Dr. Hobeck traveled to Iowa State University to meet with Dr. Alipour and her team. The meeting marked the official kickoff for a 3-year National Science Foundation funded project that will be a collaborative effort between KSU and ISU. The project focuses on developing a smart morphing façade (smorphaçade) system that will adapt with changing wind conditions in order to mitigate wind-induced vibrations in tall buildings. Photo: (left-to-right) Behrouz Shafei, Jared Hobeck, Partha Sarkar, Alice Alipour. Photo credit: Christopher Gannon, ISU photographer.

The MSL has undergone major changes in recent weeks. The materials testing hardware donations  described in  an earlier post was installed and is now operational. Moving the 1 ton load frame to the 2nd floor lab was no easy task. However, our group put our minds and muscles to the test and made the move seamless! The top left image shows the load frame in the Rathbone Hall elevator. The top right image  shows the group handling the freight containing the MTS hydraulic pump used to power the load frame. The bottom images show the load frame in its fully upright position in the MSL. The lab setup was significantly modified to accommodate this huge frame! Peek in the MSL window at 2087 Rathbone Hall to see our new hardware!