NFAC engineer crosses borders to make a difference

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. --  Jose Navarrete woke up around 7:30 a.m. in Quito, Ecuador, and almost wondered if the last seven months had been a dream. 

He took a quick shower, got everything into his large backpack, grabbed some breakfast and caught a taxi to the airport for the long flight back to California. 

Sitting in an Internet café in the country's capital two days earlier, the unemployed mechanical engineer had learned from his former boss at the NASA Ames Research Center's Rotorcraft Division that the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC), in California was due to reopen. It was time to return home and apply for a job there. 

In 2005, Navarrete, who was between jobs, had decided to volunteer his time with the Jatun Sacha Foundation, a private Ecuadorian nonprofit nongovernmental organization. 

"They're a group that has different sites throughout Ecuador and they try to work with local communities, depending on where they're stationed," he said. "Jatun Sacha works to develop sustainable economies using whatever materials or resources they have. At that particular reserve in the rainforest, they were trying to work with local villages to help them plant cocoa beans and also coffee beans as their main produce, instead of illegally logging wood from these huge native trees that make up the rainforest canopy- they're almost as big as redwoods. The locals would chainsaw a tree into planks and raft them down the river to a nearby port where they sell them for a couple hundred dollars. 

"It's really a tough situation there - you can't blame them," he continued. "Jatun Sacha provides a few jobs for locals to work on the reserve and provides services to the community in sustainability, including ways to plant vegetables that would normally not grow there. The rainforest soil isn't the best for growing produce, but they are working on interesting decomposition projects to improve that." 

So, how did Navarrete go from community service volunteer in the jungles of South America to Jacobs Technology facility engineer at NFAC? 

As far as his engineering career is concerned, Navarrete said his parents, who are hard-working immigrants, deserve much of the credit. 

"They sent me to summer school in junior high," he recalled. "They forced me to go through these math and science summer programs. They were free to the public, but man, I didn't like it. I know that. 

"Everybody else had time off or they have to go to summer school because they failed a class or something. But not me. I went because they didn't want me sticking around doing nothing, which is a good idea. When you're a kid you don't want to go." 

He said some of the classes were based at nearby San Jose State University. 

"They were really good programs," he said. "I mean, once you're in there as a kid, then you're really involved. The programs were math and science-oriented, but then they also had projects for you to do, where you built models or rockets or little machines - little side projects." 

He said these "projects" made practical use of the math and science skills being taught. 

"That goes a long way when you're a little kid," he said. 

Navarrete's father, who was a construction worker and certified welder, left a strong impression on his son. 

"I used to work with him in the summer during high school," Navarrete said. "He was definitely a really good welder and he worked pretty hard, too." 

Navarrete was also influenced by the practical, hands-on environment he experienced at home. 

"By the time I started high school, I knew that engineering was going to be something that I could stick with," he said. "Ever since I was a kid, I liked taking things apart, and through these summer programs, I was becoming better at math and science. So, it kind of made sense. I never had any question about that - I knew I wanted to be an engineer." 

Navarrete worked as a research student for NASA at the rotorcraft branch while earning his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. 

A chance meeting with a professor on sabbatical at Ames put Navarrete on a course to attend Rice University.

After graduating, he worked for NASA Ames Research Center's Aeromechanics Branch Chief Dr. Bill Warmbrodt's rotorcraft branch test group at Ames before being laid off in 2005. 

This brings everything back to Warmbrodt's email that Navarrete read in Quito. Navarrete flew back to San Jose, Calif., and joined NFAC's work force in 2006. 

"My main duty [at NFAC] is to address the health and maintenance of the mechanical systems in the facility," he explained. "One of the major projects that I'm involved in is the renovation and activation of both of our test-section scale systems. The scale systems measure the wind tunnel model's forces and moments. 

"For a large scale wind tunnel we're talking a scale system that handles models that may weigh [more than] 100,000 pounds, and exert a maximum of 100,000 lbs of side force and 50,000 lbs of drag force," he continued. "To date, we have completely renovated the scale system's electronics and now are moving to the full-scale calibration phase. We plan on having the 80-by-120-foot scale system operational in time for an upcoming truck test this summer." 

Navarrete said he is rather busy these days and there isn't much time for traveling. 

However, an old friend recently contacted him about volunteering with an organization called Engineers Without Borders. 

"Jose and I know each other from being interns one year at NASA Ames Research Center's Rotorcraft Division," explained Johnny Fu, an electrical engineer with Sierra Lobo, Inc., working in the Space Technology Division at NASA Ames. 

"I know him to be a very community-oriented person as well as someone who has a keen interest in international travel. Jose once told me that he really enjoyed his experience volunteering for an organization that sought to preserve the Amazonian rainforest during his trip to South America." 

Fu said Engineers Without Borders is involved in a wide range of projects. This includes everything from implementing a clean water delivery system for a small village in Tanzania to designing wind turbines for Guatemala. 

"Their international focus and concept of community service through the use of technical engineering skills really interested me," Fu said. 

"And I knew it would interest Jose as well. Recently, I found out the local San Francisco-based chapter's wind turbine team was looking for a way to test their turbine in a controlled and repeatable environment. "I knew Jose worked with wind tunnels everyday at the NFAC so I put the team in contact with him. So far things are looking very promising for a potential wind tunnel test this summer with the wind turbine."