Two ME Students Recipients of National Awards

Posted: 

Who says lighting can't strike the same place twice? For the second year in a row, two Department of Mechanical Engineering students have received nationally renowned awards. Rebecca (Becky) Lathrop earned a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and Nathan Webb received an esteemed NASA Aeronautics Scholarship.

Lathrop, a graduate student working in Professor Rob Siston's Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory, has been an integral part of what takes place there.

"Since we are still a relatively new lab, Becky had a do a great deal of set-up and troubleshooting before she could start to collect data. As a result of her perseverance, we now have a great experimental facility and computer modeling pipeline that is poised for years of productive work," Siston said.

Lathrop conducts research in body weight supported treadmill training, a rehabilitation method that can help some patients with spinal cord injuries redevelop the ability to walk.

"My research will begin to reveal how different muscle groups respond to changing parameters.  We hope to use the results of this research to help therapists make more informed decisions when choosing training parameters to help patients walk better, sooner," Lathrop said. "This research has given me the opportunity to work in the NeuroRecovery Network at Ohio State and to get to know some of the patients that my research could help someday.  I love that my research gets me out of the computer lab and into the clinical setting and allows me to work with patients and therapists.  It's a joy to work on a project that I know could really have an impact on the quality of life for many people who are dealing with spinal cord injuries."

The NSF Fellowship will provide support for Lathrop to continue her graduate studies and will total about $121,500 over three years. Lathrop joins last year's NSF Fellowship winners, Julie Thompson, who is also working in Dr. Siston's Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory while earning her master's degree, and Hannah Gustafson, who is conducting research at Ohio State's Injury Biomechanics Research Laboratory while finishing up her master's degree.

"I feel very fortunate to have been given an NSF award, and [I] am excited to continue with my research.  The NSF [Fellowship] gives me the freedom to pursue research that I am interested in and that I feel will make a difference," Lathrop said.

Webb is a BS/MS combined degree student in Mechanical Engineering working with Professor Mohammad Samimy at the Gas Dynamics and Turbulence Laboratory.

"In a supersonic inlet you get shockwaves forming because of the geometry of the inlet and the fact that you are moving faster than the speed of sound," Webb said, "and those shockwaves can separate the boundary layer on the internal services of the inlet. If you get separation, you have a hump in the boundary layer that's created, and it changes the cross-sectional area and [can] generate a number of problems."

"Nathan's research is of great importance to both NASA and the Air Force," Samimy said. "In commercial supersonic aircraft, which is the main interest of NASA, as well as tactical supersonic aircraft, which is the main interest of the Air Force, shock waves are generated at the inlet of the aircraft. Interaction of these shock waves with the inlet flow could cause flow separation and reversal at the inlet and thus a substantial loss of flow into the engine. In addition, the separation has the potential to destabilize the terminal normal shock wave, causing it to move out of the inlet resulting in engine un-start with catastrophic consequences. [The] current method for preventing separation is boundary layer bleed. This involves sucking out of the low momentum portion of the boundary layer through scoops and holes in the inlet. The result is tremendous loss in efficiency of the engine."

Webb's research involves using plasma actuators to prevent those separations in the boundary layer.

"The use of plasma actuators to eliminate flow separation could make the engine much more efficient," Samimy said.

Webb's NASA Aeronautics Scholarship is a two-year graduate award with an option for a third year. It was awarded to only six students across the country. The full value of the award is about $158,000.

"I'm excited about this award," Webb said. "It took a while to sink in, but I'm very happy now."

 
Category: Graduate