2023 Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) - Development of Multi-Axes Load Cell Tuned for Bluff-Body Measurements
The College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) is a unique opportunity for college of engineering undergraduate students to engage in hands-on research with a faculty mentor while using critical thinking, collaborative, and entrepreneurial skills. SURP is an 8-week long program (can be non-contiguous), and students are expected to spend at least 20 hours/week working on their research projects and additional time preparing and presenting their poster for the annual SURP symposium; SURP students and their faculty mentor will agree upon a start date and timeline for their research project (with a suggested start date of June 26th, 2023). The goals of SURP are to:
- Help Cal Poly Engineering students develop professionally and enhance their portfolios for future employment.
- Give opportunities for CENG faculty (including lecturers) to advance their research/project agendas over the summer quarter.
- Build lasting student-faculty mentoring relationships
- Provide opportunities for industrial and other external sponsors to work with Cal Poly faculty and students to advance connections, gain access to Cal Poly talent and capabilities, and engage in valuable collaborative activities.
Our Summer 2023 SURP will support over 30 projects (with some projects taking 2 students) for 39 students. You can apply to up to 3 projects on MustangJobs (each project has its own job posting). You need not be in the same department as the faculty advisor to apply to a given project.
Each SURP student participant will receive a CENG Summer Research Grant of $3,500.
Please note that the grant amount is fixed, and additional funding is not available. This grant will be disbursed through the Financial Aid Office toward the end of the summer. Preference will be given to students who have not yet participated in SURP.
This Project
Project Title: Development of Multi-Axes Load Cell Tuned for Bluff-Body Measurements
Faculty Advisor: Nandeesh Hiremath
Faculty Email: nhiremat@calpoly.edu
Faculty Department: AERO
Number of Students for this project: 1
The project is aimed at developing a cost-effective multi-axes loadcell for characterizing aerodynamic loads on bodies of arbitrary shapes for wind tunnel testing. This load cell will primarily be used to advance the knowledge gaps in bluff-body aerodynamics requiring low levels of uncertainties. The currently available commercial ATI loadcells (within Cal Poly) do not meet the accuracy levels for measuring drag forces. Precision loadcells are expensive primarily due to their compact formfactor and come at a cost of frequent calibration. As compact formfactor is not an essential component for the desired wind tunnel experiments, there is some flexibility in fine tuning the accuracy levels about various axes. As bluff body aerodynamics is a vastly unexplored area, case-by-case tuning and signal conditioning is anticipated for various test objects. In addition, voltage dritis and temperature compensations can be accounted for with a custom design and off the shelf electronics. The development of a 4-DOF and/or full 6-DOF will be considered for low-speed wind tunnel applications rated for specific load ranges about each axis. The work emphasizes on tying in concepts from structural mechanics, basic electronics, data acquisition and reduction making it suitable for an undergraduate student to gain exposure to instrumentation and wind tunnel testing.
HOW TO APPLY:
PLEASE SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING TWO DOCUMENTS VIA HANDSHAKE AND SEE RUBRIC BELOW FOR EVALUATION CRITERIA. YOU CAN APPLY TO UP TO THREE SURP PROJECTS, BUT CAN ONLY BE AWARDED ONE.
- Submit your resume
- Submit a cover letter that answers the following three questions:
- Describe why you are interested in this research project.
- Describe how participating in SURP and working on this research project, will help you advance your academic and professional development goals
- Describe how your past experiences have helped prepare you for your participation in SURP. This includes relevant academic, other formal, and informal preparation.
INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS COULD DISQUALIFY YOU FROM FURTHER CONSIDERATION.
Note that applications are due April 30; selected students will be notified by no later than May 12.