Contact: Bob Ratliff
In ceremonies today, Mississippi State President Malcolm Portera and other officials formally launched an expansion of the university's research and education programs at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Hancock County.
The newly designated Engineering Research Center-Stennis is designed to build on MSU's internationally recognized expertise in high-end computing technologies and enhance the school's research contributions to the state. It also supports one of Portera's announced goals of moving MSU into the ranks of the nation's top 50 research universities.
Joining Portera at the dedication ceremonies were Stennis Center director Roy Estess, Rear Adm. Kenneth Barbor and Don Durham of the Stennis-based U.S. Naval Meteorological and Oceanographic Command, and representatives of Litton Industries and Pascagoula-based Ingalls Shipbuilding. Barbor is NMOC's commander; Durham, its technical director.
Established in 1990, MSU's National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation is one of only 27 in the United States. Conducting approximately $12 million in research annually, its multidisciplinary teams focus on reducing engineering time and costs in areas requiring complex computational problem solving.
The MSU/ERC is recognized for computational engineering research focused on the design of aerospace vehicles, missiles, submarines, surface ships, automobiles, and turbomachinery. The Starkville center also is recognized for research in support of scientific visualization, numerical simulation and high-performance computing.
"The efforts at ERC-Stennis will focus on research directly related to the agencies located there," said ERC director J. Donald Trotter. "Most of the initial work will be closely associated with the activities of the former Center for Air Sea Technology group in the area of systems for ocean and environmental applications."
In addition, ERC-Stennis will work with existing and new ERC projects with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the areas of rocket testing and remote sensing, Trotter said. "The effort in remote sensing supports Mississippi State's new Remote Sensing Technologies Center, which focuses on precision farming, forestry and transportation applications," he added.
The work of ERC-Stennis will be coordinated by associate ERC director Joseph McCaffrey, while Jim Corbin directs the new Integrated Data Systems Laboratory, one of five ERC laboratories. Corbin formerly was director of the Center for Air Sea Technology.
Like programs at MSU and elsewhere in the state, the space center is named in honor of former U.S. senator John C. Stennis of DeKalb, who represented Mississippi for more than four decades in Washington, D.C. An MSU alumnus who died in 1991, Stennis served on the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees, chairing the former 1969-80.