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

• Design, manufacturing, and 21-22 Student Spotlight: Folkers Rojas (PhD) 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 exploitation, the Heard Island experiment, during us to monitor what’s happening and and protection that came after. They which Professor Emeritus Arthur take action if needed. Since 95% of the were, among other things, an efficient Baggeroer was part of a team that ocean is still unexplored, there’s still a way of reaching extreme ocean depths became the first to find, identify, and lot we don’t understand.” to gather samples and information that calculate average ocean temperature could be sent back to the surface. measurements; the introduction of Today, researchers are working on data-driven ship design by Professor ways to send multiple AUVs out Jerry Milgram, leading to an America’s “The fair for exploration as a fleet, to gather Cup win (see page 20); the first marine breeze blew, data collaboratively and send it back biomimetic robot co-developed by The white immediately. But communications Professor Triantafyllou; and ocean underwater have traditionally been a acoustic waveguide remote sensing foam flew, great challenge because electromagnetic (OAWRS), co-developed by Professor And the furrow signals only travel well underwater at Nicholas Makris, which enables the very low frequencies, light attenuates observation and tracking of massive followed free. rapidly, and the amount of information fish populations in their natural habitat We were the first to that can be transferred over acoustic and migratory patterns. ever burst channels is low. The oceans are utilized for everything into the silent sea.” Professor Franz Hover is looking from transportation (approximately at ways to give AUV fleets more 90% of the world’s transportation -Samuel Taylor Coleridge sophisticated directions to allow them takes place by sea) and defense, to oil The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to communicate effectively with each production, fishing, and entertainment. other, something he likens to storm At MIT, we are keenly aware of our chasing. duty to utilize them as a resource while Professor Nicholas Makris’ acoustic also understanding the impacts of that “Here in the terrestrial zone,” he says, imaging breakthrough in 2006 utilization. “we’re watching the weather very enabled a new means to look into the carefully: its winds and clouds, and “The ocean is a global system that oceans. His OAWRS technique allowed physical properties. All those things needs to be thought of as a whole researchers to take images of areas are going on underwater too, through piece, not just parts,” says Professor about 100 kilometers in diameter every moving water masses with different Alexandra Techet. “There is so much of 75 seconds. Compared to previous temperatures, chemistries, and critters. the ocean that we were not able to get techniques, it used low-frequency to until technology allowed it. It is great sound waves that can travel far “On land, we have ubiquitous that we are able to utilize our oceans, distances, providing a new way to track connectivity of agents; you can have but at the same time, if we don’t protect marine life and its migrations, and set wireless connectivity across miles and 6 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering get very high coverage and good rates He’s developing the infrastructure are essentially trying to clone expert of information transfer. We’d like to to observe and study the oceans by understanding of underwater sound have that underwater as well to monitor commanding his AUVs to map the and put that into the robots, so that if the oceans and go where things are ocean and track acoustic events one they’re using sound for mapping or exciting. There are important science, specific directive at a time, then training location purposes, they know when they policy, offshore industry, and defense them to make an intelligent decision in see something abnormal, and can say, questions that you’d be able to answer if real time about what to do with the data ‘Let me go look at it’ without waiting for you had these observing capabilities.” they gather. an external command.”

Hover envisions a group of mobile But in oceans so vast, how do underwater vehicles that can researchers choose the best routes communicate with each other, but for their robots? To answer that more importantly, can develop and question, Professor Pierre Lermusiaux act on a global model of the situation conducts ocean modeling research, at large, individually and collectively, particularly the characterization and reporting back to a dynamic control prediction of uncertainty in ocean system that receives the data in real dynamics, to help optimize the paths time and distributes commands based Students learn to program autonomous marine of AUVs. In turn, data from these on a full understanding of the situation. vehicles to collaboratively and adaptively explore the AUVs can be assimilated into Professor marine environment, a core mission of Professor Lermusiaux’s model to help constrain “Underwater we’re going to pay for Schmidt’s lab. his calculations, providing a greater every single bit of information that For example, in the case of a missing degree of confidence in predicting data passes acoustically between these airplane, says Professor Schmidt, for regions where AUVs haven’t visited vehicles,” says Professor Hover. “Agents normally a robot would be sent down yet (see page 15 for more on Professor don’t really have the ability to share all to map areas using a lawnmower path. Lermusiaux’s research). their information with each other or But because acoustic communications update each other very frequently. So With these technological advancements can’t transfer large amounts of what if the vehicles could exchange less in imaging, communications, and information, the robot has to come information yet still follow the event modeling, we are developing the up to the surface to send back its data, they’re studying?” tools we need to better explore and then wait for an above-water operator to understand the oceans. Alongside analyze it and respond with instructions exploratory tools, there is also a need on where to hone in. Schmidt’s robots, for engineering technology that on the other hand, are able to analyze improves our operations in the ocean sound underwater and make their own environment, addressing key societal intelligent decisions about what to do needs such as transportation, defense, with it. oil extraction, fishing, and disaster “The underwater robots being sent response. to the bottom of the ocean – down to One of the kayaks Professor Hover is using in his With motivations such as this in mind, robotic control systems research. 5,000 meters in depth in some cases – Professor Alexandra Techet has looked have to be able to complete the mission Where Professor Hover’s solution to biomimicry to investigate ways to of finding something, identifying what to underwater observing systems improve the performance of underwater it is, and locating where it is accurately is based on sophisticated controls and air-sea vehicles. Professor Techet enough to pick it up or follow it, communicated acoustically, Professor develops 3D imaging technology to and that requires significantly more Henrik Schmidt is developing onboard study the physics behind the propulsive onboard intelligence,” he says. intelligence and autonomy of AUVs performance of accomplished sea based on data they gather acoustically. “That’s where the artificial intelligence swimmers and jumpers, which are able becomes such a key technology. We > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014 to gracefully maneuver in and out of the “The difference between fish and don’t shake unless they are affected by water. submarines,” he says, “is that a a change in pressure, but when they do, submarine does not sense what’s the seal knows that a fish has swum by “Salmon swim upstream and jump out happening around the propeller or the and starts to pursue it. of the water, whales breach, and archer rudder. This is not a capability we would fish can jump from a dead stop,” says Such underwater sensing capabilities even think about if we hadn’t noticed it Professor Techet. “They’re looking at could allow ships to detect an eddy in marine life.” their prey above the surface, and they forming under its hull from the drag go from zero velocity to shooting out of Using micro-electro-mechanical of a sharp turn, slowing down the the water just by flipping their tail back systems (MEMS), Professor ship, and counteract it with opposing and forth. How? Triantafyllou is able to emulate the forces, or sense a current in the path of sensing capabilities he’s observed in an AUV, giving it a chance to change “We want to understand their fish and seals in lightweight and cost- course and avoid expending energy to propulsive performance, jumping efficient ways. fight it. This technology could also be capability, and maneuverability, and used to locate objects or other transient apply that knowledge to a vehicle “We were working on underwater events in the oceans, such as an oil underwater. We’re not necessarily going robotic vehicles that looked like fish, plume. to build a mechanical fish because it and one of the things we wanted to would likely be too heavy to get out explore was a way for such vehicles to The foreseeable future of the ocean of the water, but we can understand extract energy from surrounding flows. presents a rich frontier of ocean the hydrodynamics required to propel We discovered that trout actually do engineering challenges to improve our something from either a slow speed or this – they hide behind rock formations, ability to investigate, understand, and zero velocity out of the water.” using minute motions and taking operate in this relatively unexplored energy from the rocks. We wondered system. But the more we are able to First she needs the tools to observe the how the trout knew where these wakes utilize the resources and opportunities hydrodynamic behavior of locomotion are, and it turns out it’s because of what the oceans have to offer, the more we in water. we call a ‘lateral line.’” are responsible for protecting them. “Fully temporally and spatially resolved volumetric flow measurements are the next frontier in fluid mechanics,” says Professor Techet. “So the question is, ‘How can you do that experimentally?’ In my lab, we have developed a 3D An array of 10 MEMS velocity sensors emulating the particle image velocimetry (PIV) lateral line of fish. measurement tool that allows us to study higher speed flows and more This “lateral line” is comprised of unsteady problems.” hundreds of tiny sensors on the side Professor Triantafyllou’s research on of a fish through which they can sense underwater vehicles has also been that an object is near, like when a truck inspired by the mechanics and biology passes by you on a highway and you of marine creatures, particularly fish sense a blast of pressure. and seals, but his focus is on their Professor Triantafyllou has been ability to map the environment around similarly inspired by the whiskers of them, the flows and eddies, by sensing seals. After conducting research on changes in water pressure. how they work, he discovered that they 8 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Alumni Spotlight Dr. Dana Yoerger (SB ‘77, SM ‘79, PhD ‘83)

By Alissa Mallinson

Dr. Dana Yoerger standing in front of the AUV SENTRY on the vessel Atlantis. Everything he’d learned not sure how this is going to turn out, Yoerger and his team showed that it but everything we’ve done has been was indeed a deep plume and that up until that point, every leading us to this point.” it originated from a wellhead that study he’d conducted, was at 1,100 meters. They utilized an It was the notorious 2010 Deepwater AUV, SENTRY, equipped with a mass every time out at sea, Horizon oil spill, and Dana Yoerger spectrometer, to gather and transmit and the SENTRY team had come in had led him to this day. a limited subset of data that gave to do detailed mapping of the deep “The night before we got there,” says them the information they needed plume. Dr. Dana Yoerger (SB ‘77, SM ‘79, PhD to drop samplers into the water at ’83), senior scientist at the Woods Hole “The oil was still flowing,” he the right locations. From there, they Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), continues. “The next day we drove characterized the plume and calculated “we could see the sky glowing red right into the middle of the exclusion its chemical flux, as well as determined from the flares’ flames. I’ll never forget zone because we were dropping off which directions the currents were that feeling. I thought, ‘We’ve got all some team members to sample the taking it. the right equipment, we’ve got all the flow. We drove right into the middle of As an MIT student, Yoerger studied right people, we’re on a good ship; I’m it. There were more than 50 ships and under Professor Tom Sheridan, who helicopters, flames were shooting out. was researching human-machine It was unbelievable.” interactions. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014

“One of Tom’s strengths was being the Deepwater Horizon oil spill involved. If you work at Woods Hole, able to see all of the possibilities for characteristics and tendencies, has there’s no point in just generating human-machine interactions – not also been a key contributor to major engineering theory that can’t be just falling into some obvious kind of AUV research throughout the past few implemented at some point. Even the configuration but contemplating all of decades. He was part of the research researchers that are typically highly the possibilities for it. He wanted to team for the remotely operated theoretical in signal-processing or consider the dimensional space of who vehicle JASON; the Autonomous acoustic communication, for example, is in charge. And we think about all of Benthic Explorer known as ABE; are tied to people who allow them to those things all of the time now. It’s the hybrid remotely operated vehicle execute experiments and verify those not just that the automation is working NEREUS, which reached the bottom theories with practice.” and people are directing it – there’s a of the Mariana Trench in 2009; lot of richness to it now, and the trick is and most recently the autonomous to put those pieces together in the best underwater vehicle SENTRY. He possible way.” has gone to sea on more than 70 oceanographic expeditions exploring One day during his job hunt, he got the Mid-Ocean Ridge, mapping a call from his advisor saying a guest underwater seamounts and volcanoes, was coming in. Dr. Yoerger was and surveying ancient and modern intrigued, and went to meet him. After shipwrecks. 20 minutes with the guest, he looked at the clock and thought to himself, “I Today, Yoerger spends more of his think I know what I want to do with time onshore, setting up the Center my life.” The guest was award-winning for Marine Robotics at WHOI to oceanographer Professor Robert support the proliferation of robotics Ballard, who would later discover in ocean science and engineering. wreckage from the Titanic. As an educator, Dr. Yoerger also supervises the research and academic “Sometimes I think to myself,” muses program of graduate students studying Yoerger, “what if I had slept in that oceanographic engineering through day? the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in the “I don’t think I would have had the areas of control, robotics, and design. same kind of success elsewhere He’s also the 2009 recipient of the as I have had at WHOI. It turned Lockheed Award for Ocean Science out to be a great match to my skills and Engineering. and abilities. I like going to sea and “To deliver the kind of operational solving problems at sea by producing product that we need, you’ve got to engineering and scientific results.” push boundaries,” he says. “But there’s Yoerger, in addition to being a major also a strong element of engineering part of the team that identified 10 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Alumni Spotlight: VADM (ret) Paul Sullivan (SM ‘80) Former Associate Professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

By Alissa Mallinson

For Vice Admiral Paul Sullivan, USN off the deck at 150 knots is no small (Retired) (SM ‘80), a graduate and chore.” later an Associate Professor of Naval Architecture of what is today MechE’s Vice Admiral Sullivan is well ac- 2N program in naval architecture quainted with large chores. Turning and marine engineering, the crafts of an interest in boats and ships – which naval architecture and ship design are started at a young age when his moth- as important now as they ever were. er bought a Sunfish sailboat – into a passion, and then turning his passion With 283 ships in the Navy, several into an education and a career, he’s classes of ships currently under con- worked hard to get to where he is. struction, and some new designs on the way, there is plenty to do. “As a teenager, I read magazines associated with sailing and that got “I love the process of starting a ship me interested in performance sailing, “As a graduate student in MechE’s 2N design from scratch, but those op- which got me interested in designing program (formerly Course 13A), I had portunities are rare. More often we’re sailboats for performance sailing,” a very difficult time my first year be- taking a class of ships and trying to he says. “At that time the Navy was cause my undergraduate math major convert it to a new mission. That’s experimenting with hydrofoils. Any- was too theoretical. I found that the pretty challenging too,” he says. thing that went fast in the water, I was average sophomore undergraduate at interested in it. And that got me on MIT knew more engineering calcu- According to Vice Admiral Sullivan, an engineering bent. I thought, ‘Wow, lus than I did, even as a math major the Navy is always looking for ways you mean people can actually design from the Naval Academy. I showed up to improve its ships and submarines and build these wild things?’” with a very deficient education to go – stronger materials, more powerful into a really heavy-duty engineering engines, more powerful mission sys- As an undergraduate, Vice Admiral program, and my first year was awful. tems, and reduced costs. Sullivan was accepted to both MIT But by the second year I had caught and the Naval Academy, and decided up, and in the third year I was as good “There is always new technology to to attend the Naval Academy to study as anybody. That’s not unheard of for add to our ship designs,” he says. mathematics. Course 2N students.” “The new aircraft carrier is a great example. We shifted from steam cat- After he graduated, he went out to After graduation, Admiral Sullivan apults to electromagnetic catapults so sea, as all Academy graduates do. One became an Engineering Duty Officer that we’re now launching the aircraft day, a notice about graduate curric- at a shipyard, overhauling aircraft using a linear induction motor. The ulum came across his desk. He had carriers, surface ships, and subma- physics are simple, but the engineer- regretted his decision to major in rines. Because of his ship design ing of actually getting it into the ship mathematics instead of naval archi- background and recent experience and getting it to work time after time tecture as an undergraduate, so he with submarines, his next assignment as we throw these 20-ton aircrafts lunged at a second chance. was as Deputy Ship Design Manager on the SEAWOLF program. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014

The assignment that followed, One of the jobs he performed at the “The 2N program set me up for though, was quite a surprise. Naval Sea Systems Command brought success,” he says. “Some people ask him back to the SEAWOLF program why we send our Navy officers to MIT “I got a call from the Admiral, and he as the Program Manager, this time and not somewhere else. It’s because said, ‘Do you still want to go to MIT delivering the first ship of the class. MIT teaches you how to think. When and teach?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir, I’d “It’s very instructive to design a ship you’re designing the next Destroyer, love to do that some day.’ And he said, early in your career, then have to you can’t just go look at the last one ‘I’m not talking about some day.’ correct all your design mistakes and for your inspiration. We want to be on deliver on the final product,” says Sul- the cutting edge of technology, from Vice Admiral Sullivan moved from livan, who adds that the most difficult electronics to materials to physics, Washington, DC., to Cambridge, part of the delivery was certifying the and to do that you’re required to think Mass., that year and became an Asso- submarine for her initial sea trials. through problems that no one has ciate Professor of Naval Architecture ever thought through before, and in MechE’s 2N program. He taught “It’s the same thing as certifying a that’s why you send people to MIT. for three years. space shuttle,” he explains. “It was That is its strength.” more exciting because it was the first “I had a wonderful time,” he says. ship of a class. When you’re on the “I had learned my trade well execut- 58th LOS ANGELES class submarine, ing on the SEAWOLF design, but I you more or less know how that sea learned it even better teaching it to trial is going to go. But with the SEA- very bright Navy students. You need WOLF, there were many new things to know twice as much to teach it on the ship. You needed to go back because you have to be able to answer to first principles, and you needed to all the hard questions. You need to think through each new problem.” be able to demonstrate a deep under- standing of the material.” His next assignment was working on another first class submarine, VIR- Vice Admiral Sullivan – who later GINIA. By this time, he was in his sat on the MechE visiting committee third assignment as a Navy Captain, from 2003-2005, leaving his chair and worked as the Program Manager when he was nominated for his of the VIRGINIA’s design and con- third star – left his post as associate struction. professor in 1989 and headed to the waterfront in Groton, Conn., to After VIRGINIA, Vice Admiral build OHIO class submarines, then Sullivan was selected to flag rank and transferred to LOS ANGELES class assigned as the Chief Engineer of the submarines. His final move was to Naval Sea Systems Command and the Naval Sea Systems Command in later as the Commander, retiring in 1992, where he stayed for many years. 2008. 12 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

2N: Graduate Program in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering by Alissa Mallinson

MechE’s 2N program have always been commissioned US Navy officers as well. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Those principles on which the program was based are still important elements is almost as old as the of the course of study today. department’s main “The average 2N student is coming Course 2 program in from the fleet,” says the program’s director, Captain Mark Thomas. mechanical engineering. “Our graduates aspire to command “They’ve gotten their commission at shipyards, warfare centers, and major The graduate program, which started in the Naval Academy, ROTC, or Officer 1901 under the direction of Professor acquisition programs,” says Thomas. William Hovgaard and in cooperation “Their careers involve the design, with the US Navy, prepares Navy, acquisition, construction, testing, and Coast Guard, and foreign naval active maintenance of surface ships and duty officers, as well as other graduate submarines.” students, for careers in ship design and The program, which is competitive, construction. with only about nine spots offered to Influential in the field of ship more than 30 applicants per year, is design and as a professor of marine comprised almost entirely of already engineering at MIT, Professor 2N students presenting their final ship designs. existing MechE courses open to any Hovgaard was a commander in the student at MIT – with only one catch: Danish Navy when he came to the 2N Candidate School. They’ve gone to sea program. He taught several hundred for four to five years, either on a surface Navy officers during his time at MIT ship or a submarine. And then they and was the author of several leading apply for this program and come back textbooks on the subject, including here as graduate students.” Structural Design of Warships, General Most post-graduate naval students Design of Warships, and Modern History attend the Navy’s own graduate school of Warships. in Monterrey, Calif., but the school At the time, many ship designs were doesn’t have a naval architecture program, so all the naval architects go built by engineers who didn’t have the Navy-specific courses are held off to MIT. They have all earned a technical experience with life on a boat or at campus at Draper Labs. It involves undergraduate degree, although not war. Professor Hovgaard developed lessons in submarine combat systems, necessarily in naval architecture, and 2N with the idea that a prerequisite of surface ship combat systems, weapons they all want to become engineering knowledge in these areas would lead to effects and vulnerability, and submarine duty officers, not to command at sea. more effective and well-built warships. concept design. The rest of the courses Similarly, the program’s instructors focus on hydrodynamics, power and > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014

propulsion, autonomous underwater Since many graduates of the vehicle control, and structural 2N program go on to become dynamics, among other things. There is commanding officers and program a specific series of five courses that are managers, they are interested in required to earn the naval architecture gaining some business savvy as well master’s degree – Naval Architecture, the standard technical degrees they are Systems required to Engineering earn. and Naval Ship “From the Design, Naval Navy’s Ship Conversion, perspective, and a capstone the 2N project – but Professor of the Practice in Naval program is a outside of that Architecture and Engineering crown jewel the students Captain Mark Thomas earned of Navy are free to his BS in electrical engineering graduate hone in on from Oklahoma State University, education,” their individual his SM in electrical engineering says interests. from MIT, his NE in naval Thomas. engineering from MIT, and his Because of the “It has PhD in hydrodynamics from overlap with produced MIT. He is the US Navy’s senior Mechanical more than uniformed Naval Architect. His Engineering its share of technical contributions encompass requirements, officers who a wide range of naval engineering most students go on to challenges, from keeping today’s only have to very senior ships at sea and designing ships take a few ranks, for the future to evaluating extra classes to including technology advancements for both graduate with the current today and tomorrow’s Navy. dual degrees Assistant in both naval Student renderings of their ship designs. Secretary of architecture and the Navy (RDA), the mechanical engineering. Honorable Sean Stackley. There is a long history of success.” And many students now are also pursuing the Systems Design Management degree in conjunction with the Sloan School of Management. 14 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Alumni Spotlight Meg O’Neill (SB ‘93, SM ‘94)

By Alissa Mallinson

It sounds too simple Her next move to New Orleans as a reservoir engineering supervisor but Meg O’Neill to be true, placed her much closer to the credits much of her career success business side of the company, – and personal satisfaction – to her something she prepared for as an willingness to say one three-letter word. ocean engineering student taking Yes. courses at the Sloan School of Management. “I think the ability to say ‘yes’ is very important,” she starts. “If ExxonMobil “It was very helpful to understand asks me to take on a new project or the business context of the technical From there, O’Neill returned to move somewhere I’ve never lived, I work I was doing,” she says. “When Houston to work as a global reservoir have the philosophy that I ought to I started at ExxonMobil, I was doing engineering manager, looking after try to say ‘yes.’ It gives me a chance to hardcore technical work – very cutting- all the reservoir engineers around the see new things, and I know I won’t be edge applied research. Moving into the world, then moved to Canada after asked to do anything I’m not ready for. production environment put all that she was promoted to President of Saying ‘yes’ keeps doors open.” engineering in a business context. ExxonMobil Canada. She transitioned into her current position in Norway in Having started at ExxonMobil as an “One of the best things about an MIT 2012. engineer in 1994, O’Neill is currently education is the emphasis on problem the managing director of ExxonMobil solving. It’s been very helpful for me “I’ve lived in four different countries companies in Norway. She’s held as I’ve gone through my career and doing everything from hardcore several other positions along the way, worked on problems that weren’t engineering and operations to business moving to new countries every few immediately relevant to my technical and management, so there’s been years with each new promotion. education. But MIT taught me how to a tremendous amount of variety, a define and tackle a problem, figure out different challenge every day. When O’Neill first started with what I need to solve it, and determine ExxonMobil at its Upstream Research what the remaining uncertainty is. “It’s been great to be able to enjoy Company, the oil industry was just It gave me the framework for how to so much variety within the same starting to develop fields in more address a wide range of questions and company, to come up through the than 1,000 meters of water. Her job gave me a good amount of flexibility.” system and encounter different was to conduct modeling testing and challenges in the workplace everywhere computational analyses to begin to O’Neill was asked to move to the around the world.” answer questions about how to design company’s fields in Indonesia, and she As for next steps? structures for such water depths. After replied with her trademark response. She worked there for several years, first a few years, she transferred within “We’ll see what ExxonMobil asks me to in engineering management, then in the company to work as a reservoir do,” says O’Neill. “I’m confident that I field operations. engineer, producing models about how will say ‘yes.’” oil and gas flow through the subsurface “That was a very fun time because I and developing plans to optimize value really had to have my hands on the from the fields. business,” she says. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014 Faculty Research: Professor Pierre Lermusiaux New Methods and Software Can Predict Optimal Paths for Automated Underwater Vehicles

By David Chandler, MIT News Office

Sometimes the fastest pathway from point A to point B is not a straight line: for example, if you’re underwater and contending with strong and shift- ing currents. But figuring out the best route in such settings is a monumen- tally complex problem — especially if you’re trying to do it not just for one underwater vehicle, but for a swarm of them moving all at once toward separate destinations.

But that’s just what a team of engi- neers led by Professor Pierre Ler- musiaux has figured out how to do. They have developed a mathematical procedure that can optimize path planning for automated underwater putational task of planning optimal integration of ocean prediction, ocean vehicles (AUVs), even in regions with paths much more complex. estimation, control and optimiza- complex shorelines and strong shift- tion” for planning paths for multiple ing currents. The system can provide He adds that earlier attempts to find vehicles in a constantly changing paths optimized either for the shortest optimal paths for underwater vehicles situation. That’s what MIT’s Multi- travel time or for the minimum use were either imprecise, unable to cope disciplinary Simulation, Estimation, of energy, or to maximize the collec- with changing currents and complex and Assimilation Systems (MSEAS) tion of data that is considered most topography, or required so much com- group, led by Lermusiaux, has now important. putational power that they couldn’t be developed. applied to real-time control of swarms Collections of propelled AUVs and of robotic vehicles. The team’s simulations have success- gliding AUVs (also called gliders) fully tested the new algorithms in are now often used for mapping and While researchers have studied such models of very complex environments oceanographic research, for military systems for many years, “what was — including an area of the Philip- reconnaissance and harbor protection, missing were the methodology and pines amid thousands of islands with or for deep-sea oil-well maintenance algorithm,” he says — the mathe- convoluted shorelines, shallows, and and emergency response. So far, fleets matics allowing a computer to solve multiple shifting currents. They sim- of up to 20 such AUVs have been such path-planning riddles rigorously ulated a virtual fleet of 1,000 AUVs, deployed, but in the coming years far but quickly enough to be useful in deployed from one or more ships larger fleets could come into service, real-world deployments. “Because and seeking different targets. Adding Lermusiaux says, making the com- ocean environments are so complex,” to the complication, the system they he says, “what was missing was the devised can even account for “forbid-

Continued on page 19 16 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty Research: Professor Thomas Peacock Large-Scale Tests in the Lab and the South China Sea Reveal the Origins of Underwater Waves that Can Tower Hundreds of Feet

By David Chandler, MIT News Office

Their effect on the surface of the below and warmer, less-salty water in the journal Geophysical Research ocean is negligible, producing a above can be detected instrumentally. Letters. rise of just inches that is virtually That boundary layer can resemble The team performed laboratory imperceptible on a turbulent sea. the ocean’s surface, producing waves experiments to study the production But internal waves, which are hidden that reach towering heights, travel of internal waves in the Luzon Strait, entirely within the ocean, can tower vast distances, and can play a key between Taiwan and the Philippines. hundreds of feet, with profound role in the mixing of ocean waters, “These are the most powerful internal effects on the Earth’s climate and on helping drive warm surface waters waves discovered thus far in the ocean ecosystems. downward and drawing heat from the ocean,” Peacock says. “These are atmosphere. Now new research, both in the ocean skyscraper-scale waves.” and in the largest- These solitary waves ever laboratory have been observed to experiments to reach heights of 170 investigate internal meters (more than 550 waves, has solved feet) and can travel at a longstanding a leisurely pace of a mystery about few centimeters per exactly how the second. “They are the largest known lumbering giants of internal waves, in the ocean,” Peacock the South China says. Sea, are produced. The new findings The team’s large-scale (From left to right) Matthieu Mercier, Henri Didelle, Samuel Viboud, Louis Gostiaux, and come from a team Thomas Peacock inside the 50-foot rotating tank used for their tests, with a replica of the laboratory experiments effort involving MIT seafloor topography of the South China Sea inside it. on the generation and several other of such waves used a detailed institutions, and coordinated by the Because these internal waves are topographic model of the Luzon Office of Naval Research (ONR). hard to detect, it is often a challenge Strait’s seafloor, mounted in a 50-foot- to study them directly in the ocean. diameter rotating tank in Grenoble, Seen in cross-section, these waves But now Associate Professor Thomas France, the largest such facility in resemble surface waves in shape. Peacock has teamed with researchers the world. The experiments showed The only difference between an from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon, the that these waves are generated by the underwater wave and the water Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, entire ridge system on that area of around it is its density, due to and the University of Grenoble Alpes, seafloor, and not a localized hotspot temperature or salinity differences all in France, as well as the Woods within the ridge. that cause ocean water to become Hole Oceanographic Institution, stratified. to carry out the largest laboratory The last major field program of research on internal-wave generation Though invisible to the eye, the experiment ever to study such waves. took place off the coast of Hawaii in boundary between colder, saltier water Their results have been published Continued on page 19 > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014 Faculty Research: Professor Franz Hover Mission TULiP: A Robotic Pursuit on the Charles River

By Genevieve Wanucha, Oceans at MIT

If you take a stroll past the MIT behind “Icarus,” a motorboat. It is a Silvana and Nostromo at work on the Sailing Pavilion on Memorial Drive, mission of pursuit. river. you may see, among the usual glut of sailboats on the Charles River, two red These baby kayaks star in robotic Each of the kayaks tow an acoustic child-sized kayaks riding the waves. control systems research led by Franz WHOI Micro-Modem, at a depth of Instead of the 80-pound human they Hover, Associate Professor of Me- about 1.5 meters. Icarus, the target are each designed to hold, the kayaks chanical Engineering at MIT, graduate vehicle, sends out a pulse of sound, carry an array of electronics and pull student Brooks Reed and colleagues. called a “ranging ping.” Silvana and along a string of plastic flags that In the Hover Group’s workspace in Nostromo receive it and calculate the flutter in the wind. One is named the sailing pavilion, Reed is monitor- ping’s travel time. By dividing that “Silvana,” the other “Nostromo,” ing real-time data streaming in from number by the speed of sound in and together they are following close the GPS mounted on the kayaks. He water, they can compute their own only has to glance to his right to see distances from Icarus. Then, they

One of the Hover Group’s kayaks gets adjusted. 18 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

coordinate. Each swap their own acoustic communications perfor- location measurements and mance.” control actions by sending data packets to each other using the Because Hover and his team are not modems. And voila, the pursuers specialists in the fine arts of acous- know where to go next. The pair tics, they collaborate with Milica achieves its joint goal of main- Stojanovic, Professor at Northeastern taining a tight triangular forma- University in the Department of Elec- tion relative to the position of trical and Computer Engineering, Icarus, tracking their target even a leader in digital communication as it turns in unpredictable loops. networks. She’s a key contributor to the ongoing development of the This shallow-water pursuit acoustic modem used on the Hover scenario is a simple one, but it’s kayaks, the WHOI Micro-Modem, an experimental platform for a Professor Franz Hover which grew out of her PhD research highly complex engineering endeavor term vision hinges on designing 20 years ago. In her work with the of which scientists can only dream — control systems for fast vehicles that Hover Group, Stojanovic helps im- using autonomous underwater vehi- work together by communicating via prove the speed and reliability of sig- cles (AUVs) to track fast or ephemeral acoustics. nal processing between the vehicles. undersea phenomena whose bound- “That’s where we come together,” she aries and trajectories shift in time and But communicating underwater is a says, “in closing the control loop in space – for example, an oil spill as it challenge, especially in the shallow the presence of unreliable commu- meanders downstream, a toxic algae waters of the Charles. nications. That’s the beauty of the bloom as it forms, a swirling school interdisciplinary project.” of fish, a salinity front, or the waters When sound propagates through the near the edge of a calving glacier. water, it bounces off the surface, river Following on the successful mission bottom, and Memorial Drive’s sea with the autonomous kayaks, Hover “Imagine having vehicles that can walls, creating echoes in the signal. is now leveraging established numer- operate in these kinds of dynamic Many times, data packets get lost ical ocean models to better design environments,” says Hover. “That’s along the way. So Hover must design controllers. Ultimately, feeding an what we are after.” a control system that knows it won’t ocean model’s forecasting of circu- be dealing with very precise informa- lation patterns into a vehicle control Capturing the details of quickly tion. “Part of why we choose to do system would help guide the vehicles evolving ocean features is not a job tests here in the Charles River is that to the most useful or advantageous for which individual AUVs qualify. On it is one of the most difficult commu- position for monitoring an ocean their own, AUVs get partial or long nication environments you can find,” feature, such as the boundary of an outdated information if the target says Reed. “If we can make a system algal bloom. is moving faster than the tracking work here, it’s much more likely it robot. So, the Hover Group’s long- will work in a place that has better > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014

Lermusiaux, continued from page 15 den” zones that the craft must avoid of obstacles and flows — such as the National Science Foundation to and fixed obstacles that affect both the aerial vehicles coping with winds and improve climate modeling. underwater craft and the flow of the mountains. Such systems could even These waves are potentially “the key currents, and even moving obstacles, potentially help miniature medical mechanism for transferring heat such as passing ships. robots navigate through the circulato- from the upper ocean to the depths,” ry system, he says. Peacock says, so the focus of the Taking advantage of the “free ride” research was to determine exactly how offered by the currents, the craft often The algorithm allows for real-time the largest of these waves, as revealed follows startlingly indirect pathways, control and adjustments — such through satellite imagery of the Luzon meandering around in loops and as to track a plume of pollution to Strait region, are generated. whorls that sometimes resemble a its source, or to determine how it is random walk. That’s because it can be spreading. The system can also incor- Beyond their effects on climate, much quicker to drift with a current porate obstacle-avoidance functions internal waves can play a significant and then double back than to try to cut to protect the AUVs. role in sustaining coral-reef straight across, fighting the flow the ecosystems, which are considered whole time. In other cases, the AUV The team included mechanical engi- vulnerable to climate change and to may find a quicker or more energy-ef- neering graduate students Tapovan other environmental effects: Internal ficient path by rising over, or diving Lolla and Mattheus Ueckermann waves can bring nutrients up from under, jets, currents, eddies or other SM ’09, Konuralp Yigit SM ’11, and ocean depths, Peacock says. ocean features. Uncertainties in ocean research scientists Patrick Haley and predictions — and how they affect the Wayne Leslie. The work was fund- Matthew Alford, an associate optimal paths — can also be account- ed by the Office of Naval Research professor of oceanography at the ed for. and by the MIT Sea Grant College. University of Washington who was involved in the related field studies In addition to finding paths that are for this project, says, “The strong Peacock, continued from page 16 quickest or most efficient, the system forcing and ridge geometry at Luzon also allows swarms of data-collection 1999. In the years since, scientists Strait result in some of the strongest vehicles to collect the most useful data have come to a greater appreciation of internal waves in the world’s oceans. in the fastest time, Lermusiaux says. the significance of these giant waves They are important for a variety These data-optimizing approaches in the mixing of ocean water — and of reasons, including the region’s could be useful for monitoring fisher- therefore in global climate. biology, the mixing and turbulence ies or for biological or environmental they produce, and marine navigation “It’s an important missing piece of studies — such as a new National Sci- in the region.” This team’s research, the puzzle in climate modeling,” ence Foundation effort to characterize he says, “contributed to a massive Peacock says. “Right now, global the New England Shelf Break, an area advance in our understanding of climate models are not able to capture important to the region’s fisheries as how these waves get generated and these processes,” he says, but it is well as for climate research. dissipated.” clearly important to do so: “You get a different answer … if you don’t The research, carried out by Peacock While the methodology and algo- account for these waves.” To help and a team of eight other researchers, rithms were developed for an un- incorporate the new findings into was funded by the ONR, the Centre derwater environment, Lermusiaux these models, the researchers met Nationale de Recherche Scientifique explains that similar computational in January with a climate-modeling and the Agence Nationale de la systems could be used to guide team as part of an effort sponsored by Recherche in France, and the MIT- automated vehicles through any kind France Program. 20 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Lifetime Achievement: Professor Emeritus Jerome Milgram The Sherlock Holmes of the Seas

By Alissa Mallinson

He refers to himself as a seagoing ing. His thesis laid the foundation for “Professor Milgram has this re- Sherlock Holmes. the analytical method of designing markable breadth of coverage of the sails that is standard today. Shortly disciplines that make up ocean en- Known for many things, not least of gineering,” says John which is his expert understanding Leonard, Associate of hydrodynamics, fluid mechan- Head of Research in ics, and oceanography, Professor MechE and Professor Emeritus Jerome Milgram is of Ocean Engineering. perhaps most highly regarded for his work as an ocean investigator, “He has an approach an unrelenting seeker of the most that’s uniquely MIT,” precise ocean science and engineer- adds Professor Michael ing truths. He was a member of the Triantafyllou, the Wil- MIT team that produced the leading liam I. Koch Professor research on how oil escapes from a of Ocean Engineering, boom, and a frontrunner in oil con- and the Director of the tainment research and technology, Center of Ocean Engi- both of which helped to establish neering. “He doesn’t him as a leading expert in marine know just design; he accident investigation. knows naval architec- thereafter, Professor Milgram became ture, hydrodynamics in particular, as “Professor Jerry Milgram takes a very a member of the faculty at MIT, and well as electrical engineering.” careful, and scientific, data-driven was asked by Professor James Faye to approach to things,” says Penn Ed- join a study about how oil spreads on Professor Milgram’s research areas monds (’83), a naval architect on the the oceans and booms. As a result of have included ship development, the 1993 winning America’s Cup team, of this research, he was one of the early behavior of oil spills on the ocean, the which Milgram played an integral part developers of oil spill cleanup equip- behavior of sea waves and of natu- with his cutting-edge, analytical ship ment, for which he holds 12 patents. ral surfactants on the surface of the designs. ocean, and the dynamics of under- In addition to teaching naval architec- water vehicles, among many other Milgram started out as an undergrad- ture, ocean engineering, theoretical topics. uate in the Department of Electrical hydrodynamics, system dynamics, Engineering and Computer Science and numerical marine hydrodynam- He’s authored more than 100 pub- at MIT, adding naval architecture and ics in the MIT Department of Ocean lications, and is a Life Fellow of ocean engineering to his list of majors Engineering, he has also taught the Society of Naval Architects and as he became increasingly interested fluid mechanics in the Department Marine Engineers, as well as a Life in the aerodynamics of sails. After of Mechanical Engineering, as well Member of the National Academy of graduation he continued on at MIT, as signals and systems, and modern Engineering. becoming captain of the Sailing Team optics in the Department of Electrical and earning a PhD in ocean engineer- Engineering. > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014 Student Spotlight: Folkers Rojas (SB ‘09, SM ‘11, PhD ‘14) The Case of the Welcome “Hairball”

By Alissa Mallinson

What do a bathtub ‘11, PhD ‘14) to prevent oil from it was a great engineering challenge. unintentionally spilling into the You’re looking at about 1.5 kilometers hairball and a MechE- ocean, a purposefully engineered of water depth (which was the case for developed blowout blockage. But the mechanics behind the Deepwater Horizon oil spill), but preventer tool have in each of them are essentially the same. you’re also looking at approximately 3.5 kilometers for ultra-deep wells. common? It is the specific mechanics behind And all of this is happening at a water They both cause blockages. this idea that for the past few years temperature of 5° Celsius, and the has been at the forefront of the mind temperature coming out of the well In the case of a hairball, the blockage of Rojas, who is graduating this year can be as high as 150° Celsius, so it is is caused by an unwelcome natural – a challenge posed to him by his happening at extreme environmental buildup of hair in the drain. The advisor Professor Alex Slocum. conditions. The well diameter is about blowout preventer tool, on the other 0.5 meters, and you have to take into hand, is a system built by PhD “I wanted to pick a PhD focus that account the pressure as well, which is student Folkers Rojas (SB ‘09, SM kept me up at night,” he says. “This the equivalent of hanging 6 [Honda] problem had breadth; it had depth; Accords on each square inch of the 22 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

wellbore cross-section. You also have Rojas investigated several variables against the obstruction and is packed to be able to remove the plug after as he researched the solution by the pressure inside the well to you’ve closed the well.” that would be both efficient and create a cohesive mechanical plug. effective considering all the concrete With all the government-imposed limitations, many of which are based Rojas also looked at the mechanics regulations and inspections on oil on strict industry standards that exist behind generating just the right type rigs these days, blowouts aren’t very to protect people, the environment, of entanglement. He researched likely to occur – and in fact often and company assets. The first aspect varying angles, tilts, rotations, and don’t – but sometimes there is a he looked at was the dynamics of velocities until he found an effective series of unfortunate events and no the wire entanglements (i.e., the one – it starts as a little ball that effective countermeasures in place, generation of the “hairball”). He had moves forward as it grows bigger and as happened with the Deepwater to find the right material and size so longer until it creates a plug that will Horizon oil spill in 2010. According that the wire was neither too flimsy anchor in the pipe despite the drag to Rojas, who recently won second nor too stiff. Too flimsy and the wire force. In other words, a continuous place in this year’s DeFlorez will simply be swept away by the feeding mechanism that creates a Competition for his technology, drag force of the flow; too stiff and mechanical plug. His last step was it is an engineer’s duty to to prove that the solution was acknowledge and prepare scalable and ready for the next for inevitable breaks and development phase. errors that can eventually lead to what could have been a “This is a technology that we preventable catastrophe. need,” says Rojas. “Someone invented airbags, and I am “The technologies that are inventing the equivalent for oil in place right now take production, an industry that anywhere from one to four isn’t going to be discontinued weeks for the temporary anytime soon. Until then, we solutions to arrive on site. For need to do it more safely.” the permanent solutions, it can take between four to 10 weeks. the wire doesn’t entangle to create a Meanwhile, every second that the blockage. The ideal solution ended well is leaking, a bathtub’s worth of up being a hybrid of the two, a stiff oil can be leaking into the ocean. It entanglement inside a free-flowing has a phenomenal negative effect on medium that gets anchored against the environment but also on the oil the existing obstructions (that were company’s finances. The Deepwater designed to close the well but failed to Horizon oil spill cost BP more than fully close in the first place). The last $40 billion. So there is a need for a stage is a sealing material that allows better solution.” compression of the entanglement > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014 Student Spotlight: Grace Young (SB ‘14) Under the Sea

By Jessica Fujimara, MIT News Office

A house by the sea isn’t every summer in Michigan, sailing was the only girl on the team, but it on the Great Lakes. didn’t really matter.” uncommon, but it takes a true love of the ocean Her family operated a chocolate While she continued ballet training, to want to live beneath factory that her great-grandfather had Young also threw herself into robot- opened; Young spent every day after ics. It was a different sort of chal- the sea. school playing there with her cous- lenge than she faced in dance. When ocean explorer Fabien ins, watching her uncle tinker with Cousteau asked MIT senior Grace the machines that made the choco- “I liked problem-solving. That feeling Young to join his team of aquanauts late, fascinated by the robotic arms when you get something working, in living underwater for a month, that stirred, molded, and packaged even just an arm on a robot or a Young didn’t hesitate. the candies. motor turning the right way. It’s exhilarating. I love it,” she says. Her When she was 12, Young’s fam- hard work paid off: Young’s team “I said ‘Yes!’ right away,” she says. ily sold the factory and moved to made it to the VEX and First Robotics “It’s great outreach, plus really inter- Washington, D.C., where she took 2008, 2009, and 2010 world cham- esting research.” up ballet and began training with a pionships. pre-professional company, dreaming Beginning in June, the expedition, of becoming a professional dancer — She also excelled in her science and known as Mission 31, will consist that is, until she joined the robotics math classes, conducting physics of 31 days living in an underwater team. research at Johns Hopkins Univer- capsule called Aquarius, 63 feet sity and the University of Maryland below the surface in the Florida Keys during her summer vacations and National Marine Sanctuary. taking advanced math classes at the University of Maryland during the Young, a mechanical and ocean school year. With her college counsel- engineering major who was recent- or’s support, Young took the unusual ly awarded a prestigious Marshall step of applying to college as a high Scholarship, will take charge of school junior — and was accepted at marine robots on the mission and MIT. run daily Skype sessions with K-12 classrooms all over the world. “Amazingly, MIT worked out,” Young says. Young says that her path to robots and the ocean floor began years ago “My school started a robotics team, Young joined the sailing team during in the small Ohio town where she and I joined as soon as I heard about her first week at MIT, and has been spent her early childhood. On week- it,” Young recounts. “I honestly had racing on the varsity team ever since. ends she would often sail at the lake no idea what it was, but I was hooked near her house, and the family spent almost immediately. For a while, I “I love the wind in my face and being on the water,” she says. Being under- 24 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

water has also been a favorite pastime to ecosystems from global warming After graduating in June, Young plans since high school, when Young partic- and ocean acidification, overfishing is to go on to graduate study in ocean ipated in scuba-diving excursions in estimated to have depleted as much engineering and hopes to continue the Florida Keys. as 90 percent of the ocean’s fish her work on marine robotics to help stocks since 1950. protect the oceans. “I’m especially “It’s as if you’re in a new world. It’s interested in how humans can sus- really peaceful; sometimes all you Over this past summer, Young tainably harvest the oceans’ resources hear is the sound of your breathing worked in Hawaii with the National in energy, food, and minerals, while and water moving around you,” Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- conserving their fragile ecosystems. Young says. “In some ways I feel big, tration (NOAA) on an underwater ro- I’ll likely focus my graduate research because I’m usually much larger than bot called BotCam, which she hopes on mineral extraction — seabed the fish, but at the same time I feel will help prevent overfishing. “It’s mining — and how that affects ocean incredibly small, because the ocean is basically a camera monitoring system ecosystems,” Young says. “It’s going so huge and powerful.” that tracks the number and size of to happen in the next five to 10 years, fish in different locations,” Young and I want to help develop technology But as Young has come to realize, explains. “The idea is that NOAA can that makes sure it happens cleanly.” this vast and mysterious world is in use accurate data to set annual catch serious danger: In addition to damage limits or mark some zones as no-fish- ing zones.”

Read the MIT News Office article: Find out more > http://bit.ly/1ljZlSV > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014 Faculty Awards

Lallit Anand robotics and the understanding of Maria Yang neuro-rehabilitation. Professor Lallit Associate Professor Anand will receive John Leonard Maria Yang has been the 2014 ASME selected for the 2014 Associate Head Drucker Medal. Capers & Marion of Research and McDonald Award Rohit Karnik Professor John for Excellence in Leonard has been Associate Professor Mentoring and Advising, as well named a fellow Rohit Karnik was as the 2014 Ruth and Joel Spira of IEEE for his honored recently Excellence in Teaching Award. She contributions to navigation and by his alma mater was recently elected to be an ASME mapping for mobile robots and IIT Bombay fellow and was selected for the 2014 autonomous underwater vehicles. with the Young ASEE Fred Merryfield Design Award. Alumni Achiever Pedro Reis Award. It was bestowed upon him Associate Professor as recognition by the institute of Faculty Snapshots Pedro Reis recently his outstanding achievements in received a CAREER mechanical engineering as an alum Award from the NSF below the age of 40. He was one of for his project, “Smart four alumni to receive the award. Morphable Surfaces Sangbae Kim for Aerodynamic Drag Control.” Popular Science magazine recently Associate Professor named Reis to its 2013 Brilliant 10 Sangbae Kim was list of young stars in science and recently bestowed technology. with a CAREER Award from the Alexander Slocum National Science Professor Foundation (NSF) to Alexander Slocum pursue his research on gait transition was recently principles in quadruped robots. selected for the Hermano Igo Krebs 2014 ASME Thar Energy Design Dr. Hermano Igo Award. Krebs has been named fellow of IEEE for contributions From top to bottom: Professors Sangbae Kim and to rehabilitation Amos Winter carry around Clare Zhang after she won the 2.007 robot competition; Professor Mathias Kolle checks out Stephanie Scott and Jeff Mekler’s entry to the de Florez competition (they won second place). 26 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Student Awards

Undergraduate Ernest Cravalho Award (Outstanding Performance in Thermal Fluids 2014 Phi Beta Alfred A. H. Keil Ocean Engineering Engineering) Kappa Inductees Development Award (For Excellence David Bian in Broad-Based Research in Ocean Bruce Arensen Engineering) International Design Competition Sean Cockey Beckett Colson, Lampros Tsontzos (Outstanding Performance in Course Grace Young 2.007) AMP Inc. Award (Outstanding Clare Zhang Performance in Course 2.002) Antonia Warner John C. and Elizabeth J. Chato Award (Excellence in Bioengineering) MIT-Lincoln Lab Beaver Works Shirley Mao, Jonathan Rea Barbara P. James Memorial Award (Excellence in Project-Based Lauren Tsai Memorial Award Engineering) (Academic Excellence by a Graduating Lucille Hosford, Jacqueline Sly, Senior) Katelyn Wolfenberger Erin Meyer

Carl G. Sontheimer Prize (Creativity Lockheed Martin Prize (Outstanding and Innovation in Design) Sophomore in Mechanical and Jonathan Slocum Systems Engineering) Nicholas Kwok Department Service Award (Outstanding Service to the Louis N. Tuomala Award Department of Mechanical (Outstanding Performance in Engineering) Thermal Fluids Engineering) Jad El Khoury, Rohun Kulkarni, Sarah Fay Jacqueline Sly, Katherine Spies

Luis de Florez Award (Outstanding BP Women of Academic Excellence Ingenuity and Creativity) Hannah Barrett, Emma Nelson Michael Farid

BP Women of Research Innovation Park Award (Outstanding Kirsten Lim, Georgia Van De Zande Performance in Manufacturing) Josh Queeney, Yasmin Inam

continued on page 27 > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014

Student Snapshots

Student Awards, cont. from page 26

Peter Griffith Prize (Outstanding Department Service Award Experimental Project) (Outstanding Service to the Marta Krason, Rashed Al-Rashed Department of Mechanical Engineering) Robert Bruce Wallace Academic Prize Daniel S. Dorsch, Joseph Sandt Jaya Narain Clement F. Burnap Award Society of Naval Architecture (Outstanding Masters of Science in and Marine Engineering Award the Marine Field) (Outstanding Undergraduate Student Brian Heberley in the Marine Field) Sarah Brennan, Priyanka Chatterjee, Luis de Florez Award (Outstanding and Rosalind Lesh Ingenuity and Creativity) Yi Chen, Jiahui Liang, Luke Mooney, Thomas Sheridan Prize (Creativity in James Schulmeister Man-Machine Integration) Kristine Bunker Martin A. Abkowitz Travel Award Derya Akkwaynak, Audren Cloitre, Whitelaw Prize (Originality in 2.007 Barry Scharfman, Yu Zhang Design and Contest) Joshua Born, Michael Cheung, Emma Meredith Kamm Memorial Award Steinhardt, Jacob Wachlin (Excellence in a Woman Graduate Student) Wunsch Foundation Silent Hoist and Leah Mendelson Crane Awards David Christoff, Brian Foley, Julia Rabinowicz Tribology Award Hsu, Manuel Romero, Hazel Zengeni (Outstanding Research in Tribology) Adam Paxson

Graduate Wunsch Foundation Silent Hoist and Carl G. Sontheimer Prize (Creativity Crane Awards and Innovation in Design) Athanasios Athanassiadis, Eric Michael Stern Heubel, Seung-Hyuck Hong, Bavand Keshavarz, Matthew Klug, Andrej Lenert, Tapovan Lolla, Nikhil Padhye, From top to bottom: Students of 2.S998: Additive Manufacturing show off their 3D structures; students Jean-Phillippe Peraud, Douglas of 2.014: Engineering Systems Development pose with Powell, Stephanie Scott, Nicholas their final project; a student of 2.739: Product Design & Development presents his market-ready prototype; Sondej, Brooks Reed, Zhiting Tian 2.680: Marine Autonomous Vehicles’ students stand in front of the Charles River. 28 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Department News

RoboClam Inspired by Efficient print continuously from any device. Razor Clam The team’s invention, commercial- ized by their company NVBots, gives The Atlantic razor clam uses very little students the ability to turn their energy to burrow into undersea soil virtual designs into physical objects. at high speed. Now a detailed insight Additional team members include into how the animal digs has led to Mateo Pena Doll, AJ Perez and For- the development of a robotic clam rest Pieper. –Stephanie Martinovich, that can perform the same trick. The Ben Peters Lemelson-MIT Program device, known as “RoboClam,” could MechE Students Win Both “Use be used to dig itself into the ground to it!” Category Lemelson-MIT STE@M Day Welcomes bury anchors or destroy underwater Prizes Companies and Celebrates mines, according to its developer, MechE students won both the under- Technology in Sports Amos Winter, the Robert N. Noyce graduate and graduate student prizes This past April, an MIT tech group Career Development Assistant in this year’s Lemelson-MIT Program started by MechE Professor Anette Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “Use it!” categories, which recognize “Peko” Hosoi welcomed several en- Winter and his co-developer, students working on technology-based gineering-focused sports companies inventions that can improve consum- to campus for the first ever STE@M er devices and tools. Graduate student Day. The group, also called STE@M Ben Peters won for his invention of (Sports Technology and Education @ critical technology that enables the MIT), was created for students who production of a new breed of machine tool: a high resolution, reconfigurable molding surface. Similar to a desktop pin-impression toy, Peters’ reconfig- Professor Anette Hosoi, investigated urable molding surface combines how the clam’s movement causes the the high production rate of injection soil to liquefy around its shell, and molding with the custom reconfigu- then applied the same techniques rability of a 3-D printer. This “digital to the RoboClam. To develop this mold” has a technological potential low-energy anchoring system, the to be a fast and flexible industrial researchers built a mechanical puppet fabrication tool used in commercial are interested in “advancing tech- clamshell, consisting of two halves manufacturing, prototyping, and the nology at the interface of sports and that can move together and apart emerging market of do-it-yourself per- engineering.” Several MechE faculty in a similar way to an accordion. In sonalized fabrication. An undergrad- gave tours of their labs and presen- addition to anchoring underwater uate team, led by Christopher Haid, tations about their recent research to vehicles and detonating mines, the won for its do-it-yourself personalized representatives from companies such RoboClam could also be used to lay fabrication tool, a 3-D printer de- as Eastman, Nemo Equipment, Nike, underwater cables, Winter says. signed for the classroom. The auto- Okuma, Patagonia, Polartec, and –Helen Knight, MIT News Office mated, easy-to-use cloud interface and Red Bull. After the lab tours, it was remote monitoring capabilities allow the companies’ turn to present their teachers and high school students to sport-related technology to MechE > mecheconnects.mit.edu MechE Connects Spring/Summer 2014

faculty and students for an engineer- Experimenting with Efficiency: Green- are aerospace engineering; chemical ing version of show and tell called the ing the grant process for research engineering; materials engineering; “Engineering Petting Zoo.” Okuma institutions, and Most Innovative for computer engineering; electrical discussed their advanced fishing Electri-City: Energy Management in engineering (tied with Stanford and reels; NEMO displayed their inflatable Public Buildings. For Experimenting Berkeley); and nuclear engineering tents and sleeping bags; and Red Bull with Efficiency, the team recommend- (tied with the University of Michigan). brought a wingsuit donned by faculty ed a three-pronged strategy to change MIT’s graduate program in biomed- and student attendees, among many the financial incentives and dissem- ical engineering was also a top-five others. inate information to research labs, finisher, tying for third with the Uni- including establishing efficiency stan- versity of California at San Diego. US dards for the most energy intensive News bases its rankings of graduate lab equipment; changing the indirect schools of engineering on two types cost recovery calculation to reduce of data: reputational surveys of deans the amount of energy expenses that and other academic officials, and can be claimed; and mandating that statistical indicators that measure the a best-energy-practices training be quality of a school’s faculty, research, required for all lab staff. For Energy and students. –MIT News Office Management in Public Buildings, the MechE Students Part of students recommended that the city Winning Team in DoE Better establish a revolving loan fund, which Buildings Competition allows energy efficiency projects to pay for themselves through avoided A team of eight MIT undergraduate utility costs. –Victoria and graduate students – including Ekstrom, MIT Energy Initiative two MechE students, senior Cheetiri Smith (SB ’14) and graduate student MechE Graduate Program Julia Sokol – won two awards in this Ranked #1 in US News year’s US Department of Energy US News & World Report recently (DoE) Better Buildings Case Compe- awarded MIT a score of 100 among tition, out of more than 150 students graduate programs in engineering, from across the country. The Case followed by No. 2 Stanford University Competition engages the next gen- (93), No. 3 University of California at eration of engineers, entrepreneurs, Berkeley (87), and No. 4 California and policymakers to develop creative Institute of Technology (80). As was solutions to real-world energy effi- the case last year, MIT’s graduate ciency problems for businesses and programs led US News lists in seven other organizations. The MIT team, engineering disciplines, including First Fuel, led by two urban studies mechanical engineering (which tied and planning graduate students, with Stanford). Other top-ranked en- won in two of the six real-world case gineering programs at MIT this year studies. They won Best Proposal for 30 MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

Talking Shop: Professor Themis Sapsis Predicting Extreme Ocean Events

Professor Sapsis’ research focuses or an off-shore platform. Using the transfers – and when I say critical on the area of stochastic dynamical current wave field we are able to spot length-scale, it also goes with a critical systems in ocean engineering, locations of high probability for an amount of energy. We have seen including uncertainty that when we happen to quantification of have a sufficiently strong turbulent fluid flows, localization of energy as passive protection a result of the dispersive configurations for propagation of waves, then vibration mitigation in there is a high probability structural systems, and that this situation will energy harvesting from trigger the formation of an ambient vibrations. One extreme event. particular focus is on Why is this happening? the characterization of The reason is because this the ocean conditions scale is the most sensitive that cause extreme to instabilities. Thus, if we wave events (rogue exceed a certain amount waves) (Fig. 1), which of energy on this critical have been responsible Fig 1: Rogue waves are isolated events of extreme magnitude that show up without length-scale, instability for many ship accidents. prior indication. occurs in which energy starts Since these monstrous flowing into smaller and smaller scales, waves, often reaching 80 feet or higher, extreme event. This is possible by and that gives higher wave elevation. had no obvious pattern of occurrence, identifying low-energy patterns that We analyze this mechanism by using Professor Sapsis and his group have “trigger” the formation of the extreme localized basis elements that help been working toward the development wave; ironically, the challenge with us to understand and visualize these of short-term predictive schemes that identifying these triggers is their low energy fluxes. Next, we apply statistical are able to quickly predict the times energy, which makes it particularly analysis to see how these energy and locations where there is a high hard to distinguish them from the fluxes are associated with the eventual probability for an extreme wave to complex background of waves. But we formation of an extreme event. Then occur, before it even starts to form. have shown that with careful analysis we use this statistical knowledge and one can formulate ways to identify MC: If these events are apply it to a prediction framework those triggers very efficiently. seemingly random, how do you where we are able to see and analyze gather enough data to know What have you discovered about the spectral content – in other words, when to look for them or where what is causing these events? how energy is distributed over space to find them? and frequencies or wave numbers. By The mechanism we have discovered looking at that, we are able to say that TS: We are utilizing information for is related to a critical length-scale in this location there is enough energy the current state of the system that associated with important energy to trigger this instability, which we have is available from radars of a ship seen before and will most likely lead to an extreme event.

We are utilizing rigorous mathematical analysis and concepts in order to obtain inexpensive and practical methods that we will be able to run on real time and give useful predictions (Fig. 2).

American Bureau of Shipping Career Development Assistant Professor Themis Fig 2: a) Probability for the occurrence of an extreme event (left). Sapsis graduated from the National Technical Actual wave field as computed through a prototype nonlinear dispersive wave equation (right). University of Athens where he earned his diploma in naval architecture and marine If a crew were out on a ship, engineering in 2005. He began his graduate would this information help them studies at MIT in 2006, earning his PhD in avoid a problematic location? mechanical engineering in 2011. He then spent two years as a Research Scientist in Courant Yes. We cannot control these events Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU. – this is nature, and the amount of As an MIT student, he was named the George energy associated with these events and Marie Vergottis MIT Presidential Fellow. is huge – but we can avoid them. Professor Sapsis has also twice received the An immediate application of this European Union’s Marie Curie Fellowship, information would be ship navigation – as well as the Best Paper Award for Young especially autonomous ship navigation. Scientists at the Chaotic Modeling and We could know where the high-risk Simulation Conference in 2009. areas are and navigate away from them. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Non-Profit Org. Department of Mechanical Engineering U.S. Postage 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-173 PAID Cambridge, MA 02139 Brockton, MA Permit No. 301

> Mechanical engineering for Coming in the global change next issue:

Associate Professor Thomas Peacock (right) and collaborators (Thierry Dauxois, Sylvain Joubaud, Guilhem Bordes) from ENS de Lyon, France, sponsored by the MIT-France program, test their survival suits on board the R/V Kilo Moana. This research cruise was part of the NSF Experimental study of Internal Tide Scattering (EXITS) program, which took place at the Line Islands Ridge, about 1,000 miles south of the Hawaiian Island Chain. The study was focused on better understanding the location and impact of vertical mixing in the ocean.