I am contacting you to announce the 5th Annual Association of Old Crows (AOC) STEM Program to be offered in conjunction with the AOC International Symposium, October 28-30, 2019 at the Washington DC Convention Center.

The STEM Program will focus on STEM high school students in the VA, DC and MD regions who are interested in potential STEM careers. There will be special technical displays and learning stations. The program will feature engaging and informative presentations by an exclusive group of professionals who aim to empower and inspire potential future Crows about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  Interactive booths will be set up to introduce students to the basic concepts Radio Frequency (RF) Spectrum (e.g. waveforms, amplitude, frequency, transmitters, receivers, antennas and more). The physics of radio and RADAR transmissions will be introduced as well as the concepts behind Cyber vulnerabilities and Cyber security.  Additionally, there will be interactive booths, robots, unmanned air vehicles, modeling and simulation, bomb suits, as well as Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) displays. Our program works with 20 high schools in the DMV area and have attracted over 1000 students in 2018.

We will have industry representatives to discuss internship opportunities as well as to answer questions about mentorships and job opportunities. We would love to have college representatives as well as college students to close the gap between the learning materials and the career session we have organized. We would also welcome any interactive display your Engineering department might be able to provide.  We would love for undergraduate or Graduate schools to attend with representatives, professors and students. The STEM program is free for Universities and students. 

The STEM Program is part of our largest event of the year, our Annual International Symposium, which spans over 3 days of presentations and exhibits at the Marriott Marquis and DC Conventions Center in Washington.

We are in the initial planning phase and would like to gauge interest before releasing detailed plans.  The DC Convention Center provides excellent METRO accessibility and this venue provides an excellent opportunity for young people that may be interested in pursuing academic tracks or careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

I look forward to hearing from you!

About Us: The AOC is an association comprised of engineers and scientists, members of the armed forces, and major corporations who have common interests in Electronic Warfare (EW), Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Operations, Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA), Information Operations (IO), and other information related capabilities.  The Association of Old Crows provides a means of connecting members and organizations nationally and internationally across government, defense, industry, and academia to promote the exchange of ideas and information, and provides a platform to recognize advances and contributions in these fields.

Best Regards,

Blain Bekele

STEM Coordinator

blain@crows.org |  (703) 549-1600  |  crows.org

ME Ph.D. students presented papers at the International Conference on Plasticity, Damage & Fracture:

-       Saadi A. Habib, Jeffrey T. Lloyd, Christopher S. Meredith, Akhtar S. Khan, Scott E. Schoenfeld

“Effect of anisotropy and strain rate on ductile fracture of a magnesium alloy”

-       Abbas Iftikhar, Saadi Habib, Akhtar S. Khan

“Evolution of subsequent yield surfaces and elastic constants with finite plastic deformation under proportional and non-proportional loading paths of a high work hardening aluminum (annealed Al 6061-T6)”

Angela Y. Ku, Akhtar S. Khan, Scott E. Schoenfeld

"Quasi-static and dynamic response, and texture evolution of two overaged Al 7056 alloys in near peak strength, T761, and near peak aged, T721 tempers."

 The Twenty Fifth International Conference on Plasticity, Damage & Fracture (ICPDF), took place in Panama City, Panama January 3-9, 2019. There were about 300 presentations, almost equally divided by participants from USA, Europe & Asia. The conference was conceived 35 years ago, and developed over the years by Professor Akhtar Khan. Two awards were also given at this conference, the Khan International Award for life long outstanding contributions to the field of plasticity (received this year by a professor at Georgia Tech.) and International Journal of Plasticity Young Researcher Award for excellent contributions over past 5 years (given to an associate professor at Ohio State University). Both awards have been established by Professor Khan and given every year. Professor Khan and Professor Jeong-Whan Yoon (from KAIST, S. Korea) were the Chair & Associate Chair, respectively, of the conference.

Throughout the competition, UMBC swimmers shattered record after record, both individually and as a team. The men’s team racked up an awe-inspiring 1113.5 points, their highest total ever in conference play, and the women finished strong with 894.5.

Danish national champion Alexander Gliese ‘19, Mechanical Engineering, is no stranger to breaking records. 

Just last month, Gliese broke Michael Phelps’ 16-year-old NBAC record during the back split of the 400 medley relay. During preliminaries of the 200 back for America East, Gliese set a new UMBC and conference record with a time of 1:42.56 and broke the UMBC and America East record in the 100 back with a time of 47.16.

In addition to event wins, Gliese also received the Dave Alexander Coaches’ Award as the senior who accrued the most points over the course of the meet.

Picture: Alexander Gliese medals during day two of America East competition. Photo courtesy of Colleen Humel.

Read the article here:https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/coeit/posts/82239

Attention Student Organization members!!  Consider registering your organization to participate in the annual Reverse Career Fair, Friday, March 29, 2019.  $200 prize for the organization that wins the Best Booth Contest.  Full details and registration form is available HERE

Topology Optimization of Wind Tunnel Balance Axial Section

Professor Soobum Lee has received new funding from NASA for the development of a new topology optimization methodology for the design of a 3D printable wind tunnel force balance.

Wind tunnel force balances measure multidimensional aerodynamic forces applied to an aircraft in the wind tunnel testing. They need to be designed to detect/distinguish directional forces while satisfying the basic load carrying performance.

The objective of this research is to develop a topology optimization methodology for a force balance design that considers both global and local measures (e.g. local strains) and determine the positions of multiple sensors (strain gauges) as well as overall structural layout for 3D printability.