Seagate Donation

The AEM Department has received another generous donation of equipment from the technology company, Seagate. This donation was distributed to the departments of Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Physics & Astronomy.

Seagate has a close partnership with the University of Minnesota; it has  funded numerous research projects with the university and many graduates are hired at Seagate. With more than 100 UMN graduates hired at Seagate within the last eight years, and over 400 current employees holding degrees from the university, the school provides Seagate with the largest number of hires from any institution in the world.

The Department recognizes and thanks Mark Dubé, Jim Fisher, and the team at Seagate for their efforts and diligence. Professor Peter Seiler and Kale Hedstrom were also instrumental in organizing and arranging all the pieces of this operation. These individuals made the donation process possible, and the Department offers them much gratitude and appreciation.

Of the equipment received, one of the two Dini Group DNV7F2A development systems and two Huins Multi FPGA Prototyping LX330 boards went to the physics department. Multiple other units went to the Electrical Engineering department.  

Professor Kurt Wick said the physics department is hoping to use the Multi FPGA prototyping board and FPGA logic prototyping system in the MXP (Methods of Experimental Physics) course. Annually, the class teaches about 60 physics students basic digital logic concepts and Verilog programming to familiarize them with  analog-to-digital conversion and computer interfacing to the physics department for their experimental physics class. 

The Aerospace Engineering Small Satellite Laboratory will receive multiple units as well. While this helps roughly 30 students in both AEM and Physics, it will particularly affect the CubeSat project. The Epsec thermal shock chamber is going to be used for thermal testing of satellite components.  The Nikon profile projector will be used for circuit board inspection, and the Fluke and Bendix multimeters, the Lecroy oscilloscope and the HP counter are going to be used as general purpose lab equipment. 

The HP 35670A signal analyzer will be used for the vibrations experiments in the Aerospace Engineering Aeromechanics Laboratory, AEM 4602W. As AEM’s main undergraduate lab class, between 70 and 80 students handle the equipment each year. The Polytec vibrometers will be used by the department of Aerospace Engineering for structural system analysis and other departmental research. 

Once again, the Department is grateful for Seagate’s generosity and thoughtfulness. Generous gifts such as these are instrumental in supporting students, faculty, and academic programs and help shape the future for everyone in Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics.