2012 Alumni Fellow Teaching Award, Penn I Am Also Delighted to Announce That David and Nancy Pauling Have En- State’S Highest Teaching Award
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A P U B L I C A T I O N O F A E R O S P A C E E N G I N E E R I N G · F A L L 2 0 1 2 Message from the Department Head ur faculty, students, and staff continue to Susan Stewart, Sven Schmitz, and Dennis McLaughlin continue to lead advance aerospace technology and sys- our efforts to develop new courses related to wind energy. At present, O tems, contributing to national defense, three courses are being developed for online offering, with initial rollout commercial flight, earth observation, exploration, imminent. Elaine Gustus joined our department as instructional designer and new sources of energy. And as the aerospace to assist our faculty content experts in making these courses a reality. The enterprise gears up to address significant work- courses will comprise a graduate certificate program, and will provide a force challenges in the coming decade, our major degree option for a proposed online master’s degree program in Renewa- continues to be in high demand. Our undergradu- ble Energy and Sustainability Systems. ate and graduate programs are ranked 10th and We are pleased to acknowledge Peter and Barbara Papadakos for their 13th by U.S. News & World Report and Penn gifts of a restored AGM-78 missile and a MK-44 torpedo. These have State Engineering was ranked 11th in the annual already found places in our undergraduate structures laboratory, where Academic Ranking of World Universities! students are gaining invaluable experience by performing structural vibra- Our faculty members continue to garner well-deserved recognition. Mark tions tests on real defense hardware. Maughmer received the 2012 Alumni Fellow Teaching Award, Penn I am also delighted to announce that David and Nancy Pauling have en- State’s highest teaching award. Maughmer is the founder of our Flight dowed the “Pauling-Eisenhuth Award” to honor a master’s degree student Vehicle Design and Fabrication (“Sailplane”) course, and advises students whose studies focus on national security. And through your collective in numerous hands-on design activities including the AIAA Design-Build- generosity, we awarded more than $150,000 of college and departmental Fly competition (DBF) and the Kremer sport prize for human-powered scholarships to more than 40 students this year. We appreciate your assis- flight. Instructor Jose Palacios (B.S. ’03, M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’08) received the tance and loyalty to Penn State in making these a reality, and your contin- Bagnoud Award from the AHS for an outstanding contribution to vertical ued support is more important than ever. flight technology by a member under the age of 35. One in twenty-five people in the U.S. who holds a degree in aerospace A team of our undergraduates took 2nd place in the annual student design engineering earned it from Penn State—evidence of our responsibility and competition of the American Helicopter Society—the 7th year in a row impact. The department strives to prepare students for a competitive fu- that we have placed in the top two! Student teams also participated in ture, and we are committed to improving the quality of the education they DBF, the University Student Launch Initiative, and the SISO Smackdown. receive. Other students and alumni garnered additional awards. Justin Long (B.S. We are pleased to feature Joe Horn’s research in rotorcraft handling quali- ’12) received this year’s Anthony E. Wolk (B.S. ’56) best senior thesis ties in this year’s research article. I know you will enjoy reading about the award, advised by Steve Conlon. Brandi Wingate (B.S. ’12) received the other recent activities and accomplishments of our students, staff, faculty, Sigma Gamma Tau Mid-Atlantic Region Undergraduate Student Award. and alums. We always like to hear from you, and we welcome your feed- Graduate student Russell Powers (B.S. ’10), advised by Dennis McLaugh- back. Please send us news at: [email protected]. lin, received the best student paper award from the AIAA Aeroacoustics Technical Committee. And John Bird, a graduate student advised by Jack Best regards, Langelaan, received the Mertens Award for the best student contribution at the OSTIV Congress. Former NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun (B.S. ’87) was Penn State Engineering’s spring 2012 commencement speaker. Ray Baker (B.S. ’98), senior propulsion systems engineer at JPL, played a key role in the George A. Lesieutre development of the braking engines used in the Curiosity Mars rover land- ing. Thanks for the thrill, Ray! Mark Dreier (B.S. ’74, M.S. ’77) of Bell Helicopter Textron won the AIAA 2012 de Florez Award for Flight Simu- UPCOMING ALUMNI EVENTS lation. And Razvan Rusovici (M.S. ’95) received one of three 2012 Facul- ty Excellence Awards from the Florida Institute of Technology. Reception at 51st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting We also had two outstanding McCormick Lecturers this year, Jim Wood- Jan. 7, 2013 – Grapevine (Dallas/Ft. Worth Region), TX burn (B.S. ’86) chief orbital scientist at Analytical Graphics, Inc., and Bob Nelson (Ph.D. ’74) of Notre Dame University. Barnes McCormick (B.S. Please visit our website for current information ’48) himself recently offered his “Rotary Wing Technology” short course regarding upcoming events. for the 45th year! To close the spring semester, Duncan Koerbel (B.S. ’83), president of Global Services, Suzlon Wind Energy, received our www.aero.psu.edu Outstanding Engineering Alumnus award. WWW.AERO.PSU.EDU · FALL 2012 1 Awards & Recognition Faculty Promotions: Welcome New Staff David B. Spencer was promoted to full pro- Elaine Gustus was fessor, effective July 1, 2012. He joined the hired to fill the depart- Penn State faculty in 1999 as an assistant pro- ment’s newly created fessor. He received his B.S. degree in mechani- position of instruction- cal engineering in 1983 from the University of al designer. She joined Kentucky, his M.S. in aeronautics and astro- the department in nautics in 1985 from Purdue University, and March 2012 and will his Ph.D. in 1994 in aerospace engineering be working closely sciences from the University of Colorado. with Susan Stewart, research associate in Jacob (Jack) W. Langelaan was promoted to aerospace engineering, associate professor with tenure, effective July and Sven Schmitz, assistant professor of aero- 1, 2012. He joined the department in 2006 as space engineering, to develop online courses in an assistant professor. Before joining the Penn wind energy for a university-wide Master’s of State faculty, he served as a research assistant Professional Studies in Renewable Energy and Mark Maughmer (R) receiving his Penn State Alumni for six years in the Aerospace Robotics Labor- Sustainability Systems. Gustus enjoys hiking Teaching Award from President Rodney Erickson. atory at Stanford and prior to that, he was an in the central Pennsylvania forests with her dog Mark D. Maughmer, professor of aerospace engineer at Bombardier Aerospace (formerly and photography. de Havilland Inc.) in the Acoustics and Vibra- engineering, was named a 2012 Penn State Brenda Kasubick Alumni Teaching Fellow, one of the Universi- tion Group. He received a B.A.Sc. in 1992 joined the department ty’s highest teaching awards. Maughmer devel- from Queens University, an M.S.A.A. in 1994 in April 2012 as our oped the Flight Vehicle Design and Fabrication from the University of Washington, and his bookkeeper. Kasubick course upon joining the aerospace engineering Ph.D. in 2006 from Stanford University. had previously worked faculty in 1984. The course, which has re- for more than 24 years ceived national attention, immerses undergrad- Partings: at US Foods in Al- uate students in many aspects of aerospace Farhan S. Gandhi, professor of aerospace toona. She enjoys vis- engineering, including fabrication and testing engineering, has taken the position of the Red- iting her son at West of full-scale components. Maughmer has previ- fern Chaired Professorship in Aerospace Engi- Point and traveling ously received several other teaching awards with her family. including the Penn State Engineering Alumni neering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We appreciate his 17 years of service to Penn State Society Outstanding Teaching Award and Partings: Premier Teaching Award, and the American and wish him success at RPI. Society of Engineering Education’s Fred Mer- Arabella (Bell) Confer left her position as ryfield Engineering Educator Design Award. bookkeeper in March 2012 after 3½ years with Staff News the department. She works now as a financial George A. Lesieutre, head of aerospace engi- assistant in the College of Liberal Arts. neering, presented the keynote address at the Barbara Kepinska left her position as admin- 20th AIAA Adaptive Structures Forum. The istrative support assistant with the Vertical Lift forum was held April 23-26 in Honolulu, in Research Center of Excellence in June 2012 to conjunction with the 53rd Structures, Structur- pursue other interests. al Dynamics, and Materials Conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro- Colonel (ret.) Sam Evans, research associate nautics (AIAA). The title of his address was with the Vertical Lift Research Center of Ex- “Adaptive Structures: The Journey to Flight.” cellence, recently moved to Penn State’s Ap- plied Research Laboratory (ARL) in the Sys- Robert G. Melton, professor of aerospace tems and Operations Automation Division, engineering, will serve as the interim assistant Applied Enterprise Systems Department, dean for student services for the 2012 fall se- where he works in various research projects in mester. Melton will take over for Jean Landa Condition Based Maintenance, logistics and Pytel, who will be on leave to enhance the health, and usage monitoring. college’s global engineering education pro- grams. His duties involve directing the Engi- Editors: Farhan Farhan Gandhi, Gandhi, Deborah Deborah Mayes, Mayes, and Michelle and Mi- neering Advising Center and reviewing and Barnyakchelle Barnyak with contributions with contributions from the College from theof Engineer- College of making decisions related to enrollment matters.