EEC Planning: Track 1 BPE for Development of Hypersonics Research Collaborations

高超音速技术的发展是重新兴起的全球太空竞赛的关键因素，并有可能彻底改变商业航空运输、太空进入和国防。在不久的将来，美国空间科学和工程行业面临着大部分有资格退休的劳动力，缺乏具备技能或经验的年轻工人来担任这些角色，并且可能缺乏合格的毕业生进行相关的研究和开发。在航空航天领域，提高多样性对于实现星际旅行、高超音速飞行、电动飞机和低排放推进技术等改变文明的目标至关重要。该项目将为不同的学术合作伙伴（包括UTSA、霍华德大学和麻省理工学院）提供一个机会，以解决航空航天劳动力中当前和未来的挑战，特别强调高超音速研究和劳动力发展。UTSA是一所少数族裔服务机构，霍华德大学是一所历史悠久的黑人研究型大学，麻省理工学院是世界公认的工程教育和研究的领导者。这一伙伴关系将利用这些机构独特的研究基础设施（包括UTSA新的高超音速风洞），为高度多样化的学生群体提供改变生活的体验。这项计划拨款将使提出建议的团队能够促进和发展这种合作，从而在未来进行相当大的高超音速研究和开发。研究活动将与每个合作机构的教育推广紧密结合，作为一个平台，让不同群体的学生参与航空航天研究，同时使未来的航空航天劳动力多样化。速度超过5倍音速或5马赫——大约每小时4000英里——通常被认为是高超音速。目前，由于缺乏高速流动的实验数据，高超声速系统的设计受到了限制，这表明了对计算流体动力学（CFD）模型验证的迫切需要。例如，一些可以显著影响高超声速飞行器性能和结构完整性的基本物理现象——包括激波/边界层相互作用、湍流过渡和非平衡化学效应——继续给高超声速流动预测CFD模型的开发带来问题，需要在基础科学基础上进行额外的研究。组装团队已经确定了这个独特的机会，汇集了一批具有实验和计算高超音速空气动力学专业知识的科学家和研究人员。UTSA最近还建造了一个世界级的7马赫风洞，用于独特的实验测量，而每个合作机构都拥有相当多的计算资源。这种技术能力，加上Karina Vielma博士提供的工程教育背景，使这个小组能够在高超声速需求领域为代表性不足的学生提供宝贵的研究经验。有了这笔计划拨款，PI团队将探索这种合作的令人兴奋的潜力，并制定一个具体的框架，以促进这些机构的高超声速研究的增长，包括开发未来向NSF项目提交的材料。UTSA-Howard-MIT团队将完成一些活动来实现这些目标。活动将包括与合作团队的月度会议，学生和教师的交流和实地考察，与国家科学基金会项目经理的接触，联合研讨会，初步数据收集，收集受影响学生群体的反馈和调查，以及发展未来的国家科学基金会提案。预计这一努力将导致一种持久的伙伴关系，使所有有关各方都受益。在短期内，计划拨款将巩固这种伙伴关系，交流思想，访问各自的校园，并为NSF项目撰写提案。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Hypersonic technology development is a key element of the re-emerging global space race, and has the potential to revolutionize commercial air transport, space access, and national defense. The U.S. space science and engineering industry faces a large fraction of its workforce eligible for retirement in the near future, a lack of younger workers with skills or experience to grow into those roles, and a possible shortage of graduates qualified to conduct relevant research and development. In the aerospace sector, improving diversity will be critical towards achieving civilization-changing goals like interplanetary travel, hypersonic flight, electric aircraft, and low-emission propulsion technology. This project will provide an opportunity for a diverse coalition of academic partners (including UTSA, Howard, & MIT) to address these current and future challenges in the aerospace workforce with a specific emphasis on hypersonic research and workforce development. UTSA is a minority serving institution, Howard is a historically black research university, and MIT is a world-recognized leader in engineering education and research. This partnership will leverage unique research infrastructure at these institutions (including a new hypersonic wind tunnel at UTSA) to provide life-changing experiences to a highly diverse group of students. This planning grant will enable the proposing team to foster and grow this collaboration, leading to considerable future research and development in hypersonics. Research activities will be tightly integrated with educational outreach at each partner institution, serving as a platform to engage a diverse group of students in aerospace research while diversifying the future aerospace workforce. Velocities faster than five times the speed of sound or Mach 5—approximately 4,000 miles per hour—are generally considered to be hypersonic. Hypersonic system designs are currently limited by a lack of experimental data for high-speed flows, representing a critical need for validation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. For example, several fundamental physical phenomena that can significantly impact hypersonic vehicle performance and structural integrity—including shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions, turbulent transition, and non-equilibrium chemistry effects—continue to pose problems for the development of predictive CFD models for hypersonic flow, requiring additional research efforts grounded in basic science. The assembled team has identified this unique opportunity to bring together a collection of scientists and researchers with expertise in both experimental and computational hypersonic aerodynamics. UTSA has also recently constructed a world-class Mach 7 wind tunnel for unique experimental measurements, while each of the partner institutions possess considerable computational resources. This technical capability, coupled with the engineering education background provided by Dr. Karina Vielma, positions this group to offer valuable research experiences to under-represented students in the in-demand field of hypersonics. With this planning grant, the PI team will explore the exciting potential of this collaboration and develop a concrete framework for fostering growth of hypersonics research at these institutions, including developing future submissions to NSF programs. The UTSA-Howard-MIT team will complete a number of activities to accomplish these objectives. Activities will include monthly meetings with the collaborating team, student and faculty exchanges & site visits, engagement with NSF program managers, joint seminars, preliminary data collection, collection of feedback and surveys from impacted student groups, and development of future NSF proposals. It is expected that this effort will lead to a long-lasting partnership that will mutually benefit all parties involved. In the short term, the planning grant to solidify this partnership, exchange ideas, visit respective campuses, and write proposals to NSF programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.