NSF recognizes mechanical engineer

Frampton

by Vivian Cooper-Capps

Kenneth D. Frampton, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been awarded a 2002 National Science Foundation Career Award for his research on "smart structures" that are capable of sensing and responding to changes in their environment.

The Career Award is considered NSF's most prestigious honor for junior faculty. Recipients receive support ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 over four to five years. The honor is given to young faculty members the NSF expects to become academic leaders in the future.

Smart structures are systems with sensors and controls capable of sensing their environment, gauging the performance of the different parts of the equipment, evaluating the overall performance of the system and making appropriate adjustments to the activity of the different parts.

Working with engineers in the Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Frampton is developing systems to make smart versions of large, complex structures like aircraft and space-based telescopes. Frampton's expertise is in vibration and noise control. The researchers at ISIS are experts in "embedded software" that uses computer software to control and coordinate manufacturing and equipment systems. Together they are working on a networked computer approach that could solve the problem of how to control complex systems of this sort without adding much weight or cost.

"The development of smart structures has been hindered by the difficulty in developing computer controls that can handle complexity of multiple sensors and controls without adding unacceptable cost and weight to the system," said Frampton. "The decentralized information-sharing methods that we are working on will fine-tune performance of the entire system through coordination of the controls of the various parts of the system."

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