Photo By Public Affairs Office | Starship Poseidon STEM camp participants pose for a photo in front of the TWR-841, a...... read more read more
NEWPORT, R.I. — Dr. Aren Hellum of the Undersea Warfare Weapons, Vehicles, and Defensive Systems Department at Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport, was only moments into his demonstration of NUWC’S anechoic wind tunnel before Emilie Gaston raised her hand to ask a question.
“Why can’t we hear it right now?” the rising sophomore at North Kingstown High School in Rhode Island inquired, with Hellum assuring her that he would explain everything in due time.
Hellum ultimately answered that query and a few more from the inquisitive Gaston during his presentation to a group of enthralled participants in the Naval War College’s Starship Poseidon Science, Technology and Engineering (STEM) camp.
About 66 high school students and their escorts participated in the tour on July 20 of some of NUWC Newport’s facilities.
“One of my best friends recommended it,” Gaston explained of how she came to be in the program at the recommendation of her classmate, Sophia Mazzone, who was also on the tour. “She told me she had a lot of fun last summer and made a lot of friends. The activities that we did were definitely a lot of fun.”
An initiative sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Naval War College (NWC) with host services provided by Officer Training Command, the one-week program in July hosts high school students with the intent of introducing them to STEM from a Navy perspective.
The program began as a pilot in 2012, was not offered in 2013 or 2014, but has been available to rising freshman to rising seniors in Southern New England every year since 2015.
“I think it’s a win for the Navy, it’s a win for the nation, and we want to close the gap on STEM workforce availability,” said Dr. William F. Bundy, NWC professor, director of the college’s Gravely Naval Warfare Research Group and program lead of the camp. “That’s what we’re doing with this camp.”
Welcoming the group, NUWC Newport’s commanding officer Capt. Michael Coughlin, discussed how “we live in a golden age of being able to learn” with the various opportunities available in STEM-related fields.
Coughlin also noted, however, how fast time can move and how it seemed like yesterday when he spoke to last year’s group of Poseidon students. He closed by quoting a line from the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” to emphasize this: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.”
A panel of three young professionals — Rebecca Chhim, head, ACIO/Information Technology Division; Andrew Hulton of the Ranges, Engineering and Analysis Department; and Poonam Aggarwal, from the Sensor and Sonar Systems Department — discussed some of their experiences thus far at NUWC Newport.
Each gave information about their background and what they do, with Chhim opening about her experience in cybersecurity.
“Every day is exciting in cybersecurity,” Chhim said before expanding on how rewarding she finds it to implement those types of tools onto submarines so that Sailors can use them.
Hulton discussed his experience with undersea modeling, explaining how his job encompasses both analysis and computer models, as well as thinking about the future.
“Those two sides of it — the analysis side and the future side — really puts us on the cutting edge of what we’re doing here at NUWC across the entire spectrum,” Hulton said. “That cutting edge is always moving, and it’s moving faster than it ever has before.”
Aggarwal, who has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in ocean engineering, discussed how her education plays into her work with hull arrays and distributed sensors engineering. She concluded by discussing her most memorable moment working at NUWC thus far.
“I went to a submarine and saw our warfighters and Sailors using the equipment that I helped develop,” Aggarwal said. “That moment was inexpressible.”
The group then fielded questions from the students including one on how the employees got from their senior year of high school to NUWC, as well as the most interesting thing they have done so far. Both Hulton and Chhim agreed with Aggarwal that getting an up-close look at a submarine topped the list.
The group also got presentations on virtual worlds technology and visited NUWC’s anechoic acoustic chamber and anechoic wind tunnel.
Steve Aguiar and Ken Figuerado, both from the Undersea Warfare Combat Systems Department, described the many capabilities of virtual worlds, a program aimed at using virtual environments as venues for training, system innovation, collaboration and rapid prototyping.
“The ability to bring real-world dynamics into the virtual world is happening quite quickly,” Aguiar said.
In addition to the program’s capabilities, Figuerado also gave some of his background on how he came to work at NUWC. He described his transformation as a student, as well as some advice from a former teacher that has stuck with him over the years.
“First, do what is necessary,” Figuerado said. “Then, do what is possible, and before you know it, you’re doing the impossible.”
In the anechoic chamber, Dr. Scott Hassan and A.J. Paolero, both of the Undersea Warfare Weapons, Vehicles, and Defensive Systems Department, had students participate in a demonstration on standing sound waves and beat frequencies.
When asked what the purpose of having something like the anechoic chamber is, Hassan gave an example of a possible application.
“Let’s say we have a vehicle in here and it’s making noise. We’re going to be able to measure very accurately the source of that noise and the directivity of that noise in this facility,” Hassan said. “Why is that important? Underwater, one of the main ways that we can detect an adversary, or they can detect us, is through acoustics. So if we know how much noise something we put in the water makes, we’re going to know how far we need to stay away from a threat sensor system. Acoustics are very important to the Navy.”
Across from the anechoic chamber, Hellum demonstrated the wind tunnel and described its capabilities. Students were permitted to experience the wind at 35 mph and then 55 mph — its maximum speed is 125 mph — and had plenty of questions for Hellum along the way.
“The wind tunnel was amazing,” Gaston said. “I thought it was cool how they designed the tunnel where the wind came out and the air was silent at 35 mph.”
The group closed the day on the waterfront, rotating through four stations throughout the Narragansett Bay Test Facility (NBTF).
In the dive locker, Keith Bruce, of the Ranges, Engineering and Analysis Department, showed some of the various equipment utilized by Navy divers. NUWC Newport divers are unique among Navy qualified divers in that they are first engineers and scientists involved in the research, development, test and evaluation work of the center who also complete the rigorous Navy diver training.
Bruce also described the four services divers provide for NUWC, which include putting materials or vehicles in or out of the water; testing technology designed to detect and defeat enemy divers; repairing towed array handling systems; and working with the Naval History and Heritage Command in support of underwater archeology.
Elsewhere, Frank McNeilly, head of the Waterfront Operations Branch, gave an overview of the NBTF and a tour of the TWR-841, a 120-foot torpedo recovery vessel.
“Our mission is to help scientists and engineers up the hill at NUWC to get their projects in the water in a realistic environment, instead of testing them in a laboratory,” McNeilly said. “It comes in handy
having the laboratory right next to the bay, because we can get things in shallow water or we can head out to the ocean in deeper water.
“To support that, we have a series of boats at the facility here that we can reconfigure for different missions.”
Inside the facility, Mike Ansay, head, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Branch, introduced the students to unmanned underwater vehicles including the purpose and function of AUVs.
“That number tells you how many meters deep it can go before it implodes,” Ansay said while describing a Remus 600 model AUV.
Steve Scolamiero, of the Ranges, Engineering and Analysis Department, further explained some of the things done at the NBTF with a description of the torpedo retrieval process. His presentation included work he has done in researching and designing new torpedo retrieval equipment, how the equipment works, as well as the different requirements based on the type of torpedo being recovered.
“We really appreciate your support at NUWC,” said Bundy after the visit. “Our visit to NUWC is a great capstone for the week.”
NUWC Division Newport, part of NAVSEA, is one of two divisions of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. NUWC Division Newport’s mission is to provide research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, undersea offensive and defensive weapons systems, and countermeasures. NUWC’s other division is located in Keyport, Wash.
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2018 16:05 |
| Story ID: | 286572 |
| Location: | NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, US |
| Hometown: | NORTH KINGSTOWN, RHODE ISLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 212 |
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