Spring 2012 Edition

The Cutting Edge

Points of Interest: >Department News

>Scholarship Recipients

>Professor Spotlight

>Projects & Research

>Alumni/Student News

>Society Updates

Inside this issue:

Siemens Engineers Week 1

Message from Department 2

MAE welcomes Professor 3

Design Showcase Projects 4

AIAA Conference 6

Panther GBP Nano-

Payload 7

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department Newsletter

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

Students take top prize at Engineers Week

In February, students from the Mechani-

cal and Aerospace Engineering Department

at Florida Institute of Technology were

invited to participate in the Siemens Engi-

neers Week Design Contest. Students from

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and

University of Central Florida were also

invited to participate.

Siemens Engineers Week is an annual

national celebration that recognizes engi-

neers for their many contributions. Each

year, Siemens has a week-long celebration.

During this event, students competed

against Siemens engineers in the design

contest, which has been the most popular

event of Engineers Week for many years.

Florida Tech teams have won this event in

the college category every year since 2009.

During the contest, 40 Siemens and six

college teams of up to five members per

team competed against one another on a

common theme. The theme is revealed a

few days before the competition, when all

teams picked up their kits and began pre-

paring for the contest.

Siemens Gas Turbine Engineering Director Vinod Phillip, Professor Ju Zhang and Florida Tech MAE

students celebrate their first-place overall finish in the Siemens Engineers Week Design Competition.

See Engineers, Page 3

Page 2

The Cutting Edge

Message from the Department Head

Dear Friends and Alumni,

As the spring 2012 semester draws to a close and we

prepare to say goodbye to a fabulous group of graduating

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering students, this

edition of The Cutting Edge contains some wonderful

examples of how our students and faculty have worked

together this spring to bolster the recognition of our de-

partment and our students’ alma mater. When you read

these stories the impressive accomplishments will speak

for themselves, but beyond the accolades I want you to

also note two key features in each of these stories: (1)

these activities are above and beyond anything required

in our curriculum, and (2) none of these activities in-

volved either professors or students alone, but rather both

working together as a team. These two reasons are a fan-

tastic reminder that we might be the biggest department

on campus, but we work together as a tight-knit family.

As a university, each spring we hold an Honors Con-

vocation to recognize our top students from all five col-

leges on campus; not only have these students demon-

strated outstanding academic performance, but these are

also the students who have made significant contribu-

tions to the university in terms of involvement in student

government and leadership, athletics, clubs, and public

service. This year, as usual, our MAE students won a

significant number of awards and the numbers speak for

themselves: 19 students were recognized as

“Distinguished Student Scholars,” 15 received

“Outstanding Student Awards,” and Mr. Bruno Poggi

Cevallos won the James G. Potter Award for Excellence

in Physics (read that again: Bruno, our sophomore in aer-

ospace engineering, also won the award for Excellence in

Physics!). We did well in the faculty awards category

too, with Dr. Razvan Rusovici winning The Kerry Bruce

Clark Award for Excellence in Teaching and Dr. Daniel

Kirk winning the University Award for Excellence in

Research. An impressive haul for our department!

This spring, Dr. Razvan Rusovici and Dr. Mark

Archambault were promoted from the Assistant to the

Associate professor rank, which represents a significant

step in their professional careers as well as a gain in pres-

tige for our department. We would also like to welcome

new faculty members that will join us in Fall 2012: Dr.

Tiauw Hiong “Yongki” Go of Nanyang Technological

University in Singapore; Dr. Sarada Kuravi of University

of South Florida; and Dr. Beshoy Morkos of Clemson

University. Their expertise areas in flight dynamics and

control, unmanned aerial vehicle systems, renewable en-

ergy systems, thermal management of electronics, and

mechanical engineering designs will not only enhance

and broaden our research and teaching areas, but also

immediately improve our student to faculty ratio.

In addition to these new faculty members, Dr. Mat-

thew Jensen of University of North Florida will join the

College of Engineering as a Pro-Track faculty advisor

and will also teach courses in the MAE Department.

These new faculty members were selected and recruited

through very competitive national search processes. At

the present time, we are still in search of a senior faculty

member to lead the automotive engineering program de-

velopment.

We always appreciate your suggestions and com-

ments. Please send them to us at the department address

or to me at phsu@fit.edu.

Sincerely,

Pei-feng Hsu

Professor/Department Head

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department

Florida Tech President Dr. Catanese, Exectuive Vice President and

Chief Operating Officer Dr. McCay, and President of the Faculty Sen-

ate Dr. Baarmand presented the University Awards for Teaching and

Research to MAE faculty members Daniel Kirk and Razvan Rusovici.

Page 3

Spring 2012 Edition

Professor Spotlight

MAE Department welcomes associate professor Dr. Ke-Gang Wang

Dr. Ke-Gang Wang, Associate Profes-

sor, joined the Mechanical and Aerospace

Engineering Department in Spring of 2012.

He received his Ph.D. from Chinese

Academy of Sciences in China. From 2006

to 2011, he was Associate Professor at

Florida Tech’s Physics and Space Sciences

Department. Before he moved to Florida

Institute of Technology, he was Research

Assistant Professor/Visiting Scholar, De-

partment of Materials Science and Engi-

neering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti-

tute in Troy, New York from 1999-2006.

He also held an Associate Professor posi-

tion at Beijing Insti-

tute of Technology in

China.

Professor Wang’s

research covers mate-

rials science and en-

gineering and non-

equilibrium statistical

mechanics. He devel-

oped several funda-

mental theories and

computer simulations in materials science,

e.g., diffusion screening, stochastic theo-

ries, and multi-particle diffusion for phase

coarsening in materials with his collabora-

Dr. Ke-Gang Wang

years, always scoring first

place in the student compe-

tition and normally within

the top 10 overall, this

year, the MAE’s Flying

Dutchman was the first

student team to win the

entire competition. The winning team mem-

bers were Alex Trainer,

Curtiss West, Stephen

Cross, Rhys Lyle Fernandez

and Yethiraj Chamarthi.

The members of the other

team were Hunter Garrett,

Michael Mooty, Michael

Smith, Scott Record and

Drew Partynski.

Both of the FIT teams

worked closely together on

the competition this year,

researching, designing and

fabricating in tandem.

One of the biggest

boons to both teams was

the construction of a test

rig at team member Mi-

chael Mooty's house, al-

lowing the team to test

their designs in conditions

identical to those of the

competition.

The competition took

place on February 24. This

year, each team had to de-

sign and build a small sail-

boat from the materials

provided. The boats were

then raced in a rain gutter.

Two teams from Florida

Tech participated in the

competition. The Flying

Dutchman, built by one of

the FIT teams, easily beat

the qualifying times and

breezed through the bottom

end of the bracket, winning

by several boat lengths in

each race.

The final was between

the Flying Dutchman and

the One by Siemens. The

race was so exciting and

close one that the first

round resulted in a tie and a

rematch. Eventually, the

Flying Dutchman beat the

One. The victory was un-

precedented because alt-

hough teams from FIT have

performed well in past

Engineers

Continued from Page 1

Student awarded ASHRAE scholarship Members of the Florida Tech student chapter of the American Socie-

ty of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers

(ASHRAE) joined Spacecoast ASHRAE to congratulate Swapnil Ku-

mar, the recipient of the 2011-12 Yarosh-Wiles Scholarship, on April

19 at its monthly meeting.

Named for mechanical engineering pioneers Marvin Yarosh, found-

ing member of Spacecoast ASHRAE, and Jack Wiles, one of the earli-

est members of the Canaveral Section of ASME and the Cape Canaver-

al Technical Society, the endowed scholarship was created through a

joint effort from Spacecoast ASHRAE and the Canaveral Section of

ASME.

ASHRAE president Kevin Messer, President-Elect Jean Dunce, and

MAE Department Head Dr. Pei-feng Hsu congratulated Swapnil and

pledged to continue the support of the endowment. Swapnil, who is also

president of the ASHRAE student chapter and an ME Sophomore,

along with Matt Walsh, also ME sophomore, outlined the ambitious

plans of the coming year’s activities. For more information about

ASHRAE activities, or joining the local chapter, please contact Swapnil

Kumar at skumar2010@my.fit.edu.

tors. This research is funded by the National

Science Foundation, and is cited worldwide.

In the field of statistical mechanics, he

developed the generalized Langevin method,

the generalized Fokker-Planck method, and

the method of continuous time random walk

for anomalous diffusion. His theory in anoma-

lous diffusion is widely applied to explain

experimental results of dynamics of single

protein molecules and to other complex sys-

tems. He has authored two book chapters, 54

refereed journal papers, and has participated

in more than 42 colloquia and invited confer-

ence presentations and contributed 50 confer-

ence talks.

Members of the Florida Tech ASHRAE chapter and Dr. Pei-feng Hsu con-

gratulate Swapnil Kumar as the recipient of the Yarosh-Wiles Scholarship.

The Cutting Edge

Page 4

Student Projects

2012 Northrop Grumman

Engineering & Science

Student Design Showcase

The Student Design Showcase, sponsored by

Northrop Grumman, is an awesome venue for

our students to exhibit projects that they have

spent 3 semesters conceiving, designing, build-

ing and testing. With 15 highly successful stu-

dent projects, our graduating MAE students

have made their department, college and uni-

versity very proud! The pictures below provide

Team members of the Self-Maneuvering Parafoil, a project designed to develop port-

able, high-endurance, low-cost surveillance platform. The team received the

Northrop Grumman Prize, awarded to the top project within the College of Engi-

neering, as selected by a team of a dozen Northrop Grumman VIP judges.

Members of the Lunabotics Lunar Mining Competition Team were the recipients of

the 2012 President’s Cup and will compete in the NASA 3rd Annual Lunabotics Min-

ing Competition at NASA Kennedy Space Center May 21-26.

Members of the project Prometheus demonstrate how their

experiment will be used to make high-temperature measure-

ments on gas turbine airplane engine components. Project Pro-

metheus won the ‘2012 Best in Show for

Aerospace Engineering.’

Page 5

Spring 2012 Edition

Student Projects

a snapshot of a few of our award winning

teams!

In our Fall 2012 newsletter we will be featuring

a new group of project descriptions for the 2012

-2013 academic year.

If you or your institution is interested in spon-

soring a senior design team please contact Dr.

Daniel Kirk (dkirk@fit.edu) for more infor-

mation about how Florida Tech MAE students

and faculty can assist in your challenging pro-

ject.

The Formula SAE car is a constant staple of the MAE Depart-

ment and the 2012 edition continues to carry the tradition and

experience of previous projects in the Formula

SAE competition.

Members of the Polyped Walker team show off their innovative design, which pro-

vides mechanical advantage and ease of operation on difficult terrain.

The Melbourne Search & Rescue Challenge team shows off their tilt rotor design,

which can take off vertically and then transition to conventional fixed-wing flight.

Page 6

The Cutting Edge

Student News

Florida Tech, Embry Riddle co-host AIAA Conference in April

a freshman-sophomore ‘Open Topic’ category. Six papers were

presented by individuals or teams from Florida Tech. Three of

these were in the Team category and represented projects from

the current Aerospace Engineering senior design class.

All of the presenters did an excellent job of representing

Florida Tech, and we proud to report that the Prometheus Team

represented by David Becknell, Darren Levine and Stephanie

Seuffert won third prize in their category meriting an esteemed

AIAA award. Freshmen and sophomore open topic papers were

presented by three teams who did a fantastic job representing

current FIT research and outstanding Aerospace topics. This

competition helps provide the tools and experience necessary

for these students to advance their own research and prepare

themselves for more presentations in the future.

The student conference has been considered one of the best

of the last decade, an imprint that will definitely be tough to

follow. The AIAA would like to thank the MAE department for

their generous donation and support of the conference. Overall,

the planning, execution, and results of the conference were su-

perb and well worth it.

During the first week of April, the American Institute of

Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region 2 Student Con-

ference was held in Cape Canaveral. This conference was co-

hosted by the Florida Tech and Embry-Riddle Student Branches

of AIAA.

The student teams from both universities worked extremely

hard over the past year to make this event not only a reality, but

a huge success. In particular, Florida Tech’s Student Branch

President, Joseph Bussenger, and the Vice President (who also

served as Conference Co-Chair), Akshay Lala, were the core of

the Florida Tech team that organized the event. The stu-

dent conference is very prestigious. The event attracted 234

students from throughout the Southeastern United States, in-

cluding schools such as North Carolina State, Auburn, Georgia

Tech, University of Florida and Mississippi State. For many of

these students, this was their first exposure to Florida Institute

of Technology.

The event featured 60 technical presentations by undergradu-

ate and master’s students, and prizes were awarded in several

categories, including group paper, undergraduate research, and

Student Rocket Research Society delivers winning performance

From left: Jared Sork, Lucas Worthen, Eryk Lorenz-Kruk, Andrew

Gilbride , Alan Cruz, Gabrielle Leesman, Brock Hedlund, Chad Har-

vey, Milen Womack, Kyle Levin, Patrick Diep, Michael Robison, Mike

Blaskovich, Jordan Senatore, Matt Levy participated in the Hybrid

Flight Team competition.

rience of team and project management which will prepare

them for future projects at Florida Tech and in the professional

setting. Chad Harvey led the program with great poise and lead-

ership that is unprecedented with support from Eryk Lorenz-

Kruk, Milen Womack, and Dan Purdy. We all would like to

congratulate the team and pass on the torch to today's current

freshmen as our new leaders, and the incoming freshmen as our

new hybrid team for next year.

The Student Rocket Research Society (SRS) Hybrid Flight

Teams once again proved that we have the best launch team in

the area. The teams flew both their high altitude and precision

altitude hybrid rockets on April 28 taking part in a competition

with schools from the University of Miami to Embry Riddle to

University of Florida. The FIT team was the only team to get two

flights off of the ground and have successful deployment. The

precision altitude team successfully recovered their rocket with a

competitive altitude of 2,135 feet (targeting 2,000); the FIT high

altitude team was the only high altitude competition team

to successfully fly a rocket.

Both teams were evaluated on their performance in how they

established themselves on the field, flight performance, and engi-

neering documentation, which each team has updated biweekly

for the past year. What sets FIT's teams apart is

the successful implementation of checklist procedures and famil-

iarity with ground support hardware.

After a year of work, both teams performed flawlessly and the

entire organization is incredibly proud of their accomplishment.

The goal of the hybrid rocket program in SRS is to provide

freshmen and sophomore members with the experience of de-

signing, building, and flying a hybrid rocket, as well as the expe-

Spring 2012 Edition

Student News

Page 7

FIT’s Panther-GPB Nano-Payload Reaches Space on Sounding Rocket

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professors Dr.

Hector Gutierrez and Dr. Daniel Kirk, along with gradu-

ate student Jiten Chandiramani, were in New Mexico in

April to watch their scientific payload successfully be

launched into space onboard the SpaceLoft™ XL launch

vehicle. The SpaceLoft™ XL is a commercial launch ve-

hicle capable of reaching space (over 62.5 miles (100 km)

in altitude), with launches conduced from Spaceport

America’s Launch Pad One in New Mexico.

The Panther-GPB nano-payload, which incorporated

state-of-the-art MEMS sensors and GPS technology, and

was designed, built, integrated and tested at Florida Tech

and involved several graduate students from the Aero-

space Systems And Propulsion (ASAP) Laboratory. This

advanced payload was developed under a grant from the

Air Force Office of Responsive Access to Space (ORS)

and Special Aerospace Services, Inc. (Boulder, CO). Re-

sponsive access to space is a new paradigm for suborbital

research that envisions the use of small launch vehicles to

access space with greater flexibility and significantly low-

er cost than in a conventional launch. The Panther-GPB

nano-payload seeks to provide both the Defense agencies

and the research community with the technological means

to access space with nanosize payloads at low cost. The

Panther-GPB is a trajectory monitoring and data recording

device that records acceleration, rate of rotation, and head-

ing while simultaneously recording GPS coordinates dur-

ing flight. A future mission in August of 2012 is envi-

sioned to add more functionality to both payload and

launch vehicle.

The Missile Space and Range Pioneers partnered with the National Space Club Florida Committee to provide a forum for the two student pro-

ject teams supported by MSRP to present their projects to industry at the Space Club’s March lunch in Cape Canaveral. This event hosted 36 of

Florida Tech’s engineering students. 17 local aerospace companies donated seats at their corporate tables for the students and Delaware North

and NASA provided transportation for the students.

Dr. Hector Gutierrez, top left, graduate student Jiten Chiramani, and

Dr. Daniel Kirk traveled to New Mexico in April to watch their scien-

tific payload launch into space on the SpaceLoft™ XL launch vehicle.

Students invited to National Space Club Luncheon at the Radisson

Mail your donation to: Florida Institute of Technology MAE Department

150 W. University Boulevard Melbourne, FL 32901

Please make checks payable to: Florida Institute of Technology

Please include ‘MAE Endowment’ on the memo line

I would like to make a donation

to support the students, faculty

and facilities of the

MAE Department at

Florida Institute of Technology.

*Florida Institute of Technology is a non-profit

educational organization, and, as such, any

donations made to Florida

Institute of Technology are tax deductible.

Pledge your

support :

To donate, please fill out the form below:

Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering 150 W. University Blvd. Melbourne, FL 32901 Phone: (321) 674-8092 Fax: (321) 674-8813

Address

Name

City/State/Zip

Email

Phone

$100

$200 $50

$150

$500

Other $

Credit Card Number

Signature

Exp. Date

Date

Cut and drop the form below into a standard size business envelope.

NON PROFIT ORG

US POSTAGE

PAID

PERMIT NO. XXX

MELBOURNE, FL