MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department
enews Vol 3, #9
April 2007

In this issue:

1. Comings and goings
2. Honors and Recognition
3. de Weck Receives Phase 2 NASA Funding
4. CNRG - New Lab, New Site
5. Positions for Students
6. Entrepreneur Panel Promises Interesting Evening

1. COMINGS AND GOINGS

Welcome to Quishi Li, a visiting associate professor who will be working with Professor Ed Greitzer and Dr. Choon Tan.

2. HONORS AND RECOGNITION

Department Head Professor Wesley Harris has announced that Professor Ian Waitz has been named the department's first Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics. The appointment enables the professor to make, or continue to make, contributions at the forefront of important fields of aerospace sciences. The chair is named for Jerome Hunsaker, the pioneering aviation engineer who founded our department as the first aerodynamics and aircraft engineering program in the country http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/about/history.html. (The department also has a Hunsaker Professorship for Visiting Chairs.) Professor Waitz continues Hunsaker's pioneering aviation spirit with his work in propulsion, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, reacting flows, aeroacoustics, and, in particular, aspects of these disciplines that relate to environmental issues associated with aircraft design and operation. He is the director of PARTNER http://www.partner.aero and the former Aero-Astro deputy director.

The ASTM International Board of Directors has granted Professor Paul A. Lagace its Award of Merit and the honorary title of Fellow "for meritorious and dedicated service to ASTM International Committee D30 on Composite Materials, with commitment to increased efficiency and safety of composite structures via research, education and standards development, and for respected technical expertise, outstanding leadership and exemplary professionalism. ASTM International was originally called the American Society for Testing and Materials.

Aero-Astro grad student Damien Bador has won the 2007 Lean Enterprise Value Foundation Student Publication Prize. His winning paper, "Measuring the Efficiency of Commonality Implementation: Application to Commercial Aircraft Cockpits" was co-authored with his MIT research advisors, Prof. Warren Seering and Dr. Eric Rebentisch of the Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development.

Phyllis Collymore, Marie Stuppard and Paul Lagace have been inducted into the MIT Quarter Century Club, an organization of faculty, administrative, research, support, and service staff who have 25 years of employment with the Institute. Other Aero-Astro inductees over the last year include Principal Research Engineer Bob Haimes, Professor Ed Crawley, and recently retired Professor Earll Murman.

Professor Larry Young lets us know that over the weekend of March 24-25 he "enjoyed the warm sun, soft snow, and competition of fellow Masters (Old Guys) alpine ski racers at Sunday River, Maine." By failing to slow to a safe speed, he won the Super G in his age group, and finished second in slalom and third in giant slalom, to end up in a three way tie for first in the Eastern Regional Masters Championships of the United States Ski Association.

3. DE WECK RECEIVES PHASE 2 NASA FUNDING

Aero-Astro Professor Olivier de Weck, who leads the MIT Strategic Engineering Group http://strategic.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/, has announced, "We have been awarded Phase 2 of our NASA Small Business Technology Transfer Project "Rule-Based Analytic Asset Management for Space Exploration Systems (RAMSES). This develops real-time asset tracking technology by employing a combination of RFID, RDF, and other Web-based technologies such as Google maps. The idea is that critical assets can be tracked in real time through multiple levels (container/shelf level, room level, facility level, outdoors) of a system's hierarchy while only using a browser." While initial application is for NASA space exploration, there are other applications, such as real time sensing of the motion of agents and assets in a distributed complex system. The project is joint with Payload Systems Inc. and phase 2 is $600k/2years. A complete list of awards appears at http://sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/SBIR/sttr2005/phase2/awards/2005ri.html .

4. CNRG - NEW LAB, NEW SITE

Aero-Astro's latest lab, Professor Eytan Modiano's Communications and Networking Research Group, has a new Web site up adn running http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/aeroastro/labs/cnrg/ The primary goal of the Communications and Networking Research Group is the design of network architectures that are cost effective, scalable, and meet emerging needs for high data-rate and reliable communications. The group is working on a wide range of projects in the area of data communication and networks with application to satellite, wireless, and optical networks. An important aspect of the group's research is the development of architectures and algorithms that are optimized across multiple layers of the protocol stack. CNRG research crosses disciplinary boundaries by combining techniques from network optimization, queueing theory, graph theory, network protocols and algorithms, hardware design, and physical layer communications.

5. POSITIONS FOR STUDENTS

The Communications and Networking Research Group is seeking motivated students who are interested in the communications and networking field. Potential students should have already been accepted to MIT in either EECS, ORC, or AA. CNRG group offers an exciting research environment with strong collaborations with industry and research labs; allowing students to conduct research on fundamental problems that are relevant to future communications and networking systems. If you're interested, email to modiano@mit.edu and include your resume and academic record (if available).

6. ENTREPRENEUR PANEL PROMISES INTERESTING EVENING

For nearly a century, the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department has equipped graduates with unique experiences that have given rise to some of the most profound entrepreneurial endeavors in science and engineering. The Sky's Not the Limit - the MIT Aero-Astro Entrepreneur, a panel discussion with plenty of time for questions and answers, presents three Aero-Astro alumni who will tell how they used their MIT experiences to create cutting-edge, successful enterprises in aerospace and related fields: John Langford, Aurora Flight Sciences; David Thompson, Orbital Sciences Corp.; Michael Villalba; and Prof. Edward Crawley (moderator). April 17, 2007 5 pm-6:30pm, E15 Bartos Theater.

 

If you know of events, honors, activities, or other information you'd like to see in the next issue of Aero-Astro enews, please send to wlitant@mit.edu - we'd be pleased to include it!

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