As he prepared to select a senior design project before the 2023-24 academic year began, Joseph Motto noticed there weren’t any topics directly related to his passion of hypersonics. Motto wondered if something could be done to give students like him an option to work on a project in that field.
The aerospace engineering major reached out to Keith Stanfill, the Tickle College of Engineering’s director of integrated engineering design, to arrange a meeting. Once he informed Stanfill about his wish, Stanfill told Motto they would do everything possible to make it happen.
Motto’s inquiry coincided with Lockheed Martin’s (LM) interest in engaging more students and professors at the college level in hypersonics, which is typically defined by something that is traveling at speeds in excess of 3,800 miles per hour at sea level (Mach 5).
Barry Bauer, a principal program manager at LM had already been conducting a monthly call with John Schmissuer, associate dean and executive director of the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), to discuss collaboration opportunities between LM and UTSI. Schmisseur brought up the opportunity to Bauer for leveraging the UT Interdisciplinary Senior Design (ISD) Capstone as a workforce development opportunity for LM.
One of the internal programs Bauer managed for LM was the Hypersonic University Engagement (HUE) initiative, which established a dedicated forum for future hypersonic workforce developments for LM. Bauer was willing to sponsor the UT project with internal research and development funds and brought the idea to the LM team.
“I asked, ‘How can we really leverage this as an opportunity?’” Bauer said. “Not only for advancing the state of technology by bringing students and professors in to solve really hard problems, but also to promote workforce development with the notion that we can identify and recruit the best and the brightest to come work for us.”
TCE alum Walker McCord (MS/AE ’21; PhD/AE ’22), who had recently joined LM Marietta, Georgia Skunkworks as a hypersonic thermal engineer, jumped at the opportunity to support his alma mater and continue novel research and development work on hypersonics in a meaningful way that would benefit the next generation of engineers.
Meeting Industry Standards
McCord and Bauer worked closely together and pulled in technical domain subject-matter-experts (SMEs) in hypersonics and materials across the LM enterprise to strategize on a concept that was technically suitable for the undergraduate engineering level, did not have security restrictions that would prohibit outside work, and would be impactful to a focus mission for LM.
The LM team developed a statement of work (SOW) focusing on relevant hypersonic material interactions for passive aperture cooling and structured the period of performance to be accomplished by undergraduate students over the course of a single academic year.
“My idea was let’s not try to do something that’s been done before in a senior design project. Let’s kind of push the envelope here,” McCord said. “Let’s incorporate some type of paradigm shift on what’s previously been executed and what’s been thought possible to achieve with undergrads working on hypersonic relevant technology.”
McCord and Bauer structured the SOW for the UT students very similar to how a standard defense program is run in industry. The intention was to teach the students about the importance of not only having a feasible design that can meet the requirements, but also closely track cost, schedule, and risk mitigation approaches. This approach also ties well into the ISD multi-discipline structure that leverages teams comprised of engineers, business, and finance senior students from the Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program.
Motto’s interdisciplinary team, named Hypersonic Solutions, launched the process by developing a cooling solution to lower temperature and limit optical distortion during high-speed flight through a novel ceramic lens material.
The inaugural team’s performance yielded a great business case for LM, which was able to utilize the manufactured prototype to benefit internal program questions.
“The outcome of this project has shown that the LM and UT partnership in this domain can be leveraged as a budget-efficient technology testbed demonstrator where both parties are able to have meaningful outcomes while contributing to the future growth of hypersonic talent,” Bauer said.
Pushing the Envelope
The first team’s success paved the way for continued funding of projects by LM. The senior design partnership is now in year three with the full intent of both parties to keep going for years to come.
Last year’s UT team designed, fabricated, and tested a vapor chamber, which is like a heat pipe, for leading edge heat dissipation, specifically for hypersonic vehicles. The team’s project, “Novel 3-D Printed Heat Pipe Thermal Protection System,” was recently awarded The Engineers Council’s Distinguished Engineering Project and was recognized on February 28, at an awards ceremony in Universal City, California.
This year’s team is taking the heat pipes and seeing how they can apply them to a system level and make the components work together efficiently.
“Our group is designing the mechanism that connects multiples of these heat pipes to the actual model, the leading-edge profile for a wing or vehicle,” said UT senior aerospace major Cole Perry. “Because on their own, there are formations in between the heat pipes that get really hot. Our project is to design and develop a way for these heat pipes to connect.”
Perry has appreciated how much the LM project has advanced his skill set in multiple areas.
“As far the technical work goes, we’ve all had to pool stuff that we’ve taken from our undergrad experience in all of our classes,” he said. “This project, specifically, is really advanced, and it’s pushed us to broaden our skills and learn new ones. I think that’s a huge benefit of senior design.”
Career-Building Mentorship
Officials from LM meet weekly with the senior design team to help guide the students through the process as well provide mentorship and career development advice that expands beyond the scope of the project.
“It’s been like a dream come true, because Lockheed Martin is everyone’s dream company, or definitely mine as an aerospace engineering major at UT,” said senior aerospace engineering major Kameron Ross. “I know Lockheed is going into additive manufacturing, so hopefully learning from Lockheed engineers and seeing what they can do with additive manufacturing gives me hope of what the future can actually be and gives me a lot of great experience in that space.”
Senior mechanical engineering major Noah Kefauver admits it was initially intimidating to think about working with LM engineers because of the prestige of the company and knowing they would see his technical work.
“But they’ve been an absolute joy to work with, and really great mentors to us,” Kefauver said. “I have learned so much from them and made connections that are going to benefit me for the future.”
McCord and his LM colleagues have been impressed with the outcomes of the projects and the ingenuity of the students involved.
“I think we can say we have been successful in showing industry and government offices that LM and UT have redefined what was previously thought possible to achieve through an undergraduate focused senior design project,’ McCord said, “The students at UT are tackling complex design problems head on and delivering operational excellence. The effort continues to win awards and get recognition from national agencies. The support UT has provided for the project is just amazing and we could not have picked a better university to partner with on this.”
Becoming a National Model
LM has challenged all the UT senior design teams to present their work at defense-focused conferences across the nation. The first-year project was presented at the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH) fall forum in Washington, DC. The presentation was supported by Motto and Benjamin Sparkman, who received praise for their efforts from national agencies such as the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) and Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
Bauer is hoping to duplicate the senior design relationship between UT and LM at other universities across the country. He’s been working through the JHTO to advocate the government to direct more workforce development money towards universities to allow more students to benefit.
“There are over a thousand students that are members of the UCAH, and only a fraction of them get any kind of hands-on experience,” Bauer said. “I’m arguing that models similar to what we are pioneering at UT would really promote workforce development and also contribute significantly to our ability to deal with some national security issues related to hypersonics.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])