SAN FRANCISCO (Feb. 6, 2012) — Venture deep inside the new skyway of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and it becomes clear that the bridge’s engineers have planned for the long term.

At intervals inside the elevated roadway’s box girders — which have the closed-in feel of a submarine, if a submarine were made of concrete — are anchor blocks, called deadmen, cast into the structure. They are meant to be used decades from now, perhaps in the next century, when in their old age the concrete girders will start to sag. By running cables from deadman to deadman and tightening them, workers will be able to restore the girders to their original alignment.

Read the full story.

Source: nytimes.com 

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy have successfully completed a series of flight tests to demonstrate technology that could help extend the operating range and flight duration of future carrier-based unmanned systems.

The flight tests, completed Jan. 21 in St. Augustine, Fla., proved the functionality of the hardware and software that will enable the X-47B unmanned aircraft to demonstrate autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) in 2014, Northrop Grumman said. The AAR activity is part of the Navy's Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. Northrop Grumman is the Navy's UCAS-D prime contractor.

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Ashley Scroggins works on Earth and Space Science missions for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and harbors dreams of one day flying in a manned space craft.  Brian Kelly is hitting the books at SLU's medical school hoping one day to invent something.  Megan Moll is teaching algebra, biology and calculus to lower income students as part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Newark, N.J.  Darren Pais is a Ph.D. student at Princeton University.

Different paths taken by each but all with an engineering degree from SLU.  And all former SLU Presidential Scholar recipients.  The scholarship is a four-year, full tuition awarded to approximately 30 students annually.  Recipients represent some of hte most exemplary student leaders on SLU's campus.

"I still can't believe this is my job," said Scroggins, who graduated in 2008 with an Honors Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and an Engineering Math minor.  "I mean, other than hopping on a rocket and being an astronaut, I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing."

While at SLU, Scroggins participated in a co-op with GE Aircraft Engines and with NASA.  Upon graduation, she converted to a full-time position at NASA-GSFC in the Propulsion Branch.  She currently works on the propulsion systems that control satellites after launch.  Her department designs, analyzes, builds and test systems as well as supports the mission while the satellite is in orbit.

She also worked on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is currently orbiting the Moon; Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which is monitoring the Sun's activity; Glory, an out-of-house mission which unfortunately failed at launch this past February; and currently working on the Global Precipitation Measurement mission (GPM), which is a partnership with the Japanese space agency (JAXA) and will measure precipitation across the entire Earth's surface.

"I get to touch things that actually go into space," said the Illinois native.  "Since fifth grade I've always known I wanted to be an astronaut and pretty much since then have been on a laser-guided path to NASA."

Scroggins is grateful for the opportunities she was exposed to at Parks College.  "I couldn't have been more prepared for my job at NASA," she said.  "You learn how to think in engineering school, you learn the basics, how to work with fluids.  Ultimately, engineers are problem solvers.  At SLU we learned to step back, think outside the box, be as creative as possible and be ready to tackle different things once we landed jobs."

Brian Kelly feels the same way.  A May 2011 graduate in biomedical engineering, Kelly is now hitting a different set of books.  This time as a SLU med student.

"I am interested in more of the technical field of medicine because I enjoy working with instruments and new technology," Kelly said.  "Engineering school taught me how all these instruments work and how things are designed an then, obviously, in medicine, you have to have an understanding of how these things work when you are using them in a medical procedure."

Colleague Meghan Moll, who graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering with Kelly, decided she wanted to use her talent to teach underprivileged students.  Today she is teaching as part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, completing her first year of service in a Cristo Rey school in New Jersey.  She teaches high school sections of algebra, biology and calculus.  "Since I was recently a student myself, it's been a bit of a transition now switching to the role of a teacher," Moll said.  Moll is currently trying to determine if she wants to continue her career as a teacher or find a job as an engineer.  "I love both types of work very much," said the former St. Louisan.  "So it's going to be a hard decision for me to make at the end of this year."

Darren Pais, an aerospace engineering and applied mathematics graduate, is a doctoral candidate in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University.  His research lies at the intersection of two fields, namely evolutionary biology and multi-agent cooperative control, and is focused on the study of emergent collective behavior, in biology and in robotics, from the perspective of evolution.  He is the recipient of the 2011 Princeton University Harold W. Dodds Honorific fellowship and the 2009 AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control graduate award. 

Whether in space, in a medical research facility or a classroom, Scroggins, Kelly and Moll and Pais represent the faces not only of former SLU Presidential scholars, but of future leaders in their own respective fields.

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2011) — Researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's Facultad de Informática have designed a new type of TV remote control that is capable of measuring finger pressure and wrist rotation angle. It then transmits this information to the TV to change channel or adjust the volume to the preferred level.

Read the full story.

Networks of autonomous robots will someday transform warfare, but significant hurdles remain. 

Read the full story at http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/military-robots/autonomous-robots-in-the-fog-of-war  to learn further about the challenges of robotic systems as they become more autonomous.

Source: IEEE.org

Google has thrown its considerable weight behind the Green Flight Challenge, a competition aimed at spurring the development of energy-efficient personal aircraft. NASA has already put up $1.65 million in prize money for the competition and the minimum qualification is a top speed of at least 100 mph and overall energy efficiency of at least the equivalent of 200 passenger miles per gallon.

Read the full story: http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Google_Sponsors_Green_Flight_Challenge_205119-1.html

Source: AVweb.com

Airline travel in the early 1960s was still fairly carefree: If you had a ticket, you could board a plane. The escalation of hijackings in the 1970s made routine passenger screenings the new norm, evolving into today's time-consuming luggage and body scans. The early industry focused on passenger comfort; today passenger safety and flight security are the priorities. 

For the full story, click on the link: http://www.kplr11.com/news/nationworld/la-tr-airlinesafety-i,0,4825903.htmlstory

Source: kplr11.com

A spherical robot equipped with a camera may navigate underground pipes of a nuclear reactor by propelling itself with an internal network of valves and pumps. (Photo Credit: Harry Asada/d'Arbeloff Laboratory)

As workers continue to grapple with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, the crisis has shone a spotlight on nuclear reactors around the world. In June, The Associated Press released results from a yearlong investigation, revealing evidence of "unrelenting wear" in many of the oldest-running facilities in the United States.

For the full story click on the link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110721112624.htm

Source: science daily.com

 

LONDON - L-3 Communications has taken the wraps off a modified King Air 350 ER turboprop, which it says offers overseas customers an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability in advance of the U.S. Air Force's Project Liberty MC-12 aircraft but without many of the export clearance hang-ups associated with selling sophisticated spy platforms.

The U.S. company used last weekend's Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at the Royal Air Force base at Fairford, England, to debut its Spydr aircraft to air force chiefs and others from around the world who gather for the annual event.

Mark Johnson, a SLU aerospace engineering alum and L-3's vice president of next-generation ISR special programs, said the key design themes were flexibility and modularity to allow the company to tailor Spydr to meet the differing demands of customers.

For the full story, click on the link: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=7144548&c=EUR&s=AIR

Source: defensenews.com

Heading to EAA Airventure Oshkosh this year? Parks College will be there! 

A major feature at this year's event is the 787 Dreamliner.

EAA and AirVenture chairman Tom Poberezny confirmed that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is scheduled to make a landmark appearance at EAA AirVenture 2011 on Friday, July 29, giving aviation enthusiasts a glimpse into the next generation of commercial airliners.

"We're proud and excited that Boeing recognizes the significance of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in the global aviation community," Poberezny said. "This represents two significant firsts - the first time anywhere that aviation enthusiasts can tour the 787 and the first public showcase of the 787 in North America."

Read the full story: http://www.airventure.org/news/2011/110615_dreamliner.html

 

 

Visit our booth: #258 and attend the Oshkosh Alumni Breakfast on Friday, July 29. Click here for details on the breakfast.