The Purdue University Board of Trustees has approved the naming of the future Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center for two College of Engineering alumni brothers. Thomas S. Wilmeth, IN A ’35, earned his degree in electrical engineering from Purdue and with his brother founded Scot Industries, Inc. in Milwaukee (WI).
Purdue president Mitch Daniels said, “It is appropriate to name the Active Learning Center – a library-classroom prototype of the future – after two brothers who personified and exemplified the creative problem solving, ingenuity and entrepreneurship of Purdue engineers.” Read the news release for more details on the 2017 dedication and $79 million classroom-library project.
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Crain Communications Inc., recently profiled Fabrisonic LLC, a Columbus (OH) company that “has invented a new kind of 3-D printing that has found applications within Ohio’s aerospace industry and secured a supply chain in Northeast Ohio.” Mark I. Norfolk, P.E. (OH G ’00), is the president and founder of Fabrisonic. “We’re doing metal 3-D printing,” said company CEO Norfolk. According to the article, the company’s approach to 3-D printing uses thin films of metal foil and vibration allowing two pure metal molecules to touch and bond on their own.
Norfolk earned his bachelor’s degree in welding engineering from the Ohio State University (OSU). Fabrisonic works from a 15,000-square-foot space on the OSU campus, where it runs three of its patented 3-D printing cells around the clock making parts for aerospace companies, defense contractors and other high-tech manufacturing industries.
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In April, Benjamin F. Logan Jr., Ph.D., passed away at the age of 87. The New York Times obituary characterized Logan, TX B ’46, as a mathematician, electrical engineer, and a fiddler known as Tex Logan. He performed with Mike Seeger and Jerry Garcia and wrote songs that were covered by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. A former colleague and professor of statistics at Stanford University said that Logan’s two careers were not as incongruous as they seemed.
“His day job was analysis,” Dr. David Donoho said. “His night job was synthesis.” He described Dr. Logan’s scientific studies as attempts to break signals into their simplest parts and his music as creating complex sounds out of simple notes. Click here to read the full obituary for more biographical information
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Tau Beta Pi 