Michael Rodgers (engineer)

Michael Rodgers (Engineer) is a US Department Of Defense engineer, originating as a child prodigy in the fields of mathematics and technical sciences. Born in Buffalo, New York he currently resides in the Washington D.C. metro area.

Early Life / Education

Homeschooled at the 6th grade, Michael began advancing his education in mathematics. Around this time he became a participant in the Study of Exceptional Talent (SET) program at Johns Hopkins. Shortly after, he joined several hundred 7th-8th graders in an aptitude test designed to determine qualification in the University at Buffalo's Gifted Math Program. The GMP's purpose was to instruct mathematically inclined young adults in collegiate and graduate level education for college credit. Topics included: calculus, cryptography, advanced logic, probability & statistics, etc. Out of the original group, a handful of students were admitted including Michael at the age of 12.

After a year in the program he became a non-matriculated student at the university to take additional classes. At 14 he left the GMP program to take more courses while concurrently pursuing a high school education. Turning 16 signified enrolling as a full-time student and living on campus. Because of several early changes in major, Michael has an extensive background in computer programming and mathematics. Just after turning 20, he graduated in May 2008 holding a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering with honors.

Career

Michael Rodgers is currently an engineer for the United States Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency. Within the MDA's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program Mr. Rodgers is involved with the SM-3 Blk IIA Throttling Divert & Attitude Control System (TDACS). Being part of an accelerated program designed to fill the shoes of the retiring baby boomer MDA workforce, he has come into contact with notable figures such as former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, Lieutenant General Patrick J. O'Reilly (Director, MDA), Rear Admiral Joseph Horn (Program Director, Aegis BMD) and Rear Admiral Alan Hicks (Program Director, Aegis BMD).

Contribution to Fluid Dynamics

During his undergraduate education, Michael took on two research projects both of which earned him a Gustav & Grete Zimmer Memorial Scholarship Award. Initially, he did work with soap film tunnels (SFTs) which was followed by the second scholarship with the Toshiba Stroke Research Center. The former became the more notable with Michael's invention of a hybrid SFT under Dr. David Forliti

Soap film tunnels are used as two dimensional 'wind-tunnels' by creating a stable flowing film or bubble into which objects can be inserted to study their fluidic effects. Normally the films are vertical (driven by gravity) or horizontal (driven by shear from water flow).

In an effort to produce a Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, Michael needed to create a new type of SFT setup to induce the correct conditions. He invented a hybrid model that ran both vertically and horizontally, then set up a duplicate running in parallel in the opposite direction separated by removable fishing wire. This allowed a shearing interaction between both flows needed for the instability.