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2008 – 2009 ANNUAL REVIEW VILLANOVA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING College of Engineering Contents Annual Review Dean’s Message 1 Drosdick Endowed Dean of Engineering Dr. Gary A. Gabriele The Way Valves Work 2 Navy grant funds Dr. C. Nataraj’s nonlinear analysis and design of smart valves. Director of External Relations Burton H. Lane To Think Big, Think Small 4 Nano research leads to innovations in thermal management of electronics. Editor Suzanne M. Wentzel Side by Side 6 Undergraduates spent the summer engaged in research with expert faculty. Designer Peter Volz Design Notching the Chart 7 Graduate engineering programs show healthy growth. Photo Credits: The Industry-Minded Professor 8 Dr. Sridhar Santhanam gets an inside look at The Boeing Company. Principal Photography: Aurora Imaging Company, LLC Affinity and Beyond 10 Crane, Paul: President’s Club Reception, p. 31 The College has a win-win relationship with Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Johnston, Barbara: VESTED demonstration, p. 11; Faculty Achievements 12 Dr. Jens Karlsson, p. 12 Faculty receive recognition as educators and researchers. Nogueras, Paola: Undergraduate Research Poster Day, p. 6; SWE networking dinner, p. 10 Why Settle for Easy? 14 and inside back cover Lockheed Martin VP Robert Slegelmilch gives every challenge a try. Troilo, Fred (The Boeing Company): Steven Spear and Dr. Sridhar Santhanam, p. 8 Alumni Achievements 15 The Engineering Alumni Society honors outstanding alumni. Welsh, John: Dr. Robert Traver, p. 12; Dr. Bridget Wadzuk, p. 13; Commencement Weekend, pp. 17 Making Waves 16 and 32; unmanned aerial vehicle, p. 28 Senior David Rounce dedicates himself to global water issues. Student Achievements 17 Questions or Comments Send to [email protected] Engineering students excel in academics, service, and student organizations. Address Updates Departments Send to [email protected] Chemical Engineering 18 Civil & Environmental Engineering 20 News & Events Electrical & Computer Engineering 22 Visit www.engineering.villanova.edu Mechanical Engineering 24 Centers Center for Advanced Communications 26 Center for Nonlinear Dynamics & Control 28 On the Cover: A graduate student conducts experiments in Donors 30 the Water Resources Teaching and Research Laboratory, which is used to support water College Highlights 32 resources classes, as well as graduate and undergraduate research. Annual Review | Dean’s Message | 1 In December 2007, the College of Engineering unveiled a five-year strategic plan. It provided a blueprint for the College to become one of the premier engineering programs in the country while maintaining the University’s Catholic values. As we enter into 2010, I’d like to update you on the progress we have made toward achieving some of the plan’s goals: • Developing innovative courses, pedagogy, and curricula One of the most innovative first-year programs in the country is making students more creative problem solvers and strengthening their understanding of engineering fundamentals. • Providing for more interdepartmental and intercollegiate collaboration Interdisciplinary teams of faculty are teaching the first-year course, as well as courses in the new Bioengineering and Engineering Entrepreneurship minors. • Increasing the diversity of the faculty and student body The College also is expanding industry interaction through funded Student gender diversity is at 25% and rising, with the incoming class student projects and research opportunities; implementing cross- at 32%. Faculty gender diversity is at 20%, twice the national figure. curricular initiatives that teach students ethics and leadership skills; and developing courses and pursuing research related to sustainable • Expanding opportunities for and recognition of research engineering. Faculty scholarship and research activity have increased (grant We are proud of our accomplishments, and yet we must adjust our applications were up by 23% in the last year), and more plan in light of new challenges. The declining college-age population undergraduates are participating in research. in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states; the lack of space for design • Growing the MS and the new PhD programs projects and research activity; and the need to grow a high-quality All departments now use our distance-education infrastructure, graduate program while improving an outstanding undergraduate and the College, which has awarded two PhDs already, expects to program: these circumstances require us to envision new possibilities— graduate about six doctoral students per year by 2012. a challenge no engineer can resist. Gary A. Gabriele, PhD Drosdick Endowed Dean of Engineering Annual Review | Features | 2 “It is rewarding and productive to work with an institution whose culture is focused on education. That culture spills over into the research work, as faculty and students dive in and try to solve the most difficult parts of a problem.” –– Dr. Stephen Mastro, a senior engineer at the Ship Systems Engineering Station THE WAY VALVES Navy Grant Funds Dr. C. Nataraj’s Nonlinear Analysis and Design of Smart Valves 3 Valves in Chilled-Water Systems “The chilled water system, which provides cooling to a number of ship systems, is a closed loop with a finite amount of fluid,” said Dr. Stephen Mastro, a senior engineer at the Ship Systems Engineering Station in Philadelphia, a major operating site of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division. “If piping breaks in a damage S WORK event and water escapes the system unchecked, the ship will be able to function for only a limited time. We need to be able to operate the electrically actuated valves, even if we don’t have power, so that we can isolate the section of pipe that is broken.” To ensure that the valves—which weigh hundreds of pounds and consume a great deal of energy—function during a damage event, the One of the principal goals of the U.S. Navy is to achieve Navy needs answers to important questions. How do we get energy to high levels of automation on ships and submarines. The use a valve to operate it? How much energy does it take to close and re- of predictive and adaptive machinery systems not only will open a valve? Where is that energy going? Would a new, nontraditional design be more efficient? reduce the amount of personnel—and, consequently, costs The mission of Dr. Nataraj and his research team is to fill in these and casualties—but also will improve ship capability, ship blanks. By using nonlinear theories to develop physics-based, high- survivability, and mission effectiveness. To investigate fidelity models, they will be able to describe the real behavior of the smart-valve systems. Carnegie Mellon University is collaborating with particular applications of this research, however, the Navy Villanova to develop the control technology to work with the models. needs a university partner with expertise in nonlinear dynamics. It has found that expertise at Villanova. The Work Thus Far In this first year of the project, the researchers, including undergrad- uate and graduate students and a post-doc, developed a small-scale Grant from the Office of Naval Research model—a solenoid-actuated butterfly valve—to verify their theoretical Last year, the Office of Naval Research awarded what will amount to work. “We’ve been able to show that traditional, simple models are not a $1.2 million grant over three years to Dr. C. Nataraj, Professor and able to predict a large number of phenomena that we actually see in Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and a researcher in practice,” Dr. Nataraj said. Once the Navy adds a programmable con- the College of Engineering’s Center for Nonlinear Dynamics & Control troller, a motor, and sensors to the prototype and provides some of the (CENDAC). Dr. Nataraj’s primary area of specialty is the application of experimental work, the researchers will do the theoretical modeling. In nonlinear dynamics and control to mechanical and electromechanical subsequent phases of the project, they will analyze other valves and systems. From 2003 to 2008, he was the founding director of CENDAC. actuators. The purpose of this grant is to fund the nonlinear analysis and design At the end of the three years, Dr. Nataraj hopes to have an optimally of smart-valve systems—in particular, those used in chilled-water designed smart-valve system, as well as better insight into the electro- systems. Because chilled-water systems supply cooling for a ship’s mechanical, electromagnetic, and fluid elements of the system. electronics, radar, and other components, as well as for its “Although the optimal design may be specific to the Navy, the phenom- environment, they are critical to a ship’s operations. ena that we uncover, the analysis that we carry out, and the models that we derive will be applicable to any kind of electromagnetically operated valves.” In the meantime, Dr. Mastro is pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Nataraj on the Navy’s side of this project. “It is rewarding and productive to work with an institution whose culture Dr. Nataraj (left) and Dr. Mastro discuss innovative fluid control technologies is focused on education. That culture spills over into the research at the Reduced Scale Advanced Demonstrator (RSAD). The RSAD is a work, as faculty and students dive in and try to solve the most reduced-scale, operational, land-based test site that simulates the chilled-water systems of Navy surface combatants and is used to test difficult parts of a problem.” innovative hardware technologies and control algorithms. Annual Review | Features | 4 TO THINK BIG, Nano Research Leads to Innovations in Thermal Management of Electronics In the early years of their joint research on the thermal management of electronic devices, Dr. Amy Fleischer BME ’91, MME ’96, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Randy Weinstein, Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, succeeded in using wax to absorb heat in small electronics. However, when they ran experiments to see if this method would be appropriate for larger systems, they met with thermal resistance.

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