Grad student and faculty earn state funding to support aerospace research

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U.S. Air National Guard photo by Munnaf Joarder
Several graduate students and faculty from The Ohio State University College of Engineering have earned 2020 Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE) fellowship awards to support their research endeavors.

The program—officially known as the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)/Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute (DAGSI) Ohio Student-Faculty Research Fellowship—is funded primarily through DAGSI by the Ohio Board of Regents. It aims to support graduate science and engineering students and faculty who conduct research in areas targeted by the AFRL at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Five projects from the College of Engineering will receive funding

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Nicole Renninger (L) and Karen Dannemiller (R)
For their project, “Gene Expression in Fungi Associated with Materials Degradation in Aircraft and Fuel Systems,” environmental engineering graduate student Nicole Renninger and Assistant Professor Karen Dannemiller aim to identify fungal genes associated with polymer degradation on aircraft under different relative humidity conditions.

This information can inform solutions for design and preventive maintenance protocols to promote system integrity and increase lifespan. Material degradation on aircraft due to microbes is estimated to cost the Air Force more than $1 billion annually.

-by Meggie Biss, College of Engineering Communications |  biss11@osu.edu