Modern Era of Experimental Modal Analysis: One Historical Perspective, The

Sound and Vibration, Jan 2007 by Brown, David L, Allemang, Randall J

Also, the timing was right at the University of Cincinnati, because in the early sixties the Mechanical Engineering Department was in the process of developing a more extensive graduate program. Dr. Daniel Schleef, the Department Head, hired Dr. Ivan Morse and Dr. Frank Tse, who had expertise in mechanical vibrations and measurements, to develop modern undergraduate and graduate courses in those areas. Mechanical engineering also added two new faculty members, Dr. I-Chih Wang and later Dr. Y. G. Tsuei, who added graduate courses in elasticity and analytical methods. The Aeronautical Engineering and Applied Mechanics Departments had complementary courses which allow mechanical engineering students to define a program of study for both a masters and Ph.D. degree in the areas of controls, vibrations, and solid mechanics.

Dr. Lemon had a vision of developing a research laboratory where the university and industry would participate in mutual interest activities to develop new educational and engineering processes. Since Jack had worked as an undergraduate co-op student while attending the University of Cincinnati, he had experienced the positive affects of a university-industry educational experience. Jack understood that it was a win-win situation for both the university and industry if a student activity could be developed that would allow graduate students to be exposed to real-time industrial problems while industry was being exposed to new engineering design and product development processes. The result would be better trained engineers who could help implement these new processes practically in an industrial environment.

In the model that Jack envisioned, the analytical and experimental design processes are closely linked. The students in the university research laboratory would develop an expertise in one area, but should have a good basic understanding and appreciation of the other area. In reality, many graduates have moved from one area to the other depending upon the circumstances in their life and/or job.

Obviously, his concept of the university/industry partnership was proven fruitful because very shortly, after he joined the university, Jack generated tremendous industrial response and gathered the resources to put together a very good team of students and support personnel. Over the next year he recruited a wide variety of students. There were students from many different departments at the university, from other universities both national and international and from many different disciplines. He formed valuable alliances with universities in Europe and Japan. These relationships became very important to UC-SDRL after Jack left and formed SDRC.

By late 1966, the UC-SDRL had expanded to approximately 40 people, the majority being supported students. At this time, the financial support for the research was generated primarily by a major U.S. Air Force contract in manufacturing with the emphasis on the cutting process and cutting dynamics, together with support from industry partners with similar interests. Several U.S. Air Force contracts (AF61-052) funded international machine tools experts on their individual research. Other U.S. Air Force contracts (AF33-615) provided support for the research at UC which included funding to support members of this international research activity to become part of the UC-SDRL staff. These contracts provided financial support for an international collaboration with research activities in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain and Japan that developed relationships and became the model for research activity at the UC-SDRL for the next forty years.