R&D
| Brief |
Vol 5. Num. 18
| October 27, 2008 |
Tomblin receives CMH-17
Distinguished Service Award
Dr. John Tomblin, executive director of the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University (WSU), has received a Composite Materials Handbook (CMH-17) Distinguished Service Award for significant contributions to the handbook. For the past five years, Tomblin has co-chaired the CMH-17 Data Review Working Group, which recently approved for inclusion in the handbook’s next revision the lamina data from NASA’s Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE), headquartered at NIAR from 1995 to 2001. | 
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“During this time he has used his organizational and managerial skills to make the working group function more efficiently,” said co-chair and 2003 award recipient Peter Shyprykevich. “CMH-17 is also indebted to John for his willingness to support CMH-17 with NIAR personnel and to help the FAA with contracting difficulties.”
The Composite Materials Handbook provides information and guidance necessary to design and fabricate end items from composite materials.
Future phases of the CMH-17 process include publishing data produced by NASA’s National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP), also headquartered at NIAR, in the handbook.
Tomblin received a CMH-17 Appreciation Award in 2003 for ongoing service to the handbook. He is also a Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering.
Visual Technology Lab creates animation
for Council of Elders video
| The Visual Technology Lab (VTL) of the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University (WSU) continues to branch out in Wichita, Kansas, this time lending its 3D animation expertise to a local group hoping to extend its roots deeper into the community. | 
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In partnership with the WSU Media Resources Center’s video services, the VTL recently produced the opening animation for a video for the African American Council of Elders of Wichita/Sedgwick County.
In August, the Media Resources Center contracted VTL manager Bill Johnson to help visually represent the group's mission through animation. Together, they came up with an idea that expressed the ongoing responsibility of older to younger generations.
“The concept was of two Elders taking the form of an acacia tree’s trunk and branches,” Johnson said. “These are symbols that represent tradition and history within the African American community. The Elders tree grows leaves in the shape of children, sprouting to represent the natural order of support that youth needs from their elders.”
VTL provides services for NIAR, WSU and industry. Other groups for which VTL has produced animation include Wichita State Athletics, BG Products, Pizza Hut, Cessna, Kansas Health Foundation, Intake Media Productions, CG Post, Get Reel Productions and WaterHouse Productions.
The VTL crew has won two Addy Awards from the Advertising Federation of Wichita and was honored with two “Best of Show” awards for the development of “Rally the Fans for WSU basketball” and animation for a broadcast campaign for Legacy Bank.
Like similar groups across the United States, the Council of Elders aims to serve as role models for youth; provide direction in the ongoing struggle for freedom, justice and equity; preserve the history, traditions and contributions of people of African descent; and provide counsel and address issues of concern to youth, individuals, families and the community. For more information on the African American Council of Elders of Wichita/Sedgwick County, please call (316) 684-7126.
