ONR: Back to School for Science Education
Enlisting the aid of experts from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), a Maryland-based nonprofit rolled out a series of educational science competitions for area middle and high school students Sept. 17. ONR program managers Kurt Yankaskas and Dr. Mike Traweek spoke with youth beside a 12-foot submarine at the Patriots Technology Training Center's (PTTC) back-to-school kickoff at Kenmoor Middle School in Landover, Md. The bright yellow, 300-pound, human-powered vessel dubbed "Sub Taxi"-which was built, designed and engineered by students-drew a steady stream of spectators during the five-hour event. "Some of the attendees were very young, and the excitement on their faces was clear as they took crew positions inside the submarine," said Yankaskas, who volunteered at the event.
Navy Awards SCE With SBIR Grant
The U.S. Navy recently awarded NCE a Phase II SBIR Grant for the development of shipboard noise prediction software. The funding is from the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) but is being overseen by Kurt Yankaskas, the head of Surface Ship Silencing at NAVSEA. Under this grant, NCE will develop its proprietary Advanced Ship Acoustic Program (ASAP) into a commercial software package for use by shipyards and naval architects. The objective is to perform noise predictions during a vessel's design process to insure optimal noise control is used. It is intended that the noise modeling program be integrated into the Proteus Engineering (Stevensville, MD) suite of naval architecture programs called FlagShip.
