A recent donation by Takata, a supplier of passenger and driver safety systems and devices, will help Kettering faculty and students conduct bio-mechanical research on campus. Takata donated data acquisition equipment that will enable researchers to record data in fractions of seconds from sensors such as those used on crash test dummies and crash test sleds.

A chance meeting precipitated the donation. "We had just upgraded our data acquisition equipment at Takata," said Mike Rains '77, director of Engineering for Takata, "when I ran into Janet (Brelin-Fornari, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering) and asked her if Kettering would have any use for our used equipment." New, the donated equipment was valued at $350,000.

Brelin-Fornari accepted the offer, so Rains and Mike Grimm, project engineer for Takata, loaded two pick up trucks and braved a windy day to deliver their donation. "This is really going to help us learn about crash testing and correlate our simulations with data," said Biren Patel, a graduate student from Mumbai, India.

"Kettering is unique in that it offers strong engineering fundamentals and the opportunity for undergraduates to specialize within the field of Engineering," said Patrick Atkinson, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, "and this, in turn, allows us the flexibility to meet industry's needs." A Kettering/GMI graduate, Atkinson was a co-op student with Takata while in college.

"All things being equal," said Rains, "students with a specialization in crash safety are more directly applicable to industry than the more generic engineering degree graduates." Takata currently employs 10 Kettering co-op students. Rains is also a '77 graduate of Kettering/GMI and sits on the Kettering Crash Test Advisory Board that helps direct undergraduate and graduate curriculum in the discipline.

Scheduled for installation in the Crash Test Safety lab currently under construction in the Mott Science and Engineering Center, the Takata data acquisition equipment will be interfaced with on-board data acquisition equipment produced by DSP Technologies. Both will be used with the crash sled built by the Via Systems.

For more information on Bio-Mechanical Engineering at Kettering contact Janet Brelin-Fornari at jfornari@kettering.edu, Patrick Atkinson, at patkinso@kettering.edu or Jeff Hargrove, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering, at jhargrov@kettering.edu.

Written by Dawn Hibbard
810-762-9865
dhibbard@kettering.edu