Dearborn Engineer, Fall 2005 - College of Engineering & Computer ...

FALL 2005
DENSO Gift Provides
New Climate Control Lab
Through its North America Foundation,
DENSO, a global supplier of automotive technology,
systems, and components, has given $250,000
to the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
The gift, which will be delivered over a five-year
period, will build the school’s new DENSO Climate
Control Education and Research Laboratory.
“As a strategy, we try to create the best
instructional environment for functioning in the
automotive industry,” says Dean Subrata Sengupta.
“One of the areas we deal with involves automotive
climate control. Equipment that will be purchased
through DENSO’s significant gift will allow us to
have one of the best automotive climate control
facilities in any university.”
Largely responsible for this donation are John
Voorhorst, DENSO’s vice president of external
affairs and president of the DENSO North America
Foundation, and Barbara Wertheimer, secretary
and program officer of the foundation.
“This gift adds depth to our relationship with a
major engineering program involved in teaching
and research that’s right off our song sheet,” says
Voorhorst. “DENSO is a world leader in manufacturing
car air conditioners. Additionally, we’re excited to
have DENSO staff involved in development of the new lab.”
Pat Bassett, DENSO’s director of climate control
engineering, will be coordinating development of
the laboratory with Eric Ratts, CECS associate
professor of mechanical engineering.
“I’m very excited about the generous contribution from the
DENSO North America Foundation,” says Ratts. “The lab
will only add to the excellent mechanical engineering
education at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and
provide additional learning experiences both through
research and through instruction. It will now be possible
to obtain the equipment we’ve needed for a long time and
to develop the laboratory to enhance the mechanical
engineering curriculum. Students will benefit from this gift
for years to come.”
The new lab will be used to facilitate research and other
educational opportunities in the field of automotive climate
control, which addresses the heating, air conditioning,
defogging, and defrosting of vehicles. Students will be able
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ERIC RATTS, DENSO PROGRAM OFFICER
BARBARA WERTHEIMER, DEAN SUBRATA SENGUPTA, AND DENSO
DIRECTOR OF CLIMATE CONTROL ENGINEERING PAT BASSETT
to perform heat exchanger studies with a new wind tunnel,
which will provide the necessary steady uniform airflow to
measure heat exchanger performance. A thermal imaging
camera will allow students to measure things like the
temperature distribution of a heat exchanger in order to
determine unwanted hotspots and make design corrections.
Mechanical engineering core courses will use the
new equipment to demonstrate external flow and heat
transfer principles, and both students and faculty will
be able to use the equipment for student design projects,
guided studies, and faculty research.
Development of the lab, which will be located in the
Engineering Laboratory Building, has already begun
and is expected to be completed within the coming year.
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