Jacob Cranford Email & Phone Number

Huntsville, Alabama, United States

I am currently working as a systems engineer, developing component, functional, and systems level requirements for cutting edge applications. I am also responsible for generating multiple concepts for addressing requirements and using optimization techniques to develop novel solutions.

Huntsville, Alabama Area

Tullahoma, Tennessee

Live butterflies are used to collect flight data in state of the art ATOM (Autonomous Tracking and Optical Measurements) lab on the campus at the University of Alabama Huntsville. The ATOM lab is a motion capture facility which can track the position of markers placed strategically on a Monarch butterfly as it is released to fly in a 20'x35'x12' capture volume. This capture volume contains twenty-two Vicon T40s cameras that can track specialized reflective markers. The Vicon software Nexus is used to process camera data and export the position data into a data file that can be analyzed. This position data is then analyzed using the computational program MATLAB. This analysis focuses on determining flight patterns of butterflies during steady flight, with the goal of comparing these flight patterns to computational models developed by other researchers Another research project underway is using the same butterflies and ATOM lab motion capture facility to supplement research done by Dr. Amy Lang of the University of Alabama. Dr. Lang is interested in the effect that scales located on a butterfly wing (think fish scales) on the aerodynamics of the wing. The hypothesis is that the scale structure allows for the butterfly to generate more lift in flight, increasing its efficiency. The ATOM lab is able to directly compare flights of a butterfly with scales to flights of the same butterfly, but without scales. This research will be used to supplement Dr. Lang's work. Jacob Cranford has been the point of contact for the testing of the butterflies as well as for the analysis of the data captured in the ATOM lab.Finally, three cameras from the ATOM lab motion capture facility are currently in use collecting position data for a galloping beam. This beam was placed in a wind tunnel which had a 1'x1'x2' transparent test section. The cameras were needed to be placed precisely to track nine markers along the beam and tip mass as the beam oscillated inside the wind tunnel.

Huntsville, Alabama Area

This position was with the Propulsion Research Center (PRC) at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The facility is used to research many different topics in the field of propulsion. First the work done at the propulsion research center was focused on the cryogenic test flow facility. Jacob Cranford bent tubing as well as tightened fittings on this project.The majority of the time spent at the PRC was dedicated to testing a suppression technique for high frequency combustion instabilities. The facility used a single injector model liquid rocket engine combustor which used gaseous oxygen and methane as propellants. A high frequency combustion instability was excited spontaneously inside the combustor. A speaker located upstream of the combustor in the oxidizer supply line was used to modulate the incoming propellant flow, with the goal of damping the instability. This research has resulted in a paper published at the Joint Propulsion Conference, as well as being a co-author on another paper published at the same conference. A journal article is currently in development in which Jacob Cranford will be published as a co-author.

Contracted to support obsolescence for the Apache helicopter platform§ Worked on developing an obsolescence model using piece part data to model upperlevel subsystems§ Worked independently to complete tasks assigned

Master Of Engineering (M.Eng.), Mechanical Engineering

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Aerospace, Aeronautical And Astronautical Engineering

Activities and Societies: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics