Technical poster winners announced

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  The winners of the first Technical Excellence Poster Competition were announced Nov. 18 during the Technical Excellence Lunch and Learn Seminar.

The posters, featuring projects by Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) early career engineers, were presented for judging Oct. 21 in a session sponsored by the Arnold Association of Professional Societies (AAPS) in conjunction with the AEDC Technical Excellence Board.

Taking first place in the competition was Inna Kurits, a project engineer at Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 in White Oak, Md., for her presentation, TSP (Temperature Sensitive Paint) System Development and Implementation at AEDC Tunnel 9.

Andy Escue, a modeling and analysis engineer for Dynetics, captured second place with Transient Model of a Steam Accumulator.

Third place involved a three-way tie between Brian Binkley, an engineer/scientist and propulsion analyst in Facilities and Test Technology, Modeling and Analysis of Eductor System Performance; Carrie Reinholtz, a technology project manager in the Technology Branch, Background-Oriented Schlieren Capabilities (BOS) at AEDC; and Kent Wilcher, a scientist/engineer working in the Instrumentation and Diagnostics Section of the Technology and Analysis Branch, Combustion Diagnostics Using Extractive Gas Analysis.

Twenty-four engineers, all with 15 years of experience or less, presented posters highlighting their work over the last two years. They represented all areas of AEDC and Tunnel 9, including members of the military, government and contractor work forces.

Dustin Crider, Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) Space and Missiles Technology project manager and chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Tennessee Section Young Professionals, helped organize the event and was pleased with the number of participants.

"We were very excited to have that many," he said. "The room was full. The real purpose of the event was to develop technical excellence with the early career professionals, engineers and scientists and government contractors, and to help them develop technical writing skills, presentation skills and also get visibility for their work.

"The early career work force does a lot of great work out here, and we want to make people aware of it. These employees are the foundation and future of AEDC."

Dr. Heard Lowry, ATA technical fellow for space sensors, was one of 12 judges who volunteered to evaluate the posters. He said he was very impressed with the quality of the posters presented.

"I was kind of surprised at the high level of each of these," he said. "It was very difficult to judge, to discern differences, because they were all just that good."

Dr. Lowry said judges were provided with a score sheet listing various criteria to help them evaluate the posters.

"One of the most critical of these was how the people did in their presentation. How they answered questions was another key. The technical challenge was important, too, and we had to think about how hard this work was to do.

"Several of them were presented with a challenge and came up with a very innovative solution. We tried to judge each of these levels and count the scores, and there wasn't a big variation."

Crider said the presentations filled the Large and Small DO Conference rooms in building 1099, and at least 100 people showed up to view the posters.