Engineering Researchers Win Big
in Aerospace Funding Competition

Researchers in the College of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati will receive $1.9 million to support aerospace research through the 2001 Air Force Research Labs/Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute (AFRL/DAGSI) research competition.

That means UC earned nearly one-fourth of the $8 million awarded in the statewide competition. The funding comes through the Ohio Board of Regents and was established to foster collaboration among the state universities and the Air Force Research Labs (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

UC engineering faculty received five principal investigator awards and co-principal investigators on five other awards. They represent four different departments in the college.

Engineering Dean Stephen Kowel said the strong showing is another indication of the research excellence in the college. "The DAGSI awards provide additional evidence that the College of Engineering has made the right strategic investments to build its programs of research and instruction. "We are very proud of these achievements."

Kowel singled out Ohio Eminent Scholar Ephraim Gutmark who received three awards, the most ever in a single round of funding by a UC scholar. "Dr. Gutmark is a person with the vision and experience to build a major program. In just one year, he has achieved major successes, including support from General Electric Aircraft Engines and DAGSI."

The projects and investigators are:
Department of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics

Professor Ephraim Gutmark

1.) Design and Analysis of Active Flow Control 2.) High Speed Air Breathing Propulsion 3.) High Frequency, Inertial Subrange Excitation for Directed Energy, Weapon Bay and Reacting Flow Applications

Associate Professor Peter Nagy

Non-Destructive Evaluation Methods to Quantify Fretting Damage in Materials

Associate Professor Paul Orkwis

Flow Physics of Incomplete Combustion Product Interaction with Film Cooling Holes

Professors Urmila Ghia (mechanical engineering) and Kirti Ghia

Studies of Non-Thermal Ignition Phenomena for Aerospace Applications

Department of electrical and computer engineering and engineering mechanics

Associate Professor Ranganadha Vemuri

Mixed Signal Modeling for System Level Simulation

Associate Professor Carla Purdy

Content-Based 3D Information Compression for Real-Time Image and Signal Detection

Department of materials science and engineering

Professor James Boerio

Carbon Nanotube-Reinforced Liquid Crystal Structural Composites by Electron Beam Curing

Paul Bishop, associate dean of research for the College of Engineering noted that the peer review process is intensive and highly competitive, because the reviewers come from outside Ohio. "The fact that five UC researchers were awarded grants as the P.I. and another five are participating as co-P.I.s is indicative of the excellent aerospace technology research being conducted at UC."

The reviewers are also expected to select projects which have a good possibility of attracting further funding, boosting Ohio's aerospace industries, and developing technology of interest to the Air Force.