Vanderbilt has signed a "strategic alliance" with the Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) at the Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee. The agreement will facilitate cooperation between the two groups on ways to improve safety testing of civilian and military aircraft, spacecraft and rocket systems.

Colonel Michael Heil and Dean Kenneth F. Galloway look on as Chancellor E. Gordon Gee signs an agreement solidifying the relationship between Vanderbilt and the Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center.

       The ceremony was held Nov. 27 in Kirkland Hall, in which Chancellor Gordon Gee and AEDC Cmdr. Col. Mike Heil signed the agreement.
       The Arnold Center is the nation's largest and most advanced complex of flight simulation test facilities where new aircraft, spacecraft and rocket systems are evaluated. In order to maintain its technological edge, the center, valued at more than $7 billion, works with engineers and scientists at Vanderbilt and other selected university and industry partners to provide infusions of new technology.
       In order to solidify these beneficial relationships, AEDC has established "alliances" that streamline the procurement process and make it easier to share and donate equipment. The arrangements also aid in information exchanges on technical problems of national interest.
       Before the ceremony, Heil and a delegation from AEDC took a tour of a number of campus laboratories that have had joint projects with the U.S. Air Force test center or that are conducting research in areas of mutual interest.
       At the Laser Diagnostics Laboratory in Olin Hall, Joseph Wehrmeyer, research associate professor of mechanical engineering, demonstrated a dual laser system that can measure clear air velocity. AEDC test engineers are interested in using this system in its wind tunnels to aid efforts to determine how new jet engine designs will perform in unusual airflow patterns likely to occur in severe weather and aerial dogfights.
       At the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Michael Goldfarb described several projects, including the creation of "robot bugs," insect-sized robots capable of traveling up to a half mile while carrying miniature video cameras and other sensors developed to gather intelligence on the battlefield of the future. A second project, in an early phase, is the design and development of a jet-powered exoskeleton.
       Over lunch, Ted Bapty, acting director of Vanderbilt's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS), gave a presentation that covered ongoing projects with AEDC. ISIS has worked intensively with the Air Force test center. For example, ISIS experts are applying technology developed with support from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency to tie together the wide variety of computer systems used at AEDC and make the information that they contain available over the World Wide Web. This allows companies including Boeing and Lockheed-Martin to get the latest test results on a new jet engine design in a matter of minutes, rather than days or weeks.
       At the Diamond Sensor Laboratory, Jimmy L. Davidson, professor of materials science and engineering, reported on his research regarding the use of diamond films for microelectronic devices that can withstand extremely high temperatures.
       At the Radiation Effects Laboratory, Kenneth Galloway, dean of the School of Engineering, described work being done in the development of microelectronic devices that have been "hardened" to withstand high levels of radiation, a necessity for both space and many military applications. He explained to the visitors that Vanderbilt's is the largest university laboratory of its type in the country.
       "To be the best, you have to work with the best, and Vanderbilt University is one of the best," Heil said.
       "This is a very important relationship that we are formalizing today," Gee agreed.