Great Time at AFIT!

My trip to the Air Force Institute of Technology earlier this week was very quick, but a lot of fun.  My host, Adedeji Badiru, is someone I first interacted with about eight years ago, but only met in person for the first time during my visit.  I had a great audience for my talk, many of whom serve in our armed forced (mainly Air Force).  My talk began with something new for me and something I felt really good about doing.  I thanked those in the audience for their service in our country's armed forces.

My talked focused on research my students, colleagues, and I have done with World Cup soccer balls and with modeling the Tour de France.  In the photo below, I'm talking about the Brazuca ball used in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil (click on image for a larger view).

During the part of my talk when I discussed the Tour de France, I had to show a classic from introductory physics:  the inclined plane (click on image for a larger view).

It was kind of the people hosting me to snap a few photos while I was giving my talk.  I got some great questions afterwards and now have a couple things to think about regarding future work.  There is nothing like sharing science and getting feedback from curious, smart people.

I had about two hours after my talk before I needed to get to the airport.  On the advice of my host, I stopped at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.  Wow!  That place is amazing and I thoroughly recommend stopping there if you are close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.  There is no charge to get in and so many wonderful exhibits and planes await you.  I was thrilled to walk through President John Kennedy's Air Force One, the VC-137C SAM 26000 (click on image for a larger view).

Being in the plane where Lyndon Johnson was sworn in after John Kennedy was assassinated was a little chilling (click here for a very famous photo).

What really got me giddy was seeing equipment used by the Wright Brothers in their flight experiments.  As someone who plays with wind-tunnel data for soccer balls, I truly loved seeing the wind tunnel shown below (click on image for a larger view).

Is that not cool, or what?!?  I'll definitely have to make a return trip to Dayton and spend more time in that wonderful museum.