WIND TUNNEL TECHNICIAN: As the first student technician to service the new Swarthmore Wind Tunnel, I have contributed many MATLAB routines to the tunnel’s sensor calibration and spatial scanning programs. On top of fixing equipment and machining new strain gauge mounts, I also serve as a lab supervisor when Drexel University researchers use the tunnel for their own experiments.

PRESSURE SENSOR ARRAYS: Since my freshman summer, I have also been developing a miniature differential pressure sensor array to compliment the tunnel’s force balance. Localized pressure distributions around the surface of a wing are a key factor in determining the wing’s aerodynamic characteristics, so fitting such a sensor array inside a wing would benefit future wind tunnel research. My first working array fit 6 sensors on a 5in² printed circuit board (PCB); my second major redesign packed 24 sensors onto an 10in² PCB; my current iteration squeezes 16 sensors into a 1.6in² area. This latest PCB also houses dozens of other surface mount devices, multiplexers, and indicator LEDs.

PRESENTATIONS & MEDIA: An article on this research appeared in the Winter 2021 edition of the Swarthmore College Bulletin, and I presented three slideshows of my work at events hosted by the Swarthmore College Department of Engineering in June 2020, July 2020, and May 2021.

• Wagner, B., Everbach, E. C., Vandervelde, J., Curtis, D., “Speed, Wind, and a Soldering Iron,” Swarthmore College Bulletin, January 2021. https://magazine.swarthmore.edu/issue/winter-2021/think-again/