ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (July 11, 2016) -- Army officials hosted a visit from Drexel University leadership June 27 to commence a new multi-task, five-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement.
Drexel University President John A. Fry met with Dr. Philip Perconti, acting director of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, along with senior leaders from both organizations.
Perconti discussed the laboratory's vision, research programs, newest research centers and collaboration opportunities under the Open Campus Initiative.
"The Open Campus Initiative is a new business model for building an integrated work environment with academia, industry and government," Perconti said. "Open Campus fuels innovation through research and development collaboration."
The Army is partnering with Drexel in a joint research agreement to spur scientific research in areas of mutual interest, officials said.
Dr. Aleister Saunders, Drexel University's senior vice provost for research, described the university's vision, innovation, facilities and partnerships.
ARL Mechanics Division Chief Dy Le and Professor Antonios Kontsos from Drexel discussed the first collaborative projects under the agreement.
"Our collaborative efforts will focus on enabling the ARL Virtual Risk-informed Agile Maneuver Sustainment, or VRAMS concept, with a unique capability to model and track damage precursor evolution and determine the remaining useful life of rotorcraft materials and components exposed to dynamic excitation," Le said.
Both parties discussed expectations as well as additional potential areas of mutual research interest.
In May, the Army announced its new partnership with the university initially to identify damage on Army aircraft due to metal fatigue and high stress and to formally address modeling approaches to the severity of damage precursors in aviation structures.
A CRADA is a formal agreement between one or more federal laboratories and one or more non-federal parties under which the government, through its laboratories, provides personnel, facilities, equipment or other resources.
At the close of the meeting, ARL officials accepted an invitation to visit Drexel's r research facilities in Philadelphia and engage in more in-depth discussions.
Drexel is a "comprehensive global research university ranked among the top 100 in the nation," according to its website. With about 26,000 students, it is one of America's 15 largest private universities.
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The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
Related Links:
Sciences-for-Maneuver Campaign Plan
U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command
Army, Drexel University enter cooperative research agreement
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