Mr. Paul Smith and Dr. Tina Reynolds are the inventors behind a groundbreaking data processing system for wind tunnels at RQVX, which utilizes an In-Memory Network Cache (IMNC) to enhance situational awareness for expensive and fragile sensors (US Patent #11,933,694 Wind Tunnel Having Low Latency Data Publishing). The patent, filed in July 2021, was the result of their collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic, where Smith, with his expertise in open-source software, and Reynolds, with her understanding of wind tunnel testing requirements, developed a system that allows for efficient data access, anomaly detection, and pattern recognition.
Imagine a world where wind tunnel testing is less of a tedious and time-consuming process, but rather an exciting and efficient endeavor. That's exactly what Paul Smith and Dr. Tina Reynolds have striven towards with their revolutionary system. The IMNC enables real-time monitoring of high-velocity data streams, providing researchers and tunnel staff with valuable insights and improving equipment uptime.
“I like to use the analogy of if you had to wait a long time for each Google search, sometimes an hour, how often would you use it? People would go back to reading books,” Smith says.
But how did they do it? Well, it all started when Smith and Reynolds put their heads together during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Smith's expertise in open-source software and Reynolds' understanding of wind tunnel testing requirements, they developed a system that significantly reduces the time required to capture and process data, from one hour of labor to just 10 seconds. This allows for the capture of high-resolution data logs and the detection of random events with high accuracy and detail.
Not only does this patent aid in collecting and storing data, it also helps with prediction. This has been a revolutionary ability, as it allows the researchers and tunnel staff to take more risks as their situational awareness is so good. It also allows them to easily capture data events that would require being extremely LUCKY.
The patent process, facilitated by AFRL's paralegal Robert Prozak and patent lawyer Larry Huston, took 2.5 years to complete. Smith emphasizes the importance of listening to quiet voices and small comments from researchers and engineers, as many valuable ideas come from unexpected sources. He also highlights the need to understand the unique communication styles of different disciplines to facilitate productive collaboration.
“Once it can handle the speed, it can handle the flow and then I pull from that to make these custom systems that let them know what to do so they can, I call dance, you can “dance” around problems.”
The patented system developed by Paul Smith and Dr. Tina Reynolds at RQVX has revolutionized wind tunnel testing by providing real-time data monitoring and processing capabilities. Their collaboration demonstrates the power of combining expertise from different fields to solve complex problems. So, let's give a round of applause for Smith and Reynolds, the dynamic duo who have transformed the world of wind tunnel testing!