B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Virginia, 1986
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I went to school at the University of Virginia and graduated with a bachelor's degree in
mechanical engineering in 1986. I came to work at MPR Associates in August of 1986 (after taking
the summer off to have some fun).
Like most engineers here, I started out working on several different project teams with other
junior and senior level engineers. My work typically involved performing engineering analyses,
running tests, and preparing presentations, reports and other technical documents. The wide
variety of challenging work at MPR has really appealed to me and has allowed me to develop
capabilities in new technical areas such as software development, electronics, and instrumentation.
One of my recent projects involved both "hands-on" engineering and applying engineering
theory. For this project, we were trying to embed optical fiber strain sensors in a composite
bearing. The objective of this project was to develop a large, "smart" bearing that can be used in
Naval ship and submarine control surface (e.g., rudder) systems to measure the actual loads on the
system. If these loads can be measured, then the design of the system can be optimized to be
smaller, lighter weight, etc. This technology has a lot of other interesting applications as well,
such as bearings for industrial machinery and smart structures. We were able to embed a couple of
sensors in a small scale (4 inch diameter) bearing and measure applied loads. We then correlated
the optical measurements with the strains predicted by classical solid mechanics theory.
I have also taken on some other non-engineering related responsibilities which I think are
interesting. For example, I developed computer software to complement a new accounting system we
installed at our company several years ago, and I have become an instructor for one of the in-house
courses we present to new engineers at MPR.
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