Avian Flu Averted? - Purdue University...Avian Flu Averted? Mitigating an outbreak among cats...

WINTER 2006-07

PURDUE AERONAUTICS & ASTRONAUTICS

Avian Flu Averted?Mitigating an outbreak among cats

through systems modeling

Student Adventures in Zero-GInside a Unique NASA Program

The Bull’s Eye of SuccessAndy Simo’s Entrepreneurial Spirit

Purdue Engineering Impact • Aeronautics & Astronautics

Don’t be a stranger. We want to hear from you!Tell us what you think by sharing your Purdue memories or reacting to a story in this issue. We invite you to write to us via the contact information at right. In doing so, you grant us permission to publish your letter in part or in whole in an upcoming issue. We also reserve the right to edit letters for length and/or clarity.

School of Aeronautics & AstronauticsJohn A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering .....Leah H. Jamieson

Professor and Head .................................... Thomas N. Farris

Professor and Associate Head ....................Marc H. Williams

Director of Development .................................... Nathan Wight

Director, Marketing and Communications ............... Rwitti Roy

Editor ................................................................. Matt Schnepf

Graphic Designer .......................................... Susan Ferringer

Contributing Writers ..................Kathy Mayer, Jenna Rump,Linda Thomas Terhune, Emil Venere

AAE Impact is published by the Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics for alumni, faculty, students, corporate partners, and friends. We welcome your comments. Please send them to the following address:

AAE Impact Purdue University 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd., Suite B120 West Lafayette, IN 47906-4153 E-mail: [email protected]

Articles herein may be reprinted by nonprofit organizations without permission. Appropriate credit would be appreciated.

To make a gift to AAE, please contact: Director of Development School of Aeronautics & Astronautics Purdue University 315 N. Grant Street West Lafayette, IN 47907-2023 (765) 494-9124

Produced by the Engineering Communications Office. Purdue is an equal access/equal opportunity university.

On My MindWelcome to the inaugural issue of our Engineering Impact. Published twice a year in col-laboration with the College of Engineering, it provides a snap-shot of people and activities that keep the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the forefront of learning and discovery.

People continue to be our greatest assets, and in the following pages we introduce some faculty, students, and alumni who play a key role in our success. You’ll also read about cutting-edge research taking place. Our cover story highlights exciting work within the system of systems arena, including a collaborative effort beyond the traditional scope of aeronautics and astronautics. This unique project employs AAE’s modeling expertise to study avian flu’s potential spread among U.S. cats. Not the typical research expected of us, it clearly demonstrates our far-reaching influence across other disciplines.

We look forward to communicating with you regularly through this forum, and we encourage your comments and feedback. Thank you for your continued support of AAE and Purdue.

Thomas N. FarrisProfessor and Head, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Cover illustration by Susan Ferringer • iStockphotos

John

Und

erw

oo

d

De

bab

rata

Ro

y

up front

1

Winter 2006-07

AROUND AAE

Groundbreaking research, alumni honors, and people in the news 1

UP CLOSE: FACULTY

Kathleen Howell prepares to lead our astrodynamics and space applications area. 3

COVER

AAE’s modeling expertise lends itself to a new study on avian flu. 4

System-of-systems research encompasses a broad spectrum of high-impact work.

UP CLOSE: STUDENTS

Education takes to the skies through a unique NASA program in zero-gravity. 8

UP CLOSE: ALUMNI

Andy Simo keeps New Archery Products focused on customer satisfaction. 10

CAMPAIGN IMPACT

Scholarships play an instrumental role in making education possible. 11

4

8

Research Advances Rocket TechnologyStudy seeks new computational models for designing rocket engines.

Purdue engineers are conducting research to help NASA develop rockets faster and less expensively for future missions to Mars and the moon.

This NASA-funded research at Purdue focuses on liquid-fueled rockets. Specifically, the work deals with understanding how fuel and a component called the oxidizer interact inside the rocket engine’s fuel injectors to cause unstable combustion. The instability results in extreme bursts of heat and pressure fluctuations that could lead to accidents and hardware damage.

Purdue engineers involved in the research earned a best paper award last July from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

“Combustion instability is a complex phenomenon that has hindered rocket development since the beginning of the Space Age,” says Nicholas Nugent, a doctoral student in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “We have to learn more about insta-bility before future engines can be developed and used for space flight. Predicting combustion instability is one of the most difficult aspects of developing a rocket engine.”

James Sisco, a doctoral student in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, assembles portions of an experiment to study unstable combustion inside rocket engines. continued on next page

Dav

id U

mb

erg

er

NA

SAD

zung

Du

around aae

contents

2


Allen Novick (BSAE ’65, MSAE ’67, PhD ’72)

Shuttle Carries Collicott’s Work

When NASA launched the space shuttle Discovery this past summer, the

spacecraft carried the work of Professor Steven Collicott from AAE and Mark

Weislogel, an associate professor at Portland State University. The two engineers designed

handheld experiments to be conducted at the International Space Station (with half already con-

ducted in September).Collicott has spent years researching fluid dynam-

ics in low-gravity environments, and this marked the first time a shuttle has carried his work. The results of the experiments will be applicable to fuel tanks and life-support systems that provide air and water to astronauts.

“Access to space and to astronaut time is rare,” Collicott notes. “It is not often in a career that one has the exciting privilege of having an experiment in orbit.”

The paper’s findings demonstrate that an experiment can be specifically designed to study instabilities occurring spontane-ously, as they do in real engines. “There haven’t been many, if any, experiments in the past that have been able to achieve an instability without actually forcing it by introducing artificial influ-ences not ordinarily seen in the operation of a rocket engine,” says doctoral student James Sisco.

The paper was written by Nugent, Sisco, former student Kevin Miller, and William Anderson, AAE assistant professor. Miller now works for Space Exploration Technologies Inc., or SpaceX, in El Segundo, California.

The Purdue engineers have completed further research and presented new findings during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ joint propulsion conference in Sacramento, California. Findings for which the best paper award was received were presented at last year’s joint propul-sion conference in Tucson, Arizona.

“The main purpose of the work is to generate combus-tion and instability data so that other researchers can develop better computational models for designing rocket engines,” Nugent says. “We are generating benchmark data that will im-prove the design analysis of all types of rocket engines.”

Charles Merkle, the Reilly Professor of Engineering, is leading a research group at Purdue focusing on creating such models. Without effective simulations, engineers must rely on trial and error, which is costly, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous.

“Without good models, you have to do a lot of testing, and you increase the chances of accidents,” Nugent says. “If you do more computational modeling up front, you have less risk of damaging very expensive hardware, reducing the amount of testing needed and getting more out of each test.” ■ Emil Venere

DEA Award for NovickThe 2006 recipients of Purdue’s Distinguished Engineering Alumni (DEA) award included Allen Novick (BSAE ’65, MSAE ’67, PhD ’72). He was cited for technical and managerial leadership in the production of commercial aircraft engines, as well as for his commitment to improving industry in Indiana.

Novick serves Rolls-Royce Corporation as vice president of marketing intelligence and support. During his tenure with the company he has ad-vanced aeronautic design systems and manufac-turing technology through award-winning work on prop-fan engines. He has also provided leadership toward the development of the AE Common Core engine.

People in the News• Alina Alexeenko, a new assistant professor, has joined

AAE in the aerodynamics group. She last served in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles.

• Linda Flack holds AAE’s record for the longest tenure of any support staff and this past spring celebrated 40 years with the school. She handles details for undergraduate and graduate applications, enrollment, registration, co-op programs, and more.

• Geraldine Fritsch won the Willy Z. Sadeh Award in Space Engineering and Space Sciences, presented to grad students dedicated to space-based research.

• Yen Yu was awarded a Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship, which provides graduate study funds to women in aerospace-related science and engineering.

• Lindsay Millard received honors from the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation, which encourages promising young researchers to pursue global careers through the co-funding of advanced studies and/or research.

around aae continued

Winter 2006-07

3

New mathematical understanding and computer science breakthroughs are opening doors to advancements in astrodynamics and space applications—so many that Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics is debuting a new graduate study area.

“We’re focused on the science and engineering associated with spacecraft, space environment, and the solar system,” says Kathleen Howell, the Hsu Lo Professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and chair of the new area. She’s speaking of a crew that includes professors James Longuski and James Garrison, other joint- or part-time faculty expected onboard, current graduate students switching to this area, and new students.

Participating students will apply the fundamentals they learn to celestial mechanics, motion of natural space bodies and spacecraft, attitude dynamics, vehicle orientation, and estimation and filtering. “[We] will cover mission design, trajectory optimization, and orbit determination,” Howell says. Applications also include remote sensing, spacecraft guidance and station-keeping, communications, telemetry, and constellations and formation flight.

While the naming of this study area is new, Purdue and Howell have long excelled in it. Her work began with an Iowa State University bachelor’s degree in aerospace engi-neering, then master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineer-ing from Stanford. She joined Purdue in 1982, and in 2004 became a named professor.

Today known as an expert on spacecraft mission design, orbital mechanics, and tra-jectories in regions of space with multiple gravity fields, Howell has completed trajectory designs for spacecraft missions and developed ways to reduce design and fuel costs. In 2002 Discover magazine named her one of the 50 most important women in science.

Creating the new study area highlights its availability and positions Purdue for recognition in technical

astrodynamics. “Purdue has contributed significantly to all types of space-

craft missions, including recent complex and innovative robotic missions,” Howell says. “This

program will capture that.”And students will now

have a tailored program

focus. “That doesn’t mean it’s narrow. It’s actually quite broad,” she notes.

Astrodynamics has been Howell’s passion since NASA’s first manned space flights, and Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon was pivotal. “I walked into my high school counselor’s office and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’” Undeterred by the suggestion that it wasn’t a career for women, Howell, who had yet to travel on an airplane, leveraged her love of math and science to pursue it. Today she’s interested primarily in space-craft robotic missions—their trajectories and orbits.

“Right now engineers can design the most complex missions, vehicles are venturing far out into the solar system and beyond, and they’re moving out at a quicker pace,” she says. “As we race forward in computational capabilities and mathematical understanding, we can do much more. We’re also working on the in-teractions of the visualization and design process, work that couldn’t be done be-fore because we didn’t have the comput-ing ability. It will be staggering what can be accomplished in the next 10 years.”

Purdue stands to be at the forefront in teaching and research, Howell believes. “My students are wonderful. If I tell them, ‘Let’s make this work,’ they do it.” ■ Kathy Mayer

Professor Kathleen Howell (left) shares her passion for discovery on a daily basis.

Illustration from STK ®

Vin

cent

Wal

ter

up close: faculty

A Passion for DiscoveryAAE taps Kathleen Howell to chair its new astrodynamics and space applications grad area.

4


Dan DeLaurentis (right) and William Crossley both lead projects within the system-of-systems arena.

ALLSYSTEMS

GO!High-impact, system-of-systems research has come center stage

at Purdue. In the pages that follow we highlight some of

the unique and varied projects tackled by Aeronautics and

Astronautics faculty.

Vin

cent

Wal

ter

5

Winter 2006-07

You likely wouldn’t expect an aeronautics and astronautics professor to conduct research related to avian flu. Yet that’s exactly what Assistant Professor Dan DeLaurentis is doing, col-laborating with Professors George Moore and Larry Glickman, faculty in Purdue’s Veterinary Pathobiology Department.

The avian influenza virus (or “bird flu”) has become an inter-national concern, particularly in some regions of Asia where people frequently handle poultry. Close contact between humans and house pets—not domestic poultry—is more common in the United States. However, in several recent cases cats have been shown to be susceptible to the avian influ-enza virus. Tigers in a Thailand zoo contracted the virus (after eating infected chickens), as have several pet cats in Austria, Germany, and Iraq. Therefore, Moore and Glickman sought a way to model how the disease might spread through an out-break in our cat population.

“Many people have pet cats, so the project is looking at how we can understand, prevent, and, if need be, manage the spread of avian flu in companion animals, in this case cats,” DeLaurentis says. Determining the potential impact on humans remains beyond the project’s scope. Such a study would make a logical next step, however.

“Some serendipity brought us together,” DeLaurentis says of the project’s team, which includes AAE gradu-

ate student Sricharan Ayyalasomayajula. “Dr. Glickman found out that Sricharan was doing a project for one of my classes—System of Systems Modeling and Analysis—looking at pan-demic modeling.” While Moore and Glickman offer pathobiology perspectives to the study, AAE can share its modeling exper-tise, showing how the disease could infiltrate a cat “network.”

DeLaurentis was hired into Purdue Engineering’s System of Systems (SoS) signature area, which focuses on how various independent systems can unite to generate new capabilities. The military, for example, increasingly pursues such concepts for network-centric warfare and/or network-centric integration. DeLaurentis has applied SoS principles to the design of future air transportation architectures. The same mathematical tools used to establish such networks can be applied to modeling

continued onnext page

A network of 160 cats represented by cat households (dots), cat territories (circles), and cat interaction (lines).

A network representation of 1,600 domestic cats.

PREVENTING A PANDEMIC

How can a study of aeronautics systems prevent the spread of

avian flu among cats?

6


In the ever-evolving field of engineering, the phrase “system of systems” (SoS) has gained wider acceptance in recent years. That’s because engineers will increasingly turn to systems inte-gration to meet larger goals.

William Crossley underscores the significance of systems integration, specifically how it will benefit aircraft design and al-location. “I think it’s going to expand as society demands more capabilities from all kinds of areas—from government and civil infrastructure to transportation and healthcare,” says the asso-ciate professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

Purdue’s College of Engineering identified SoS as a signature area for interdisciplinary research in 2003. SoS had emerged as a viable research focus as faculty members recognized sig-nificant changes within government and industry, particularly related to the aerospace and defense areas. Crossley notes that system of systems is particularly important to the military. “They came up with the term,” he says. “It describes where you take many things physically separated from each other—and often managed completely independently of each other—and somehow get them to coordinate to provide a higher-level capability.”

cats into a contact network. Researchers can then seek to determine what might occur when a cat becomes infected. Will the disease spread throughout the whole network, or will it die off after passing through one or two cats?

The team has identified a geographical area within Indiana for its study sample, looking at the density of cats within that area. In a given region where many cats are randomly located, two are considered to be connected if they fall within geo-graphic proximity of one another. A cat in that region wouldn’t be connected to cats further away—unless it is highly mobile.

The project’s first phase requires establishing the cat inter-action network. The second phase will employ epidemiology, the study of how disease spreads in a population. The math-ematics of epidemiology typically assumes the existence of a uniformly distributed population. That’s what makes network modeling critical to the study.

“Without the cat contact network topology, the fact that one cat may be much less likely to be connected to a distant cat—but it’s much more likely to be connected to a cat that’s two houses away—is lost,” DeLaurentis says. “That’s why the network is important.” The team believes that combining an epidemiological model and cat network will provide a realistic picture of how avian flu might spread.

The team also hopes to identify mechanisms for dealing with an avian flu outbreak. DeLaruentis indicates that whether or not the disease infects the human population, we still need to understand how to combat the disease should it develop in our pet population. “The results of our study could indicate the best ways to deal with the problem,” he explains. “The worst-case scenario is the euthanasia of many animals. Such a drastic measure could be avoided if we knew how the network oper-ated.” ■ Matt Schnepf

Improving a fleet’s overall quality entails coordinating planes of various sizes into an airline’s flight plan, among other requirements and aircraft specifications.

SKY-HIGHPURSUITS

Improving fleet quality and air safety demands a system-of-sytems

expertise.

Pho

tos

by

And

rew

Co

nvill

e

preventing a pandemic continued

7

Winter 2006-07

Improving Fleet Quality

While individual systems employed can operate independent-ly, circumstances often demand that they operate in tandem. Consider an airplane, one example of a large-scale, complex system. Operating an aircraft takes multiple subsystems work-ing together.

Today customers like the Department of Defense (DoD) seek solutions that provide a set of capabilities, not merely a single vehicle or system that meets predetermined specifications. In the past, the DoD might have requested a plane that carried a particular set of weapons and flew at a particular speed. Now, Crossley says, they’re likely to say, “You know what, we don’t even know if we need an airplane. We just need something or a system of several things that knocks out enemy air defenses.” This poses a challenge for aircraft designers.

Crossley studies airplane design as a means of improving a fleet’s overall quality, not just improving the aircraft’s perfor-mance. To do so, he must determine mathematically how to design a plane while meeting the transportation capabilities that airlines desire. This requires assuming tasks that typically fall to the operations research team—resource allocation, such as when an airline coordinates planes into a flight schedule. “Allocating the fleet is a big part of the airlines, and there are a lot of people who are good at it, but typically they do that job indepen-dently of the people who design the airplanes,” Crossley explains.

Aircraft designers have traditionally worked to meet a set of requirements or specifications, which include the number of passengers a plane must carry, the distance it must travel, and its speed requirements. After designing the plane, designers relate its char-acteristics to the operations research team. However, operations research might discern that the plane as described doesn’t allow the airline fleet to acceptably provide the desired transportation capability. For instance, the airline might need the new plane to fly faster or carry more passengers to improve its profit-ability while transporting the passengers.

Back-and-forth communication then ensues between the designers and operations research. “There’s this handoff, and we’re trying to eliminate that handoff,” Crossley says. To do so, he’s attempting to combine both aircraft specifications and ca-pabilities needs into one mathematically formulated problem.

Ensuring Air Safety

Inseok Hwang, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astro-nautics, also devotes considerable time to system-of-systems research. A majority of his work pertains to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, which bears responsibility for safe air traffic operations within our nation’s airspace. This pertains to both commercial and general aviation.

At times our airspace can become quite congested. “You can imagine how many aircraft are in the air at one time,” Hwang notes of the 5,000 to 7,000 aircraft that could poten-

tially be flying over the U.S. at peak time. Therefore, part of his research seeks to coordinate the motions of individual aircraft, increasing throughput while ensuring air safety.

The current airspace (called National Airspace System, or NAS) requires airplanes to follow predefined airways and/or instructions from air traffic controllers. However, due to recent advances in navigation and data communication systems, planes in the near future may be able to fly their own courses instead of predefined paths of the NAS.

“Even though the ATC has managed air traffic with a strong safety record over the past several decades, the system does suffer from the occasional serious accident,” Hwang says. And due to the likely increase in smaller aircraft occupying air space, airborne delays and ground holds that have become common will only increase unless ATC’s current equipment and structure undergo changes. This will require networked embedded systems—individual entities with their own authority/decision-making capabilities communicating to accomplish intricate tasks.

Some targeted goals of Hwang’s studies include the following:• Autonomous conflict detection and resolution to identify

and solve multiple aircraft conflicts with provable safety.• Promotion of safe air traffic operations in congested traffic

environments by determining pilot intent, looking at aircraft position and velocity, plus the flight plan, ATC regulations, and the environment.

• Detection of potentially dangerous aircraft (e.g., military airspace surveillance) through airspace security monitoring

and safety verification.Like Crossley’s work, Hwang’s research

promotes high-impact solutions through systems integration as he addresses several key challenges at hand. ■ M. S.

Inseok Hwang (left) and Dzung Du conduct research (inset) focused on the Air Traffic Control system.

Vin

cent

Wal

ter


8

Worth Their Weight in WeightlessnessA unique NASA program allows students to conduct experiments in zero-G.

You might call Jackie Jaron and Brandon Wampler a little “flighty.” As two of Purdue’s 130 students who have gained 30 hours of time spent in weightlessness, they’ve earned the title.

Purdue has been an active participant in the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunity Program since its beginnings 10 years ago. The university has had 35 student teams and 10 professors take part in the program, with those numbers in-creasing annually.

Professor Steven Collicott from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics had two students approach him in 1996, asking him to help their team get involved. “After the first year of participating we saw this program was an open-ended, team-based, interdisciplinary, original engineering experience,” says Collicott. He was so impressed by the program that he encouraged Purdue to make it part of its curricu-lum. Now both junior and senior AAE students have the opportunity to join through Collicott’s AAE 418 class (Zero-Gravity Flight Experiment).

The program teaches students real-world skills, allowing them to complete experi-ments from start to finish. A student team of four flyers and one alternate must sub-mit a research proposal to NASA, outlining why its experiment requires a weightless environment. “The team engineering experience is great. There are no answers in the back of the book, and their experiment has not really been done before. It is a rich and challenging engineering experience,” says Collicott.

In between submitting their proposal and hearing back from NASA, students proceed with designing and building their experiments. Collicott does this not out

of confidence of winning, but due to the learning experience. And students find many helpful resources at Purdue for designing their experiments, including a drop tower that provides one second of zero-gravity and the expertise of the machinists in AAE’s machine shop.

Jaron, a master’s student who participated in the program in 2003, cites working in the machine shop as one of the most

important aspects of designing her experiment. “The proj-ect helped me learn how to do basic machining,” she says. “Having experience in a machine shop also helped me un-derstand from an engineering perspective how to design

a part that is easy to machine and create a drawing of that part that the machinists understand.”

After being selected for the highly competitive pro-gram, the teams are assigned flight times between March and August when they travel to Houston for training and research. The students must attend

two days of safety training and reassemble their experiments on NASA grounds, and all experi-

ments must pass NASA safety checks be-fore going into flight. Then the fun begins.

Students experience 30 seg-ments of zero-gravity periods that last 25 seconds apiece. Their experi-ment must be designed to be completed in this amount of time and survive the “roller coaster” ride of zero-gravity and double gravity. Afterward the teams write a follow-up report for NASA and contribute to outreach efforts by speak-ing at local elementary and high schools as well as at Purdue.

Outreach contributes to Purdue’s ongo-ing participation in the program. Jaron first heard about the program from other stu-dents who had participated in past years. Wampler, a senior in AAE, became in-volved in the program based on an out-reach e-mail sent to all AAE students from a former program participant. “I did not know anything about the program before this mass e-mail. I feel very fortunate for this chance opportunity,” he says.

The experiments completed vary from team to team, although most deal with low-gravity fluids or solid mechanics. Jaron’s team project provided an inves-tigation of nano-rough materials on fluid physics. “In microgravity, the dominant force acting on a liquid is surface ten-sion. This is why when you see astro-nauts playing with water in space, the water drops are spherical,” she explains. “Our experiment investigated the differ-ence in water wicking up a nano-rough rod and a smooth rod.” The applica-

Jackie Jaron (left and center) and Brandon Wampler (far right) both gained invaluble experience through NASA’s zero-gravity program.

up close: students

Winter 2006-07

9

tions of their results can be applied to water

management in plant experiments aboard the

International Space Station, as well as in propellant man-

agement for satellite fuel tanks.Wampler’s team, which flew

in 2006, also looked at how fluids would react in a low-gravity situation. “Our experiment consisted of shooting water drop-lets at grooved plates. The desired result was for these droplets to collect on these plates and not splash off. We used different sizes and velocities of droplets to see how they behaved,” Wampler says. Their experiment concluded with droplets sticking in every scenario proposed by the team. One appli-cation for their research is water collection and recycling for extended life support in space missions.

After competing for the highly competitive spot and completing the intense experiments, students better understand how an engineering re-search project works. “Bringing the experiment to life was quite a task,” reflects Wampler. “Our team had to work hard together to meet deadlines, get parts ordered, get financing from the department, and build the [project]. It was a great insight into how a real-world project would be handled.” ■ Jenna Rump

Pho

tos

fro

m N

ASA


10

Break It to Make It BetterPutting customer satisfaction first, Andy Simo

hit the bull’s eye of success in archery.

Within the confines of his basement, Andy Simo (BSAAE ’61) launched New Archery Products more than 30 years ago. Yet in some ways he can trace his company’s ori-gins to the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Even though I’m doing something other than aero engineering, I could not have built this archery company to this point without using the knowledge I learned there,” Simo says. “It would be impossible.”

Today New Archery Products reigns as the industry’s premier accessory company (www.newarchery.com). “I don’t think we would have achieved that without the edu-cation I got at Purdue and the 11 years of experience I had in aircraft structures,” he notes. In addition to applying his knowledge of structures, he also relies heavily on aerodynamics. “We design certain accessories for the arrow that make it fly straighter and give it better control in flight. It’s all aerodynamics.”

Acknowledging that “things break,” New Archery regularly tests its designs to en-sure their quality. “We have a weight limit in archery, like in airplanes,” Simo explains. “You can’t make something too heavy; otherwise it won’t work.” Therefore, testing guarantees that products won’t break prematurely. Destructive testing, for example, applies the principle of continuous improvement: If it’s not broke, break it so you can make it better. That’s literally what occurs as designers break a product to determine how to strengthen it.

New Archery’s team redesigns already successful products, knowing they can be reworked to operate even better. “If you leave it alone, it’ll die,” Simo says. For ex-

ample, the company has continually improved a particular arrowhead. Although it has been the world’s largest-selling arrowhead for years, it

receives regular revisions and improvements.Such a fine attention to detail ensures that customers

receive the best possible accessories. As Simo notes, the top entrepreneurs are those who don’t go into business solely

to make money. “You have to have some sort of a passion for either making or designing that product

or satisfying a customer when he uses your product. That’s where the satisfaction comes for me,” he says.Simo tells his associates that they’re not in the busi-

ness of designing products; they’re designing feelings. “As an entrepreneur you need to look at

business as something where you offer some sort of a service or a product that is going to make your

customer’s life a little bit easier, a little bit more pleasur-able, a little bit more fun,” he says. That philosophy drives

New Archery Products to make accessories that increase the pleasure of shooting a bow.

As he looks to the industry’s future, Simo is excited by the outlook for crossbows. “We are starting to do something that’s a totally different aspect of archery that we’re looking

into,” he says. And it’s that passion for his work that Simo encourages others to seek in their respective fields. He was fortunate because he used to love to build model airplanes, which influenced his career choice. “I think you just look around and ask yourself what it is that you like to do,” he states. ■ Matt Schnepf

Andy Simo visited campus recently and spoke with students about his professional experience.

Vin

cent

Wal

ter

New Archery Products

up close: alumni

Winter 2006-07

11

Beyond Financial RewardScholarships inspire and support AAE students.

John L. Rich and Patricia R. Rich Scholarship

The value of a scholarship goes beyond helping to pay for a col-

lege education. It’s motivation, stimulation, and sometimes, the

basis for an ongoing relationship be-tween recipient and benefactor.

John Gedmark (BSAAE ’03) says the John L. and Patricia R. Rich Scholarship that helped him through school allowed him to spend after-class hours working in the Zucrow propulsion labs rather than having to take a part-time job to earn money. The scholarship also helped him to connect with his benefactor, John Rich (BSATR ’54), who remains a valued advisor and mentor.

Rich resides in Los Angeles and is re-tired after a career in the U.S. Air Force followed by a role as general counsel for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. He established the John L. and Patricia R. Rich Scholarship/Fellowship Fund in memory of his late wife. It provides a scholarship renewable for four years to aeronautical and astronautical engineer-ing undergraduate students and to grad-uate students pursuing an advanced degree in aeronautics and astronautics.

Gedmark was recently named execu-tive director of the Personal Spaceflight Federation, a private spaceflight industry group based in Los Angeles. He has found his connection with Rich to be valuable. “In my role as director of an organization that deals with a number of legal issues in the aerospace world, I have found that John Rich is a great resource, given his legal and aerospace background. The connection between us has worked out amazingly well,” Gedmark says.

David O. and Linda Schimmel Swain Scholarship

Timothy Rebold, a junior in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, puts the value of his Swain-Schimmel Scholarship beyond financial reward. He credits it with fueling his passion for learning and pushing him to set high standards as he pursues a career goal in dynamics and propulsion. “It serves as a reward and incentive to keep focused on school work and try my best,” he says.

Rebold is one of three aeronautics and astronautics students selected for the 2006-07 David O. and Linda Schimmel Swain Scholarship Program. It awards full tuition and fees to an Indiana resident studying in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics for four years. It was funded by David O. Swain (BSAE ’64, honorary doctorate ’01) and his wife, Linda Schimmel Swain, who say Purdue gave them a jump-start on life—an experience they want other students to have.

Purdue named Swain as one of its Distinguished Engineering Alumni in 1993 and as an Outstanding Aerospace Engineer in 1999. He is retired from Boeing, where his final two assignments were chief technology officer and chief operating officer for Boeing’s Integrated Defense Business. After completing his studies at Purdue, Swain joined McDonnell Douglas Astronautics as engineer on the manned Gemini space project.

“Linda and I have benefited greatly from our experience and education from Purdue. It led to a great career for me at McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing,” Swain says. “We want the young people from Indiana with limited financial resources to have that same opportunity.”

The Swain-Schimmel Scholars will be funded by an annual gift supporting four students’ tuition and fees throughout their four years in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, assuming the awardees continue to meet the academic standards for renewal. The Swains generously have agreed to support the program for 15 years, lead-ing to a total contribution estimated at more than $650,000. ■ Linda Thomas Terhune

Timothy Rebold credits his scholarship with keeping him focused on his studies.

Vin

cent

Wal

ter

campaign impact

12


Cultured neurons are growing on a biomaterial surface designed to function as an interface between the cells and the electrodes of an implantable device. Together the neurons and the electrical device will be implanted into regions of the brain that are responsible for seizure.See page 13 (college side) to learn more about this Purdue Engineering research.

aperture

Avian Flu Averted? - Purdue University...Avian Flu Averted? Mitigating an outbreak among cats...

Documents

Transcript of Avian Flu Averted? - Purdue University...Avian Flu Averted? Mitigating an outbreak among cats...