{"id":116006,"date":"2021-11-29T10:30:37","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T15:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=116006"},"modified":"2022-03-22T10:28:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:28:09","slug":"material-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/29\/material-witness\/","title":{"rendered":"Material witness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Alex Vehre, who is majoring in mechanical engineering, develops non-destructive tests for ceramic materials as part of his internship with the Air Force Research Laboratory.<\/p><\/div>\n

When he\u2019s not playing the violin or learning Arabic, Wright State University mechanical engineering major<\/a> Alex Vehre works to help the Air Force develop non-destructive tests for ceramic materials.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of Vehre\u2019s internship with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. AFRL is a scientific research organization dedicated to the discovery and development of aerospace warfighting technologies. It controls the Air Force\u2019s science and technology research budget.<\/p>\n

Vehre began his internship at AFRL in November 2019. He has worked to help develop non-destructive testing capabilities of ceramic matrix composites. The composites consist of ceramic fibers embedded in a ceramic matrix. They are less likely to crack or fracture than conventional ceramics and are used in aircraft and military vehicles.<\/p>\n

However, they are expensive, difficult to see through and challenging to test without the materials being damaged or destroyed in the process. So developing non-destructive testing methods is important.<\/p>\n

Vehre recently gave a poster presentation at AFRL on air-coupled ultrasound inspections of the composites. Conventional ultrasonic tests are conducted using water or gel as a transmitting medium, but air-coupled ultrasound has advantages.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, air is a particularly difficult couplant to work with. So we are addressing that challenge,\u201d said Vehre. \u201cThey liked my presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vehre grew up in the western Ohio city of Greenville. His mother is a physician who works at a local clinic, and his father recently retired as director of the Greenville Public Library.<\/p>\n

Vehre started playing the violin in second grade. He has since played in the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and in pit orchestra productions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe violin has always been a passion of mine,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile I haven\u2019t done as many musicals because of COVID, I have still been playing at my church and it\u2019s been a wonderful experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vehre\u2019s strength in math and love of the STEM fields drew him to engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how everything works together, and I love efficiency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vehre said the highlight of his time at Wright State has been the people with which he has gotten to network and the career opportunities he has had.<\/p>\n

He said Wright State\u2019s mechanical engineering program has given him a very solid foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot of theory that I used at work in class,\u201d he said. \u201cThe internship is a materials engineering job, but my classes have really has helped me learn the base information to expand out and learn new things for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vehre said the biggest challenge of his internship was getting up to speed with leading techniques in the field. But he said he has gained a lot of specialized knowledge and experience in ultrasonic testing and thermography, which uses infrared cameras to produce images.<\/p>\n

After graduating in the spring, Vehre would like to pursue a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, with a focus on propulsion and non-destructive testing.<\/p>\n

Vehre\u2019s Wright State experience is not all engineering. It includes language learning.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m a huge enthusiast of studying the structures and cultures associated with different languages,\u201d he said. \u201cMy favorites right now are Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. I took an Arabic class this semester. It\u2019s been wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Vehre applies knowledge learned in Wright State’s mechanical engineering program in his Air Force Research Laboratory internship. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":116018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2034,743,4269,715,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-career-services","category-engineering-computer-science","category-mechanical-and-materials-engineering","category-news","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116006"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116046,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116006\/revisions\/116046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}