News

Seven Local Students Selected as Prestigious Wright Scholars

04/16/07

Seven Clark County students have been selected to participate in the prestigious Wright Scholar program for 2007 out of a total of 21 students accepted to the program. Each student will work in a paid position this summer at the Air Force Research Laboratory in the Propulsion Directorate at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn.

“The Wright Scholar program will foster the education of these promising young scientists or engineers with hands-on training and mentorship by a professional in the field,” said AVETeC Education Director Cathy Balas.

Clark County students selected for 2007 are:

Michael Mbagwu, senior, South High School Michael McFall, senior, Northeastern High School LeAnn Perkins, senior, Northwestern High School Duane Portman, junior, Springfield South High School Matt Southward, senior, Shawnee High School Krishna Vellanki, junior, Springfield North High School Ben Yu Jr., junior, Springfield North High School AVETeC and the Air Force Research Laboratory offer the Wright Scholar Research Assistant Program to high school juniors and seniors in Clark County. Juniors selected are automatically in next year’s program.

The Advanced Virtual Engine Test Cell, Inc., (AVETeC) is a not-for-profit public benefit research organization, which aims to facilitate a dramatic reduction in the cost and time it takes to design, develop and test new turbine engines for commercial and military applications. Working together with industry, the Air Force, NASA and academia, AVETeC is developing a world-class modeling and simulation capability to allow engineers to design, test and modify engines in a virtual setting, perfecting designs to the greatest extent possible before producing an actual prototype and resulting in a faster time-to-solution for drastically reduced cost. In 2008, AVETeC will be located in the NextEdge Applied Research and Technology Park currently under construction just east of Springfield, Ohio on U.S. 40.