AeroAstro Outreach Program
Women’s Graduate Association of
Aeronautics and Astronautics (WGA3)
February 22, 2012
Outreach Initiative Overview
Outreach Team
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Farah Alibay
Allie Anderson
Hemant Chaurasia
Emily Clements
Chelsea He
Aaron Johnson
Whitney Lohmeyer
Sameera Ponda
Sunny Wicks
Outreach Objectives
1. Collect available materials
– General information about
Engineering, AeroAstro
– Photos and videos
– Lesson plans
– Demos and materials
2. Create new content
– Outreach “kits”
– IAP course
3. Share with the community
– Web repository
– Outreach opportunities
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Motivation & Goals
• Members of the AeroAstro community participate in a variety of
outreach activities
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One-time talks
Educational videos
Day-long workshops
Multi-week courses
• Materials are currently dispersed throughout the department
• Little or no coordination among users
• Content development is labor intensive
To facilitate coordination, we are collecting both physical and
electronic content to create a repository of existing outreach
materials.
1) Minimize duplicated effort
2) Lower the barrier of participation
3) Facilitate development of new content
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Presentations About AeroAstro, Engineering
Richness in Research Breadth
New computational methods for
real-time data assimilation
(Willcox)
Reducing airport environmental
impact through more efficient
surface operations (Balakrishnan
and Hansman)
Shuttle tile damage and
simulation of radial and conical
cracks in ceramic plate impact
(Radovitzky)
New methods for controlling
walking machines applied to
JPL’s legged rover (Williams and
Shah)
Space propulsion systems for small
satellites: Cubesats (Lozano)
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AeroAstro Photos
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Lesson Plans, Demos, Videos…
Quadrotor Demo
“Astronaut School for Middle Schoolers”
by Hemant Chaurasia
Water Bottle Rocket Activity
MIT Engineering K-12 Videos
http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/19engineering/ videos/14880-a-turn-of-theearth
Spacesuit
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Web Repository
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Web Repository
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Hands-On Aerospace
Mission: Introduce students to topics in AeroAstro through
practical, hands-on activities.
Project Teams
• Robotics: Lego Mindstorms
• Aerodynamics: Portable Wind Tunnel
Expected Outcomes
• Assembly of demo
• Group presentation
• Mini-lecture describing demo and basic concepts
• Outreach “kit”
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Logistics
Timeline
• 4 days: Jan 17-20
Recruitment
• IAP offerings website
• Email to freshmen interested in AeroAstro
• Email to AeroAstro undergrads
Supplies
• Robotics: 2 Lego Mindstorms kits from Prof. Hoffman
• Wind tunnel: <$100 in wood, PVC, paint, other building materials
Safety
• Gelb lab: all students completed online safety course (AeroAstro Safety
and Chemical Hygiene by Dick Perdichizzi)
• Machine shop: graduate students only
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Students
Robotics Team
Wind Tunnel Team
L-R: Mycal Tucker ’15, Ben Novak ’15
Not pictured: Aristodimos Komninos G
L-R: Dominique Hoskins ’15, Matt
Vernacchia ’15, Ellen Liverpool ’15
Photo Credit: Bill Litant
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Schedule of Activities
Jan 17: Morning Session
Welcome/Logistics
Chelsea He, Sameera Ponda
Introduction to AeroAstro
Prof. Julie Shah
Introduction to Robotics
Prof. Jon How
Introduction to Aerodynamics
Prof. Dave Darmofal
Engineering Communication/Outreach
Dr. Brindha Muniappan (MIT Museum)
Jan 17: Afternoon Session
Tour of Gelb Lab/Machine Shop
Todd Billings
Tour of Wind Tunnels
Dick Perdichizzi
Tour of Aerospace Controls Lab
Sameera Ponda
Jan 18-19: Open lab hours
Jan 20: Group presentations
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Robotics Demo
• Objective: Illustrate robotics concepts via hands-on demos
– Line-Tracking Demo
– Exploration and Search Missions (16.00)
• Materials: Lego Mindstorm NXT kit
– Sensors (range, light, sound, touch)
– Actuators (motors, LEDs)
– Graphical programming (LabView)
Lego Mindstorm NXT Kit
Actions
Decision
Processing
Sensors
Robotic System
World
Generic Robotics Block Diagram
Hands-On Aerospace: Line-Tracking Demo
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Wind Tunnel Demo
• Objective: Illustrate basic aerodynamics concepts such
as lift, drag, stall using a low speed flow visualization
wind tunnel
– “Little Smokey” wind tunnel
– Instructions from NASA: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k12/WindTunnel/build.html
• Materials:
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Plywood
2” x 4” wood
Polycarbonate sheet
Computer cooling fan
PVC pipes
Straws
Dry ice
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Summary
Lift Forces
The Bernoulli View
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Airfoil shape & orientation force air to flow
faster over top side of the wing than over the
bottom side of the wing
By Bernoulli's Principle, the
faster flowing airstream
exerts less pressure on the
wing
There is an upward force on
the wing
• Understanding of basic
aerodynamics concepts
• Mini-lecture describing demo
• Basic building skills
• Teamwork and camaraderie
• Interaction with faculty
Factors affecting Lift
DEMO in wind tunnel -look
for splitting airstreams
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/lift-drag.html
Airfoil Shape
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Learning by doing
Sense of ownership
Low cost, high impact
Community involvement
Angle of Attack
Source http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/fluids/airfoil.html
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Outreach in Action
National Engineers Week at the MIT Museum
February 20, 2012
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2012 Outreach Plan
Outreach Team:
• Build up database of AeroAstro-based demos and
workshops
• Demonstrate use of outreach materials in a high school
visit and a summer workshop
• Repeat IAP course in 2013 to produce new demos
Faculty Homework:
• Over the next months, with your students carve your
research into demos or lectures to excite the community
about AeroAstro research
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Thank You!
Students
Faculty and Staff
Dominique Hoskins
Julie Shah
Ellen Liverpool
Dave Darmofal
Ben Novak
Jon How
Mycal Tucker
Jeff Hoffman
Matt Vernacchia
Jaime Peraire
Aristodimos Komninos
Karen Willcox
Chelsea He
Marie Stuppard
Sameera Ponda
Sue Whitehead
Sunny Wicks
Bill Litant
Farah Alibay
Todd Billings
Allie Anderson
Dave Robertson
Hemant Chaurasia
Dick Perdichizzi
Emily Clements
Brindha Muniappan (MIT Museum)
Aaron Johnson
Whitney Lohmeyer
wga3-exec@mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/wga3/www
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