Making a dream come true

A few years ago, mechanical engineering Professor Mark Tuttle had a dream. He wanted a center of excellence to be developed at the UW, a place where undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and community professionals could gather to research advanced polymer composite materials -- light, durable materials hailed as the future of aero technology.

Now, Tuttle's dream is coming true.

About nine months ago, Tuttle and Kuen Lin, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, came together with Senator Maria Cantwell. She sponsored a bill at the federal level to provide funds for a center of excellence. On June 12th, the legislation passed through congress granting $500,000 for a "center of excellence. " The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will receive the money and channel it to institutions with viable proposals. That is when the UW will pitch their idea.

"The senate funds don't guarantee that the UW will have it," Tuttle said. "But the UW can compete for the money."

According to Tuttle, the center will focus on the use of polymers through a three-lens focus: research, education, and technological transfer of information to the FAA and corporate sponsors such as the Boeing Company. The center will not be limited to the UW, but involve Washington State University, Oregon State University, and Edmonds Community College.

"This center [can] help make Washington state 'composites central,'" Cantwell said in an e-mail. "To build the next generation of Boeing airplanes here in the Northwest, we need to have the next generation of aviation manufacturing technologies here in the Northwest."

The center of Tuttle's dreams already exists in four locations: they are sponsored by the FAA to link industry, academia and the FAA in performing relevant research together in the aerospace industry.

"I'm ecstatic, for 17 years this has been my primary focus, so I'm delighted," said Tuttle. "The objective of FAA is to ensure the integrity of the fleet; the composites can do that, and are used for Airbus aircraft, and also for Boeing. I want to emphasize that this [center] is not just for Boeing aircraft -- composite materials have many usages -- but because we have such strong connection with the Boeing Company there is going to be a Boeing flavor to the center."

When Boeing told Gary Locke that it needed more support from the state for higher education, it didn't to mention the firm support that the company has given to the UW, it wants the state to support that. There are currently 5,328 UW alumni working for Boeing, including graduates of the college of engineering, which attests to the positive relationship.

"The number is big," said Judy Mahoney, the Assistant Dean of Development and External Relations, "We're the biggest supplier of talent and have been for an awfully long time. Thousands have gone to work there, from a variety of disciplines, but mostly from engineering. The UW has a long history of leadership at Boeing."

The Center is part of a package that Cantwell and Gov. Gary Locke are pushing in order to encourage Boeing to build the 7E7 in Washington State.

Eric Bahor, a junior in aeronautical engineering, thinks students will be interested in the center.

"Composite materials are the way of the future," he said. "I took a class on them and they are much lighter, stronger and more efficient for building airplanes. And the way that the market is shifting in aerospace, they are necessary to research."