Phi Eta
Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi. In 2009, she was pre-
sented with the Outstanding Student Award: Sopho-
more in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and
in 2010, she received a Distinguished Student
Scholar award. Her passion for aircraft has led her to
get involved with an aerospace capstone project, in
which she is leading a team that is working in con-
junction with Royal Atlantic Aviation to study the
Carolina Penteado
Winter 2010/2011 Edition
Society Updates
Page 7
Download a .pdf copy of this newsletter and more on the Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering section of the College of Engineering Website: http://coe.fit.edu/mae
ASME Florida Tech Chapter
On Tuesday, October 19, Florida Tech’s Student
Chapter of ASME hosted a free tour offering an up-close-
and-personal look at the machinery that makes it possible
for everyday bowling! Participants also enjoyed two
hours of free bowling, complimented by pizza and drinks.
On Friday, October 22, ASME also hosted a Pro-
Engineer Solids Modeling Competition. Contest winners
were chosen based on proper use of dimensions, design
intent, technique and completion in the fastest time. The
winners were: Devin Peck, first place; Darren Levine,
second place; Mark Nanney, third place; and Thilina Fer-
nando, fourth place. Winners received a free movie ticket
to Cinema World.
To join ASME, contact Phillip Salois at psa-
[email protected] or Christina Lucas at [email protected].
ASHRAE Florida Tech Chapter
the Link building. The project is expected to save at least
$492,000 per year in utilities for Florida Tech. The sys-
tem is state-of-the-art and takes advantage of every op-
portunity to save energy.
Florida Tech ASHRAE plans to make an impact right
here on campus first. We hope to analyze energy con-
sumption on campus buildings and find solutions. ASH-
RAE also plans to be a renewable energy leader on cam-
pus. We are currently looking into recycling a satellite
dish into a solar oven for our campus to use at events.
Our branch works closely with the Spacecoast ASH-
RAE Chapter, which hosts monthly meetings. Interested
students can find more information at our OrgSync Page
at ht tps: / /orgsync.com/8313/chapter or at
www.ASHRAE.org.
The student branch of the American Society for Heat-
ing, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers
(ASHRAE) is up and running at Florida Tech. ASH-
RAE’s purpose is to promote a sustainable world. What
most people don’t realize is that the best way to attack the
energy crisis is through building design. In the United
States alone, buildings consume 72 percent of the elec-
tricity and cause 39 percent of the CO2 emissions. ASH-
RAE is about advancing the science of HVAC&R, while
integrating renewable energy and architecture. Net Zero
Energy designs are the future of housing and commercial
buildings.
This year, ASHRAE started off by hosting a tour of
the new chilled water A/C system being installed behind
Florida Tech’s Student Chapter of ASME recently toured a bowling alley to get a be-
hind-the-scenes look at the mechanics of bowling.
Please make checks payable to: Florida Institute of Technology.
Please add “MAE Endowment” on the memo line.
Mail your donation to:
Florida Institute of Technology MAE Department 150 W. University Blvd. Melbourne, FL 32901
This newsletter was designed/edited by:This newsletter was designed/edited by:
Jennifer Nessmith,
MAE Administrative Secretary
Additional editing done by:Additional editing done by:
Vicki Borton, MAE Office Coordinator
*Send any questions/comments to:
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