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The University of Washington’s Department of Aeronautics and
Astronautics has been named in Lamborghini's honour after
the Italian sports car maker made "generous unrestricted"
grant
to further research into highly advanced composite materials that
are used in aeronautical applications and can be carried forward
to high performance cars.
The Lamborghini donation will "aid in furthering carbon
fibre technologies for increased safety and weight reduction
of future products. This is in line with Lamborghini's goal
to improve the power-to-weight ratio of its vehicles by
reducing the weight of its materials. Carbon fibre is the
best material for nearly all applications which are
essential to creating Lamborghini's super sports cars and
achieving these goals, as it is lighter, stiffer and more
versatile." Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann will
travel to Washington next week for the inauguration of the
laboratory.
The University of Washington’s Department of
Aeronautics and Astronautics Advanced Composite
Structures laboratory says that its "mission is
to provide research and education solutions in
the field of composite materials and structures
that are of particular relevance to ensuring the
safety of current and future air and ground
vehicles. The research conducted in the group
includes foreign object damage resistance and
tolerance, crashworthiness, lightning strike
protection, and certification by analysis
supported by test evidence.
The University of Washington’s Department of
Aeronautics and Astronautics offers the only aerospace
degree program in the Pacific Northwest, a region whose
aerospace industry has been a major contributor to the
technological development, economic vitality and the
security of the United States."
The connection
to Lamborghini comes through its Principal Investigator
Paolo Feraboli who joined the Department of Aeronautics and
Astronautics of the University of Washington in the summer
of 2005, as Assistant Professor in Aerospace Structures and
Materials; he previously worked for Lamborghini in
Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy. He is the Director of the Advanced Composite
Structures Laboratory (ACSL), which is now called the
Automobili Lamborghini Advanced Composite Structures
Laboratory following a
"generous unrestricted fund for its establishment". Dr. Feraboli has received research funding from The Boeing
Company, the Federal Aviation Adminstration (FAA), the Air
Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Callaway Golf,
Hexcel Corp., Toray Composites of America, and Automobili
Lamborghini S.p.A. on various research projects related to
the development of analytical and experimental techniques
for composite materials. He is particularly interested in
composites aircraft safety and certification, including
impact damage resistance and tolerance, lightning strike
damage, and crashworthiness.
Since 2003, Dr. Feraboli has authored has authored over 20
archival journal publications and presented over 50
conference papers. He is the founding and current Chair of
the CMH-17 (former MIL-HDBK-17) Working Group on
Crashworthiness, and member of its Board of Directors. He is
also the current Chair of the Durability and Damage
Tolerance Technical Division of the American Society for
Composites (ASC), and the Secretary of the AIAA Materials
Technical Committee. He is the recipient of the 2008 Hayashi
Memorial International Award of the Japan Society for
Composite Materials, and of the 2004 Outstanding PhD
Research Award of the American Society for Composites.
Dr. Feraboli earned his Ph.D. at the University of
California, Santa Barbara under the supervision of Dr. Keith
Kedward, and holds previous degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy. In 2007
he was actively involved with the methods development of the
composite-intensive Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and worked in the
787 Technology Integration group under Dr. Al Miller.
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