By air and by sea: Design Day supporter sponsors new seaplane capstone project
First-time sponsor Charlie Simpson’s project is a perfect fit for team lead Nyhel Sekulic.
Faculty mentor Doug May (left) and alum Charlie Simpson recruit student team members at the 2024 Design Day open house.
For Charlie Simpson, flying high is a family tradition. His father earned a degree in aerospace engineering before becoming a senior executive for an aircraft training systems company, and Simpson followed in his footsteps in the industry.
Since 2009, Simpson has been a judge at the College of Engineering’s Craig M. Berge Design Day, and in 2019, he began sponsoring the Simpson Family Award for Best Simulation and Modeling, which recognizes the project demonstrating the best use of computer-based simulation or modeling.
This year, he is taking his support further by sponsoring a new capstone project through The New Nose Company, the avionics design and aircraft modification firm he started in 1995.
Simpson is sponsoring the Preliminary Design Study for a Blended Wing Body Seaplane Interdisciplinary Capstone project, which will allow six engineering seniors to dip their toes into different aspects of aircraft design, from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and computer-aided design (CAD) models to wind tunnel samples.
“I’m looking at both the turboprop and the turbojet – which are big, spinny things – propellers, and conventional jet engine configuration, and then doing a structure,” Simpson said. “There’s an engineering analysis behind this, but that basically comes out to be what the pros and cons are of each design.”
The primary goal is to develop a long-range amphibious seaplane that can deploy divers and submersibles at sea, as well as support maritime surveillance and search and rescue capabilities.
After earning an aerospace engineering BS at the UA, Simpson began his career at Honeywell, but left in 1995 to join what would eventually become The New Nose Company — which he would run on his own four years later. His prize sponsorship for the senior capstone program began as a nod to his parents, who were always interested in the UA’s Design Day projects.
The endowment he started that funds the Simpson Family Award focuses primarily on computer simulation and modeling as a testament to his father’s work in aircraft simulation. The endowment not only funds the award, but leftover funds also contribute to the aerospace department as a whole.
“The one thing I’ve always learned, especially when I was at university, was that the labs are always well-equipped, but they forget about the ongoing yearly expenses of consumables,” Simpson said. “So I buy a lot of that stuff.”
A growth opportunity for all
Nyhel Sekulic is one of the six seniors who will work on the seaplane project this year. Originally from Paris, she too followed in her father’s footsteps into aerospace engineering. The family moved to Tucson when her father began work as an engineer at the UA on the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.
“I grew up watching him bring telescopes home to show me how to use them. I would come to campus to see his work, and it really inspired me,” Sekulic said.
Sekulic, a double major in systems and aerospace engineering, said the seaplane project immediately caught her eye when she saw the list. After working in an on-campus lab for AME faculty members Christoph Hader and Hermann Fasel and getting hands-on experience with CFD data analysis, she discovered that it was “a passion I didn’t know I had,” so working on the seaplane project was a no-brainer.
“Seeing that opportunity to do more work in CFD was like a click in my brain,” she said. “I was like, I have to work on this project.”
Sekulic is the team lead, CFD lead and project manager for Team 25011, offering her experience in project management in alignment with her systems education as well as CFD data analysis. She says that with this project, she looks forward to gaining real-world project management experience and growing as an engineer in the same way that she has seen others who completed their capstone projects in the past.
“It’s really cool to see that growth, and I’m excited to see that happen with our team as well,” Sekulic said.
As for Simpson, he anticipates helping the students learn firsthand what goes into real-world engineering analysis as well as getting some unique perspectives from the young engineers he’ll be working with.
“It’s fun, I enjoy doing it,” Simpson said. “Working with the students keeps you young, keeps you engaged.”