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The National Center for Microgravity Research on Fluids and Combustion
(NCMR) at CWRU has renewed its cooperative agreement with NASA.
The contract extends the Center's research and educational initiatives
through July 2007 and brings nearly $10 million to the University.
"This is a remarkably positive statement in favor of the outstanding
contributions NCMR researchers make in critical-path microgravity
research in fluids and combustion, supporting NASA missions and
helping government and private industry bridge the gap between
science and technology," said Simon Ostrach, the Wilbert J. Austin
Distinguished Professor of Engineering at CWRU and director of
the center.
The NCMR is the largest center affiliated with the Case School
of Engineering. Since its inception in 1997, the Center has been
jointly located on the CWRU campus and at the NASA Glenn Research
Center. It is managed in partnership with the Universities Space
Research Association (USRA), NASA Glenn Research Center and the
University.
NCMR performs critical-path microgravity research in the areas
of fluids and combustion. Iwan Alexander and James Tien, professors
in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at CWRU,
are chief scientists at the NCMR and provide scientific direction,
counsel and advice to NCMR researchers in their respective areas.
Alexander leads fluid physics research conducted at the center.
Tien guides combustion research.
The Center supports NASA missions, pursues knowledge transfer
and educational outreach.
"The NCMR meets with companies that are already involved or need
to be involved with microgravity research because they design
the equipment that will enable missions to be successful," said
Ostrach. "We also partner with companies that have had no direct
involvement in the space program, but for whom space research
can have great implications for their own operations. We encourage
industry to contact NCMR with regard to scientific or technological
problems that they cannot solve because we hope that lessons learned
from previous NASA research will help them find solutions."
NCMR also reaches out to students through education programs
that involve science, technology and space exploration through
summer teacher and high school internships. Participants help
develop educational materials and perform research with NCMR and
NASA scientists.
The center has a teacher sabbatical program, which allows a teacher
to concentrate on a major educational product during a full school
year; educator workshops held at NASA and at regional and national
teachers conferences; a student drop tower experiment competition;
and elementary science and middle school mathematics, science
and technology classroom product development. The K-12 educational
program also coordinates researchers' presentations and demonstrations
at local schools.
"NCMR works cooperatively with the National Center for Math,
Science and Engineering Education in developing educational outreach
materials," Ostrach said. "The dissemination of information about
microgravity to the young people of today will hopefully foster
the development of the scientists of tomorrow." The NCMR also
develops concepts leading to international space station experiments
and assists NASA in developing strategies for future microgravity
research efforts.
The NCMR enables the use of the Zero-gravity Facility located
at NASA Glenn, which contains laboratories for ground research,
diagnostics development and flight hardware and software development.
In April, NASA chartered a site review panel that gave the Center
its highest rating on performance over the past five years, according
to Ostrach. Five years ago, NASA approved the initial $20 million
cooperative agreement that helped to launch the center. This new
agreement for $30 million over five years supports a program that
assists scientists around the country in their experiments, supports
more than 40 employees' salaries at NASA and CWRU for the next
five years and will help the University purchase cutting-edge
scientific equipment.
Ostrach says the Center expects to obtain additional funding
for its innovative Research for Design (R4D) program, which links
researchers from NCMR, GRC and other NASA centers to attack space
mission-critical technologies and experimental facilities when
they are exposed to microgravity conditions.
"The R4D program has been widely successful and is held up as
a new model for NASA because it links science and technology in
a meaningful way," said Ostrach. "Industry has confirmed that
there is a gap between science and technology that NCMR can help
to fill."
The NMRC is already conducting research into cryogenic fluid
management, nutrient transport in undersaturated soils and the
characteristics and control of fuel cells under the R4D program.
The Center, together with partners NASA Glenn Research Center,
CWRU, Cleveland Clinic Foundation and University Hospitals of
Cleveland has established the new John Glenn Biomedical Engineering
Consortium that is performing interdisciplinary research to develop
countermeasures for long-term human exploration of space and other
biomedical devices.
The NCMR also is developing a new initiative that will bring
about close interactions between life/biological and physical/chemical
scientists to gain an understanding of the mechanisms for the
unusual physiological changes that occur both in space flight
and on Earth.
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