Valerie Pezzullo had two things to celebrate this spring: She received her master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering and took first place in MTConnect Challenge 2, a contest to develop innovative and unique software applications for manufacturing.
\nPezzullo\u2019s software application detects vibrations in metal-cutting machines so that corrections can be made before parts are damaged. The application is expected to help manufacturers that rely on computer-controlled machines to make highly precise parts for a variety of industries, ranging from automotive to aerospace.
\nIt could have an especially large impact on manufacturers that use high-value materials. Regenerative vibration, or \u201cchatter,\u201d can ruin parts that cost as much as $20,000 each in raw materials alone. By the time the vibrations are audible, it\u2019s too late because the part already may be damaged.
\n\u201cAs a student, it was exciting to go through the design and see it through to the final product,\u201d said Pezzullo, who is from Selden, a hamlet on New York\u2019s Long Island. \u201cThe app is very practical and useful for industry.\u201d
\nPezzullo\u2019s application was part of her thesis and an offshoot of previous research done by her adviser, Laine Mears, associate professor of automotive engineering.
\n\u201cIt will have a big impact on manufacturing, especially in the Upstate, because manufacturing is such a large part of the economy,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a great example of automatically generating information and using it to improve manufacturing quality and productivity.\u201d
\nAnd the $100,000 prize? Pezzullo has said she will pay off her student loans and establish a scholarship for female students studying engineering.
\nPezzullo did her research at the\u00a0Clemson University-International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) and worked on machines provided by Okuma America Corp., a Charlotte subsidiary of Okuma Corporate. The contest was sponsored by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Defense-wide Manufacturing Science and Technology (DMS&T), AMT \u2013 The Association For Manufacturing Technology and the U.S. Army Ben\u00e9t Labs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Graduating and Giving Back Valerie Pezzullo had two things to celebrate this spring: She received her master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering and took first place in MTConnect Challenge 2, a contest to develop innovative and unique software applications for manufacturing. Pezzullo\u2019s software application detects vibrations in metal-cutting machines so that corrections can be made before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":11645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[859,1241,1900,2533,2846,3176],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-11238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-cu-icar","tag-female-students-studying-engineering","tag-mechanical-engineering","tag-scholarship","tag-summer-fall-2014","tag-valerie-pezzullo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2014\/09\/Valerie-Pezzullo-M-14.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11238"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}