Professor Sheryl Grace
Mechanical Engineering
Professor Sheryl Grace has focused her research on the fields of unsteady aerodynamics and aeroacoustics and on creating analytical and computational models of the mechanics that create sound and vibration. Her analyses are intended to be used as predictive tools in the design of next generation systems, offering a less-expensive mode of prediction as compared to experiment.
Q. Tell me about some of the grants you’ve worked on.
A. I worked specifically with one graduate student on a grant from General Electric aircraft engines. GE has been trying for years to come up with computational models of very complex systems—for example, the disks of blades within an engine. The company has been trying to find computational methods for predicting what’s going on near the blades—how the blades are being bent or heated.
I also had some funding from Boeing to look at airframe noise from high-lift wing systems, used for landing. When landing, the engines throttle back and get quieter, but the aeroacoustic community found, by doing some measurements at airports, that the landing gear and the high-lift wings cause considerable noise. We looked at the wing portion to see if we could find some way of computationally modeling the sound generated by the wings. It’s still an open problem.
Q. You actually designed the “Aircraft and Spacecraft Performance” class. Tell me more about it.
A. When I first came here, undergraduates did not take their first aerospace course until their junior years. I thought this was something we could improve upon, especially given the type of student who tends to be attracted to aerospace engineering. They envision themselves as the next person to put a rover on Mars—one that doesn't slam into the planet's surface instead of landing nicely. There were a few topics that I felt students did not have to wait until their senior years to learn, such as overall performance measures for planes: endurance, range, and takeoff weight, for example. With the help of the department chair, I designed a class that allowed students to dig into aerospace engineering earlier on. It was designed as a background course specific to aeronautics. We later added the topics of telecommunications and the space environment to the course. We answer questions like, “If you’re going to send something into space, what does it have to deal with?” “What does a mission consist of for a normal spacecraft?”
Q. We often talk about a “family feel” within the College of Engineering. Have you noticed this to be true?
A. Yes. Boston University is a large place, but it is divided into many smaller areas where students find a home. The College of Engineering is no exception; it is small and our department is even smaller. And that means that the faculty in general know the students. There is a ton of interaction between faculty and students. By the time the students are seniors, we know them. We have no problem writing letters of recommendation for those that are good because we know everything about them, and the students can have access to us outside of classes, not just access to teaching fellows.
Q. You are the advisor for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) here on campus. Tell me more about that role.
A. It’s great to work with students, spend time with them outside of class, and help them do some fun things. I think it is very important for students to understand that they have something to give and that outreach is important. The group's activity level here at Boston University is very high. We do interesting things that have helped the group gain popularity among engineering students. The National AIAA asks you to send in your year-end report; each year, they are always impressed with our report. We have received the Regional Student Chapter Award every other year since 1996.
Q. Tell me about some of the activities that the group has done.
A. Something that was started last year by one of the students in the group: the BU Rocket team. They are building and assembling a solid-fuel rocket themselves. It’s a big deal. I think it’s got 300 pounds of thrust and it is supposed to go 13,000 feet up. And they haven’t blown themselves up, which is very good (laughs).
Some of our students have also worked with a program called NASA Connect, which provides assistance for educational outreach programs. NASA’s education department has created a series, an entire curriculum, aimed at middle school students that science teachers can incorporate into their lesson plans. In each “chapter” of the series, college students lead a class of middle-schoolers in a lesson about some aspect of space or flight. The student-teachers always construct some sort of game, because students learn better when they’re playing or doing. Ultimately, teachers have several days of possible topics they could cover that would lead to the game. NASA films the presentation for use by other teachers.
When NASA is developing the film that will go to the teachers and the students, they pick some middle school in the U.S. and film that classroom of students playing the game. They recently worked with our AIAA chapter at a school in South Boston. The specific topic in this case was hurricanes and weather prediction, and our students thought up three things they would talk about: what weather satellites do, how they are launched, and how hurricane chasers (planes that fly into hurricanes) work. Our students went into the classroom, gave talks to the children, and helped them play the game.
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