| | January 21, 2005 - Volume 1, Number 5
NIAR composites workshop educates industry
Boeing engineers get hands-on experience in the composites lay-up room
| During the week of Jan. 10, approximately 20 engineers from The Boeing Company attended a Composites and Advanced Materials workshop.
The workshop, taught by NIAR researchers and faculty members, served to educate the engineers on composite materials in the areas of repair, manufacturing, testing and stress. The goal of the workshop was to provide the engineers with the knowledge required to design with composite structures.
| "This course is great because it teaches me all of the things I need to know for my job - manufacturing, materials and limitations," Shah Shahrivar, a Boeing senior stress analyst said. "But the best part has been the hands-on training we received. It makes it easier to remember."
Participants created their own composite rulers in the Composites and Advanced Materials Laboratory. They also got hands-on with the most up-to-date equipment, such as the MTS Systems accelerator sled and the Walter H. Beech Memorial Wind Tunnel.
"The teachers we've had are experts in their areas, they are easy to understand and provide exceptionally professional notes," says Shahrivar.
NIAR has a long history of providing these educational workshops to The Boeing Company. Aerospace engineering professor Bert Smith has provided the company with several educational workshops since the '70s. The most recent one was held in August and focused on damage tolerance.
Smith participated in the composites training along with the following faculty members: K. Suresh Raju, assistant professor of aerospace engineering; Lamia Salah, research associate and manager of the Fatigue and Fracture Laboratory; Waruna Seneviratne, research associate and manager of the Structures Laboratory and Janna Sherraden, research specialist in the Composites Laboratory.
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WSU professor receives distinguished SAE award
 | Charles Yang, associate professor in aerospace engineering and avid researcher at the National Institute for Aviation Research, has been selected for the 2005 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award. SAE is a professional organization that represents the automotive and aerospace engineering community. | Yang, 42, has been with Wichita State University since 1997. Since that time, Yang's interests have evolved beyond simply teaching and working with students; he has also become active in numerous research projects involving both students and other researchers. Dr. Yang also serves as the Associate Director for the newly established FAA Center of Excellence for Composites and Advanced Materials (CECAM).
"We were very delighted and honored that the Society of Automotive Engineering has chosen Dr. Yang for their very prestigious award," Walter Horn, dean of engineering at WSU said. "We are proud to have someone of Dr. Yang's reputation on the faculty of the College of Engineering. His accomplishments demonstrate that he is both an excellent teacher and an accomplished researcher as well." As a result of his dedication to education, Yang also received the 2004 Wichita State University Academy for Effective Teaching Award, a very prestigious teaching award in the university. He was also nominated for the WSU College of Engineering's Teaching and Research awards in 2002 and 2003, respectively. With a keen interest in composites, Yang has successfully attracted research support from NASA, FAA, NSF and the State of Kansas with total external funding of more than $1.2 million in grants as PI, $700K as Co-PI and has published 23 journal articles, 58 conference proceedings papers, and 35 reports. His specific areas of interest include mechanics of composite materials, manufacturing of composite parts, solids mechanics and adhesive-bonded joints. Recipients of the award must be young engineering educators with more than three, but less than 10 years of full-time faculty experience. The recipients are chosen by a board of academic and industry personnel.
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