Alexandra Techet, assistant professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering, has been awarded the 2002 Doherty Professorship in Ocean Utilization from the MIT Sea Grant College Program. Every year, the program selects one or two new faculty members for a supplemental award of $25,000 per year for two years.
Techet's Doherty-funded research will focus on developing and testing a lightweight, portable shear stress sensor that can be mounted on the hull of marine vehicles. Such sensors are critical for marine structures, and in particular for improving underwater vehicle locomotion. Other potential applications include measuring shear stress on propeller blades, ship hulls, control surfaces on underwater vessels used in high-speed maneuvering, and detecting flow separation from marine cables and pipelines.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on June 12, 2002.
