The Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) opened its annual Fluid Power Innovation & Research Conference (FPIRC) at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University today (Vanderbilt’s own Professor Eric Barth is shown at right, opening the conference). The event, which runs through Thursday, has about 200 registered attendees, about double that of past conferences. Attending the event is a nice mixture of industry leaders, government representatives, students and fluid power researchers from the world of academia.
Professor Kim Stelson of the University of Minnesota—and Director of the Center—provided some interesting insights into the history of fluid power research in the United States, as well as where it is going. Stelson showed a very telling slide that showed how the curve of research activity was quite strong in the 1950s and then quickly tailed off. Fluid power research activity in this country “went into hibernation” in the 1960s, according to Stelson—coincidentally, around the time that European fluid power centers such as Bath and Aachen, were launched. With fluid power research activity in Europe and Asis skyrocketing in the 1980s and 2000s respectively, the story here was an unimpressive flatline.
But, depressing as that history is, there’s a lot of newfound optimism here, thanks to the efforts of the CCEFP. Before 2006, it is estimated that only two fluid power PhDs were awarded annually in U.S. However, last year alone, CCEFP graduated 11! Similarly, before the creation of the CCEFP in June 2006, a mere six faculty members were focusing on fluid power research in the U.S. Today, the number is more than 30. And in the past eight years, there has been a tenfold increase in fluid power lab infrastructure here.
CCEFP’s expanded vision, says Stelson, is “fluid power is the technology of choice for power generation, transmission, storage and control.” And with some stunning turnaround numbers like those above, the industry has a great opportunity to convey that message to engineers in this country and beyond.
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