Fall 2012 Edition

The Cutting Edge

Points of Interest: >Department News

>Scholarship Recipients

>Professor Spotlight

>Projects & Research

>Alumni/Student News

>Society Updates

Inside this issue:

MAE hires new faculty 1

Message from the

Department Head 2

AE research award 3

AE professor lands grant 3

Student capstone design

projects 4

Alum works for SpaceX 6

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

MAE Department welcomes new faculty

The Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering De-

partment added four new faculty members in the

Fall 2012 semester. From left are: Dr. Matthew

Jensen, Dr. Gerald Micklow, Dr. Beshoy Morkos,

and Dr. Sarada Kuravi, (front).

See Faculty Page 7

During the Fall semester of 2012 the Me-

chanical and Aerospace Engineering Depart-

ment welcomed four new professors to our

ranks. Our Department, which now has the

most faculty ever in its history, allows us to

provide an even more favorable faculty-to-

student ratio to further enhance the quality of

our programs. These strategic new hires also

expand our capabilities in the areas of automo-

tive engineering, engineering design and ad-

vanced thermal systems for energy and envi-

ronment. Please join us in welcoming Dr.

Beshoy Morkos, Dr. Matthew Jensen, Dr.

Sarada Kuravi, and Dr. Gerald Micklow to

our Department.

Dr. Beshoy Morkos is a newly appointed

assistant professor in Mechanical and Aero-

space Engineering at the Florida Institute of

Technology where he will direct a design lab

on systems engineering and computational

representations and reasoning in design. Dr.

Morkos was a postdoctoral researcher in the

Department of Engineering & Science Educa-

tion at Clemson University performing NSF

funded research on engineering student moti-

vation and its effects on persistence and the

use of advanced technology in engineering

classroom environments.

Dr. Morkos received his Ph.D. from Clem-

son University in the Clemson Engineering

Design and Applications Research (CEDAR)

lab under Dr. Joshua Summers. While at

Clemson, he received many national awards

and was a recipient of the ASME Graduate

Teaching Fellowship. His research focuses on

developing computational representation and

reasoning support for the management com-

plex system design, and is currently imple-

mented in multiple industry practices.

Dr. Morkos’ research has been published in

several journals and conference proceedings

around the world. He graduated with his B.S.

and M.S in Mechanical Engineering in 2006

and 2008 from Clemson University and has

worked on multiple sponsored projects funded

by partners such as NASA, Michelin, and

BMW. His past work experience include

working at the BMW Information Technology

Page 2

The Cutting Edge

Message from the Department Head

Dear Friends and Alumni,

The Fall 2012 edition of our

Mechanical and Aerospace Engi-

neering Department Newsletter is

again packed with exciting news

about our students, faculty and

alumni. I am pleased to announce

that four new faculty members have

joined our MAE Department this

fall. Our Department, which now

has the most faculty ever in its history, provides for

even more favorable faculty-to-student ratios. Dr. Ger-

ald Micklow, joins us as a full professor and will lead

our new initiatives in automotive engineering, Dr.

Beshoy Morkos, assistant professor, will be involved

in mechanical engineering design, and Dr. Matthew

Jensen, assistant professor, will support a variety of

engineering courses as well as our ‘Pro-Track’ four-

year cooperative education program. Dr. Sarada Ku-

ravi, our department’s first female faculty member,

joins us as an assistant professor in the area of thermal-

fluids and energy, and she will also engage with our

female engineering students by serving as a faculty ad-

visor for our Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The

cover page article of this newsletter provides more in-

formation on our newest professors. A fifth new facul-

ty member, Dr. Yongki Go, will join us in January

2013. Another record set in this academic year is our

total enrollment has exceeded 700 students. To support

the growth and our mission in teaching and research,

we will be adding two more faculty members in the

next academic year.

I would also like to take an opportunity to reintro-

duce you to all of our faculty with the photo on this

page – 20 faculty members in all. Supporting our facul-

ty and students is our phenomenal department staff and

office coordinators, Ms. Jawnee Steele, Ms. Daria

Zarski, and Ms. Jennifer Nessmith. As we move for-

ward on many new initiatives for the Department, Col-

lege and University, a strong, dynamic and suitably

sized faculty is at the core of creating the best learning

experiences for our students in the country.

One of the most special experiences for our under-

graduate students is the senior design capstone project.

These projects, which are often sponsored by local

companies and industry, represent the pinnacle of un-

dergraduate education in which our students are asked

to apply the knowledge they have gained to solve an

engineering challenge involving design, fabrication and

testing. In each Fall Edition of our MAE Department

newsletter we take special pride in sharing with you a

snapshot of the projects in which our faculty and stu-

dents are engaged. The 2012-2013 aerospace engineer-

ing and mechanical engineering design projects can be

found on pages 4 and 5, respectively, as well as infor-

mation on how you can become involved. The Spring

2013 edition of our newsletter will show you how these

projects turned out.

In this edition you will also read about several new

research grants recently won by our faculty. Dr. Ju

Zhang, Dr. Mark Archambault, Dr. Hector

Gutierrez and Dr. Daniel Kirk were winners of pres-

tigious grants from Defense Threat Reduction Agency

and NASA, page 3. Their research will involve several

of our masters and doctoral students who will use this

work as the basis for their theses and dissertations. One

of the hallmarks of the unique experience provided by

our department is to involve many of our undergradu-

ates in world-class, cutting edge research and that tradi-

tion continues with several of these new awards as

well.

For those of you that have been following the excit-

ing news in the aerospace world with the landing of the

Curiosity Rover on Mars and the successful launch and

Florida Institute of Technology’s Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Department faculty and staff.

See Message, Page 5

Dr. Pei-feng Hsu

Page 3

Fall 2012 Edition

Professor Spotlight

Aerospace Engineering professor secures $450K research award

Assistant professor of me-

chanical and aerospace engineer-

ing, Dr. Ju Zhang, and his col-

laborators Dr. Thomas L. Jack-

son, University of Illinois at Ur-

bana-Champaign, and Dr. Mat-

thew Gross from the Naval Air

Weapons Station in China Lake,

Calif., were winners of a new

research grant selected by the

Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Their

proposal entitled “Multiscale Coupling Strategies for

Multiphysics Simulation Tools” will be funded at

$450,000 award over a three year period.

In this work, they will conduct basic research on

multiscale coupling strategies of the computational

tools used in the numerical simulation of chemical

reactions and fluid dynamics that involve a vast dis-

parity of scales. The focus will be on predicting the

flow dynamics at macro-scale containing the reacting

system such as solid rocket propellants with embed-

ded micro/meso-scale structures and physics. The

overall numerical framework will link calculations at

molecular level with Molecular Dynamics simulations

all the way up to those at macro-scale.

Dr. Ju Zhang

Professor Mark Archambault lands NASA grant for lunar research

Dr. Mark Archambault, as-

sociate professor of mechanical

and aerospace engineering at

Florida Institute of Technology,

has received a four-year grant of

more than $440,000 from NASA

HQ, Science Mission Directorate,

Planetary Science. Archambault

is the principal investigator; his

co-investigator is Josette Bellan

of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The grant will fund modeling and simulation to

better understand the interaction between the rocket

plume of a lunar vehicle and the lunar surface. De-

scribing this phenomenon requires extensive model-

ing of material properties, chemical reactions, parti-

cle dynamics, turbulent flow, and thermal and me-

chanical stresses.

This grant, which follows a previous NASA grant

to Archambault, will focus specifically on the models

representing the behavior of material that is ejected

from the surface, its interaction with the lunar surface

and the rocket plume, and where the material comes

to rest.

During the Apollo landings on the moon, video

showed dust and debris blasting across the lunar sur-

face as the Apollo vehicles landed.NASA needs to

better understand this phenomenon in anticipation of

return missions to the moon.

Questions exist about the behavior of this flow,

where the dust and debris go, and how fast the debris

is moving.Such blasting can cause damage to nearby

vehicles and structures. If NASA returns to the moon,

the more that is known, the better NASA can mitigate

the effects of the blasting.While the work is focused

on the lunar environment, much of what is learned,

and the models that are developed, can apply to the

Martian environment in future missions to the red

planet.

Ph.D.-level students support the new grant and

prior funding.

Archambault’s Ph.D. is from Stanford University.

The grant is through the Lunar Advanced Science

and Exploration Research (LASER) program, under

the broader 2010 Research Opportunities in Space

and Earth Sciences (ROSES) research announcement.

Dr. M. Archambault

The Cutting Edge

Page 4

Student Projects

The Capstone Senior Design Projects represent a

special opportunity for our students to team together to

showcase their newly acquired skills to solve an engi-

neering challenge. These projects are 3 semesters (18

months) in duration and begin in a 1 credit junior level

Design Methodologies and Practice course and contin-

ue for both semesters in 3 credit courses during the sen-

ior year.

Autonomous Float Plane

The Autonomous Float Plane is a project presented

and funded by Lockheed Martin. The project‘s mission

is to create a plane that’s composed of two engines with

vector thrusting capabilities, no fuselage (only an open

cage for cargo), and two pontoons with wave piercing

hulls. The combination of thrust vectoring and wave

piercing hulls will help the plane achieve short and/or

high sea state take-offs. This project is projecting high

sea states of 4 feet as its goal. Lockheed Martin plans

on using the concept design of FIT seniors as a stepping

-stone in producing a large-scale version to sell to the

United States Navy.

MUSE The Modular Microgravity Slosh Experiment

(MUSE) project is working to design and fabricate a

free-floating fluid slosh experiment to fly in parabolic

‘zero-g’ flights. This projects aims to collect various

data during microgravity fluid slosh, such as images of

fluid distribution, and acceleration/force profiles. This

data is to be used in support of the ISS Tank Slosh Ex-

periment, which will be performing a similar experi-

ment on the International Space Station.

The MUSE Project aims to provide data suitable for

validating the data collection methodologies of the ISS

Tank Slosh Experiment and for comparison to compu-

tational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions to calibrate mi-

crogravity slosh models.

Roller Coaster Car Design an encapsulated ride vehicle and model a

virtual environment that accurately simulates a fanta-

sy world corresponding to the twists and turns of the

attached steel track to provide the passengers with a

new and unique experience.

Team Crimson Sky

The University Student Launch Initiative (USLI)

is a competition designed by the NASA to challenge

and test higher education students. By designing,

building, and launching a reusable launch vehicle

with a scientific or engineering payload to an altitude

of one mile above ground level, NASA hopes to en-

courage young scholars to pursue the fields of study

of: science, technology, engineering, and mathemat-

ics. This competition is aimed to give young engi-

neers an all around experience in the development

and execution of a complex engineering project from

beginning to end.

Team Crimson Sky will be Florida Tech’s entry

into the 2012-2013 USLI competition. As of August

29, 2012, Team Crimson Sky is composed of ten (10)

aerospace engineers. The team is divided into man-

agement and three technical subsystems: structures,

propulsion and electronics. Management of the pro-

ject is handled by Brian Thai. The structures team is

headed by Michael Cline and also composed of Kiel

Bath, Erik Burgos and Karsing Fung. Ruhaan

Eskander is responsible for the propulsion team and

is supported by Masrur Rahman and Erik Burgos.

The electronics team is lead by Navneet Nagi and is

assisted by Karsing Fung, Daphne Laino and Gabriel

Stanley.

Vector Bravo

The Rocket Plume Control Surfaces group, Vector

Bravo, will develop an entire active control system;

from the flight hardware to the control system neces-

sary for its function. The control unit will be built as

See Projects, Page 5

Students’ Capstone Senior Design Projects begin to take shape

Page 5

Fall 2012 Edition

Student Projects

a module that may be added to virtually any unguid-

ed rocket of its designated size. The hardware of the

control unit will direct rocket exhaust from the plume

of the rocket motor. The control system of the unit

will process input from on-board sensors and send

control signals to the hardware to correct the flight

path of the rocket. The prototype will be tested on

FIT's thrust stand. After receiving positive test re-

sults, the control unit will be handed over to the Cen-

turion group of Florida Tech's Student Rocket Socie-

ty for flight on their world-record rocket, Centurion.

Morphing Wing The Morphing Wing project is an improvement

on a concept that was previously developed. The

project aim is to design a morphing wing with the

potential to be applied to real world aircraft. The

wing will morph based on an agonist-antagonist

muscle system. The goals of the team are to create a

light, adaptable structure and a control system that

will monitor, lock, and manually and automatically

change the shape of the wing section. Throughout

the process we will use theoretical and experimental

data we collect through use of the wind tunnel and

model analysis to evaluate our results. This project

could potentially revolutionize future wing designs.

Projects

Continued from Page 4

docking of the SpaceX Dragon capsule with the Interna-

tional Space Station, I wanted to also let you know that our

students and alumni are involved in these exciting events.

MAE Department alumni, including Joseph Bussenger,

Maxwell Long, Jeff Grubesich, Lindsay Green, and

Christopher Niles are working at SpaceX at the Cape Ca-

naveral Air Force Station to help prepare the launch com-

plex to be the premier 21st century gateway to space for

future SpaceX launches. We also have MAE Department

alumni Jamie Huffman and Andrew Keisic working at

SpaceX Headquarters in California. This is also a fantastic

opportunity for me to remind our readers that Florida Tech

is a core research partner university in the Federal Aviation

Administration’s Center of Excellence for Commercial

Space Transportation (FAA COE CST). This ten year, fed-

erally funded endeavor placed Florida Tech, both geo-

graphically and technically, right at the center of the newly

developing commercial space launch vehicle market. For

more information on the FAA COE CST, take a look at

http://www.coe-cst.org/. Our students are not only working

on launch vehicles, but also involved in learning how to

design the next generation of spacecraft and landers, such

as the NASA Curiosity Rover. A developing partner-

ship with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

in Pasadena, CA provides engineering projects that

students can engage in here on campus as well as

internships and cooperative education opportunities

at JPL. I’m often asked, “With the retirement of the

Space Shuttle, has the space program gone away?”

As you will learn on page 6, the answer to that ques-

tion is that the space program is more exciting and

alive than ever and our Florida Tech alumni are ac-

tive in leading and shaping the next generation of

exploration. For more information on how to get in-

volved with the FAA COE CST or on our JPL-

related activities, contact MAE Associate Depart-

ment Head Dr. Daniel Kirk at dkirk@fit.edu.

Enjoy the latest edition of our newsletter. We

always appreciate your suggestions and comments,

and please send them to us at the department address

or to me at phsu@fit.edu. For those alumni who are

reading this and haven’t been in touch for a while,

please drop us a note and let us know how you are

doing.

Sincerely,

Dr. Pei-feng Hsu Professor and Department Head

Message

Continued from Page 2

Page 6

The Cutting Edge

Faculty News

Florida Tech alumnus Andrew Keisic (BS Aerospace Engi-

neering 2004) is celebrating SpaceX's successful delivery of

cargo to the International Space Station with his fellow co-

workers at SpaceX.

Upon graduating in 2004, Andrew joined GKN's Internation-

al Leadership Development Program, which is recognized as

one of the top rotation programs in the world. GKN is a tier one

automotive and aerospace supplier and Andrew rotated between

four different facilities in three countries before settling in

southern California in 2006. He helped introduced C-17 and F-

18 structural components in St Louis (2005), helped eliminate

hexavalent chrome from driveline components in Germany

(2005), improved the quality of the 747 and MD-80 cockpit

windows in England (2006), streamlined the manufacturing

process of F-18 and JSF fighter canopies in Garden Grove, Cali-

fornia (2007), and managed the honeycomb panel fabrication

department for Trent 1000 and other commercial jet engine noz-

zles in Santa Ana California (2008). During that time, GKN

also selected him to participate in the two year Site Continuous

Improvement Leader training program (2009), which is roughly

the equivalent of a Six Sigma black belt program.

In 2010, he then joined SpaceX as a Manufacturing Engineer

and has been an integral part in preparing the Dragon capsule

for its cargo resupply missions to the ISS. He's currently re-

sponsible for production of the multi-layer insulation blankets,

the Passive Common Berthing Mechanism and the Dragon cap-

sule as a whole. In SpaceX terms, that means doing whatever it

takes to ensure the on time delivery of the system, including

periodically flying to Cape Canaveral for the integration of the

Dragon to the Falcon 9 rocket. The other half of his time, he's

responsible for improving SpaceX's production systems by writ-

ing SQL queries, VBA code, dashboard reports, and technical

software requirements to ensure the overall effectiveness of the

company.

In addition to working at SpaceX, Andrew volunteers his

time to the FIRST robotics program where he is the lead mentor

for Beach Cities Robotics - Team 294. He teaches high school

students the engineering and fabrication process while building

robots that compete worldwide. Each year a new challenge is

unveiled and teams are given only six weeks to design, build and

test the robot before competing. Through his leadership, he has

led his team to two world championships: 2008 FIRST Tech

Challenge and 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition.

Andrew indicates that Florida Tech's hands on approach to

education gave him a unique and holistic perspective that has

allowed him to succeed in the work force. "Every class at Flori-

da Tech has an associated lab to go with it. Even as a freshman, I

was working in a group applying the knowledge gained in the

lecture hall. Each lab or project might not have worked as well

as we hoped, but I walked away with valuable experience that I

still use today." Andrew notes that his senior design project

(2004 VERTIGO) was especially valuable because of its multi-

disciplinary nature. "Just getting five professors to agree on a

final paper outline was difficult enough - let alone solving the

technical problems while raising money to finance the project,"

jokes Andrew. "Little did I know that those challenges were just

a microcosm for the real world!"

FIT alum works on International Space Station resupply project

Florida Tech alumnus Andrew Keisic joined SpaceX as a manufacturing

engineer in 2010 and has been an integral part of preparing the Dragon

capsule for a resupply mission to the ISS.

Fall 2012 Edition

Faculty News

Page 7

Research Center (ITRC) as a Research Associate and Robert Bosch

Corporation as a Manufacturing Engineer. Dr. Morkos’ research

thrust include: design representations, computational reasoning,

systems modeling and engineering, engineering education, collabo-

rative design, and data/knowledge management.

Dr. Matthew J. Jensen is originally from Mesa, Arizona. Mat-

thew received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering

from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 2006 where he

played four years of varsity tennis and was nominated into the Phi

Beta Delta Honor Society. During Matthew's undergraduate studies

he spent four co-op rotations working for Toyota Motor Manufac-

turing North American and Toyota Motors Proving Grounds. He

completed rotations in the purchasing, engineering, and research

and development groups. Matthew received his doctorate from

Clemson University in 2011 in mechanical engineering with a pri-

mary focus on automotive control systems and dynamics. During

his graduate studies, Matthew was awarded the Department of Me-

chanical Engineering Endowed Teaching Fellowship. Matthew

spent one year as a visiting assistant professor of mechanical engi-

neering at the University of North Florida. He is joining Florida

Institute of Technology with a dual appointment in the College of

Engineering as lead for the General Engineering program and the

MAE Department as an Assistant Professor. Additionally, Mat-

thew is the ProTrack Co-Op Coordinator. His research interests

include applications in automotive/transportation safety, electro-

mechanical systems, driver data analysis strategies, engineering

cooperative education, and driver training. Matthew’s research has

been presented at conferences held by the American Society of

Mechanical Engineering, American Controls Conference, and Soci-

ety of Automotive Engineers, and has been published by prestig-

ious journals including the International Journal of Vehicle Safety

and IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

Dr. Sarada Kuravi joined as an Assistant Professor in the De-

partment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Florida

Institute of Technology in the area of thermal sciences and energy

systems. Before joining Florida Tech, she worked as a Postdoctoral

Research Fellow at the Clean Energy Research Center (CERC),

University of South Florida (USF), where she was engaged in re-

search, publishing and writing technical proposals (funded by fed-

eral, international agencies and industry) in the area of renewable/

alternate energy. She obtained her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineer-

ing from the University of Central Florida in 2009. Her primary

research focus is on designing and optimizing energy-efficient ther-

mal systems applied to renewable/alternate energy and thermal

management of electronics. Her specific research interests include

solar thermal, heat transfer fluids and storage, building energy-

efficiency, low temperature heat recovery, HVAC, CHP, supercriti-

cal thermodynamic power cycles, hydrogen storage, micro/nano

particle suspension flows and two-phase/two-fluid separation in

space. Dr. Kuravi is the author/co-author of more than twenty

publications in the form of journal papers and refereed conference

proceedings, and is a reviewer for more than five international

journals focused on energy, solar energy and heat transfer. She

served as a session organizer for international conferences, Solar

Tour 2010 and many exhibits organized by CERC that educate pub-

lic about the importance of renewable/sustainable energy usage.

Among other honors, she was selected as one of the top ten finalists

in a nationwide graduate research poster competition organized by

the Society of Women Engineers for her work on nanoencapsulated

phase change material slurries for enhanced thermal transport. She

is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the National Scholars Honor Society,

the Society of Women Engineers, the American Society of Mechan-

ical Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro-

nautics. At Florida tech, Dr. Kuravi serves as co-advisor for the

Society of Women Engineers’ student section. She will teach cours-

es in thermodynamics, heat transfer and renewable energy, and en-

gage in research, service and outreach in the areas of thermal scienc-

es and energy.

Dr. Gerald J. Micklow is a licensed professional engineer in the

state of North Carolina. He has been actively involved in the design

and evaluation of advanced power- producing and fluid flow sys-

tems for over 30 years. He has published over 60 refereed confer-

ence and journal publications. His areas of interest include Automo-

tive Engineering, thermodynamics, computational fluid dynamics,

fluid dynamics, gas turbine engines, compressible gas dynamics, jet

and rocket propulsion, combustion, hydraulic systems, turbomachin-

ery, internal combustion engines, external aerodynamics, dynamics,

mechanics of materials, and non-destructive testing.

He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engi-

neering from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science

degree in Aerospace Engineering from the same university. He ob-

tained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Mechanical Engineering at

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has eight

years of industrial experience during which he maintained a top-

secret security clearance designing advanced aircraft and missile

configurations.

His research over the years has been heavily funded by NASA,

the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the

Federal Aviation Administration, Argonne National Labs and oth-

ers. He has received numerous awards from NASA including being

inducted into the NASA/U.S. Space Foundation Innovative Tech-

nology Hall of Fame and receiving the NASA Space Act Award for

work performed on the Space Shuttle. His interest in Motorsports

Engineering has allowed his interaction with both NASCAR and the

INDY car circuits along with many other racing applications. He

has received the Society of Automotive Engineers Ralph Teetor

award and the Faculty Advisors award. Professional society in-

volvement includes the SAE, AIAA, ASME, ASEE and ASNT.

Faculty

Continued from Page 1

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150 W. University Boulevard Melbourne, FL 32901

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