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YSU receives its largest research grant ever
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University students will help sustain Air Force aircraft with the largest research grant ever received by the university.
The University of Dayton Research Institute, UDRI, and YSU were awarded the $10.87 million direct project opportunity by America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. Of that, $4 million goes to YSU, which is the single largest research grant the university has ever received.
From inside YSU’s Center for Innovation in Additive Manufacturing on Monday, YSU, UDRI, America Makes, Air Force and government officials talked about the project that brings both public and private partners together to improve the sustainment operations for the Air Force’s fleet.
“Can you imagine today trying to keep an old black and white television that old operating?” said John E. Leland, vice president for research and UDRI executive director. “That’s the problem the Air Force has.”
To help with the problem, America Makes awarded $8 million in Air Force Research Laboratory funding to the UDRI and its partners, including YSU – the co-leader of technical efforts. Another $2.87 million in matching cost share from the award project team was given to make the value of the project $10.87 million. YSU will use a portion of the $4 million to pay its university and private industry partners on the project.
“With things this big you need partners,” said Mike Hripko, associate vice president for research at YSU.
Students at the University of Dayton, YSU, Case Western Reserve University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Northern Iowa will all be involved in the project.
Eleven YSU engineering students in their undergraduate, graduate or doctoral studies will be working on various objectives.
Private industry partners on the project include M-7 Technologies of Youngstown, Humtown Products of Columbiana and Lockheed Martin, based in Maryland.
“This public-private ecosystem we have built out, that’s what we embody,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th. “We work really hard to try to find our niche.”
Ryan explained the importance of reinvesting into the military to make sure each branch has the best technology and best training to be able to effectively do the job.
“We are trying to have the military fight more effectively, be safer and also grow our economy,” Ryan said.
The average Air Force plane is 30 years old, but some are more than 50 years. With planes that old, the suppliers with parts for the plane are long gone.
For example, at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna where they have C-130s, of the thousands of parts inside the military bird about 40 percent no longer exist to replace the older parts, Col. James Dignan, commander of the 910th Airlift Wing, explained.
“It’s even worse for some of our older airplanes,” he said.
So, the parts that aren’t related to the safety of the aircraft could be printed using 3-D printer technology.
The partners on the project will look at various technologies so the Air Force “can quickly and effectively get the parts they need,” explained Dave Siddle, senior program manager at the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining.
“It might be printing tooling or making a casting,” he said.
The project team will be working directly with officials from three Air Logistics Complexes located at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, Hill Air Force Base in Utah and Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.