Spring/Summer 2014 Vol. 5, No. 1 Published twice a year Massachusetts Institute of Technology In This Issue: 2N alum Vice Admiral Professor Franz Professor Themis MechEConnects (ret) Paul Sullivan Hover develops a Sapsis talks shop discusses his experience control system to about predicting News from the MIT designing 1st class Navy follow dynamic extreme ocean Department of Mechanical Engineering ships... events in the events.. | > p. 10 | oceans...| > p. 17 | | > p. 30 | The Power and Potential of Researchers in MechE are addressing the Oceans Unknown challenges of responsibly exploring and utilizing the vast potential of the oceans. | > p. 4 | 2 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering Dear Alumni and Friends, Ocean engineering is a major area of focus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In fact, it is one that is almost as old as the Department itself. Ship design and construction has been a beacon of departmental excellence dating back to 1893, when Nathanael Herreshoff, MechE class of 1870, won the America’s Cup race with the Vigilant, a boat he designed, built, and helmed; the Herreshoff Yard proceeded to build every winning America’s Cup yacht for the next 40 years. It was that same year that Course 13, the Department of Naval Architecture, was created. The number of ocean-related accomplishments that have flowed out of the department since then are abundant. From one of the most highly regarded Naval Construction and Marine Engineering programs in the country to one of the first autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) labs, our ocean engineering faculty, alumni, and students have established a reputation as the leading problem- solvers in ship design and construction, naval construction, ocean engineering, robotics, control, communications, modeling, biology, mechanics, and biomimetics, – and the many interfaces thereof. Today we move forward to areas of the ocean deeper and more inaccessible, seeking to uncover the mysteries they hide through the technology we develop together. Unlocking In the pages that follow, you will read about the many creative ways our faculty, alumni, and students are bringing their characteristic passion to the exploration of our oceans. You will the Oceans’ read about the journeys of some of our ocean engineering alumni, including graduates who Mysteries earned the titles of Vice Admiral in the US Navy and managing director of ExxonMobil Norway; faculty members exploring currents that are occurring under the ocean’s surface, studying the natural sensors of seals for submarine applications, and developing sophisticated algorithms for optimizing the paths of AUVs; and students teaching high school classes from underneath the sea and building novel oil-well blowout protectors inspired by everyday life. As engineers, the untapped potential of the ocean calls to us and we feel a duty to develop technology capable of taking advantage of opportunities in areas such as oil drilling, gem mining, and underwater navigation. But we also feel responsible for protecting the oceans. We create technologies that not only extract oil but also follow oil plumes created by well blowouts; technologies that not only map the unknown but track marine life and enable its protection. Our goal is to improve and help better manage the way we interact with our oceans, which are so vital to the well-being of our planet. As always, thank you for your ongoing support and friendship. Sincerely, Gang Chen, Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, and Department Head Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring/Summer 2014 Vol. 5, No. 1 Published twice a year News from the MIT MechEConnects Department of Mechanical Engineering > mecheconnects.mit.edu About MechE Table of Contents Mechanical engineering was one 4-7 The Power and Potential of Oceans Unknown of the original courses of study 8-9 Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Dana Yoerger offered when classes began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 10-11 Alumni Spotlight: Vice Admiral (ret) Paul Sullivan in 1865. Today, the Department of 12-13 2N Program in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Mechanical Engineering (MechE) 14 Alumni Spotlight: Meg O’Neill comprises seven principal research areas: 15 Faculty Research: Professor Pierre Lermusiaux 16 Faculty Research: Professor Thomas Peacock • Mechanics: modeling, experimentation, and 17-18 Faculty Research: Professor Franz Hover computation 20 Professor Emeritus Jerome Milgram 21-22 Student Spotlight: Folkers Rojas (PhD) • Design, manufacturing, and product development 23-24 Student Spotlight: Grace Young (SB) 25-27 Faculty and Student Awards • Controls, instrumentation, and robotics 28-29 Department News 30-31 Talking Shop with Professor Themis Sapsis • Energy science and engineering • Ocean science and engineering Contact MechE Newsletter Staff • Bioengineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Alissa Mallinson Massachusetts Institute of Technology Managing Editor 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-174 • Micro and nano science and Cambridge, MA 02139 Thomas Peacock technology Media Moghul E-mail: [email protected] B. Harris Crist Each of these disciplines encompasses mecheconnects.mit.edu Webmaster facebook.com/mitmeche several laboratories and academic twitter.com/mitmeche John Freidah programs that foster modeling, youtube.com/MITMechE Multimedia Specialist analysis, computation, and Wing Ngan experimentation. MechE educational Designer programs remain at the leading edge Allegra Boverman, M. Scott by providing in-depth instruction Brauer, John Freidah, iStock, Tony in engineering principles and Pulsone, MIT Museum Photography Credit unparalleled opportunities for students to apply their knowledge. 4 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering The Power and Potential of Oceans Unknown Engineering and the Ocean Environment: Challenge and Opportunity by Alissa Mallinson Vast and seemingly impenetrable, the ocean inspires endless fascination. It is the topic of countless tales and adventures, from Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the Great White Whale to the discovery of the watery grave of the unsinkable Titanic. The mysteries of the oceans’ depths “And some people don’t recognize the At MIT, ocean engineering has and what lies beneath offer exciting ocean as interesting,” he continues. always been a major element of challenges for engineers, who strive “For example, back in the ‘60s when our curriculum – notably the naval to develop new means to explore and the Alvin submersible was first construction and engineering program utilize its resources. dispatched, they wanted to go down 2N, which has produced many of the and look at the deep parts of the Navy’s top-ranking technical naval But why does the ocean generate Atlantic. But there were a lot of negative officers, and the naval architecture such fascination and yet remain so reactions around it. People asked, program, which produced several unexplored? “What are you going to find? Why America’s Cup winners. The “The ocean is very large,” says the look at the bottom?” Well, they went Department of Naval Architecture was William I. Koch Professor of Marine there and they found the Mid-Atlantic established in 1893, and in 1976, it Technology and Director of the Center Ridge, and all of a sudden Wegener’s began a fruitful partnership with the for Ocean Engineering Professor tectonic plate theory was confirmed and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Michael Triantafyllou. “You can see changed the view of the planet.” creating a joint MIT-WHOI program that when you go looking for a crashed in oceanographic engineering. In Indeed, it is only in the past few decades plane and can’t find it, and don’t even 1989, the MIT Sea Grant Autonomous that researchers have really been able know where to look. There are parts of Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Laboratory to inspect, investigate, and utilize the the Pacific Ocean that have never even was established, producing some of ocean environment. Its extent, depth, been crossed scientifically since Captain the first functional AUVs to become and extreme temperatures and pressure Cook. commercially successful. Several areas all present significant challenges to of mechanical engineering – such as exploration technology. mechanics, controls, design, optics, > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014 and robotics – play a large part in them, there will be no more ocean to the foundation for the use of acoustics modern ocean engineering, and they utilize.” as a means for gathering ocean data. all interface as we navigate the idea of “The ideas of utilization and protection Researchers at MIT have also played responsible exploitation and protection of the oceans go hand in hand,” adds key roles in developing underwater of the ocean. Professor Henrik Schmidt, Director of vehicles for ocean exploration. At first, Many ocean engineering faculty in the Lab for Marine Sensing Systems they were large, expensive, and could MechE have been at the forefront of (LAMSS). “Whenever you start using or only follow very simple directions, but ocean discovery and achievement, such trying to exploit the oceans’ resources, the ability they offered to start exploring as the program on Arctic acoustics that you have to make sure you know what the deeper, less hospitable parts of the led to such fundamental discoveries as the impact will be. So we need to put ocean was the foundation for all the the first proof of Arctic Ocean warming; the infrastructure in place that allows investigation, responsible