CORNELL COMMITTED TO FUTURE ENGINEERS' LEARNING

Cornell Pump is always excited to help engineers and educators expand the field of fluid dynamics. On April 20, 2012 Cornell’s Engineering Department hosted two guests from Portland State University’s (PSU) Civil and Environmental Engineering Department; Tom Bennett, Assistant Professor and head of the newly formed Fluid and Hydraulics Teaching Lab, and Austin Hudson, teaching assistant.

Bennett and Hudson came to Cornell Pump to discuss pumps testing in general, how it could apply to their lab’s pump test capabilities, and to specifically address a high head low flow fire nozzle test problem.

Steve Schoenbrun, Cornell Pump’s vice president of engineering and Derek Hollensteiner, test lab supervisor, gave them a tour of the test lab and discussed pros/cons of various instrumentation and ideas on how pump testing can be used as a training tool. Schoenbrun also discussed how PSU’s Fluid and Hydraulics Teaching Lab might use pumps in series to obtain the high head requirement of the nozzle test, and how to recirculate flow so that the pumps will still function correctly.

Schoenbrun and Hollensteiner agreed to be available for additional assistance for the fire nozzle problem, and also discussed class tours of the Cornell facility. It was suggested that Cornell make our test lab available for PSU students to participate in an actual (real world) pump test.

Bennett invited Schoenbrun to visit the PSU teaching lab, and Steve expects to visit in the near future.

Cornell employs more than 20 qualified engineers in design, manufacturing, sales and testing. We have four engineers who are alumni of Portland State, including the VP of engineering and company president. Go Vikings!