Ann Arbor, Michigan

To back track a bit...

...While in Detroit I had a chance to meet Stephanie Rodgers. Stephanie is the President and Founder of Automotive Textile Solutions Inc. It was her company that co-sponsored the Automotive Design Competition along with Kolon. Automotive Textile Solutions is an engineering firm devoted to the practical engineering, development, and implementation of textile structures used in vehicle applications. ATS was created to be the bridge between the inner workings of textile structures and the achievement of performance characteristics that vehicle and component manufacturers demand. To learn more about this company, please check out their website: www.autotexsolutions.com

While in Ann Arbor, Johanna and I visited with my friend Charlie. I met Charlie this past summer while studying at Nagoya University. Six students from the University of Michigan attended the summer program (most of which were on ski trips since it was the MLK holiday). But it is still good to know that I have friends in the area (more incentive for moving to Detroit) and it was wonderful to spend the day with Charlie and catch up with each other. Charlie gave us a tour of campus...which was beautiful!...especially in the snow!

He took us into a building with a huge water-filled room, which was labeled "Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory". As we were peering in, making guesses as to what it might be, a man stopped to talk to us and asked if we wanted to see it...of course we did! It turns out that this is the Physical Modeling Basin, originally built in 1904! The model basin was the first of its kind owned and operate by an educational institution. It is equipped to facilitate a full range of classical, innovative, and unique experimental procedures encompassing all areas of the marine environment. The model basin measures 360 feet in length, 22 feet wide at the water surface, and has an average depth of 10.5 feet. The towing carriage can accomadate models up to 25 feet in length and several tons in weight. We also discovered that it can carry the 3 of us and 2 operators when we took it for a test drive! The maximum carriage speed is 22 ft/sec, controlled by a computer. A computer also controls a wedge type wave maker which is capable of producing regular or irregular sea states. To learn more, check out the UofM Engineering program: www.engin.umich.edu