BY TRENTON WINFORD
tgwinford@bellsouth.net
Recently my class took a tour of the National Center for Physical Acoustics, which is right here on the campus of The University of Mississippi.
Prior to this tour, I did not know that the center existed, much less what projects and research were conducted there. I didn’t feel too bad, though, since the employee giving us the tour admitted that he was unaware of the center’s existence while he was an undergraduate at Ole Miss.
I do not have an engineering degree by any means, but what I witnessed was simply incredible.
In Oxford, Mississippi, researchers are able to use a Tri-Sonic Wind Tunnel that can achieve Mach 5 simulations. Additionally, the center has the ability to test the sound produced by jet engines in a soundproof room that has foam wedges protruding from the walls and ceilings.
I can’t put into words what I saw, primarily because I don’t quite understand it, but I can tell you that it was just really, really cool.
After visiting the acoustics center, I began thinking about other things on Ole Miss’ campus that I was either unfamiliar with or completely did not know about.
This led to me to learn more about the Center for Manufacturing Excellence and the variety of research centers directly or indirectly associated with the engineering department.
These include the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology and the Institute for Advanced Education in Geospatial Sciences, both of which piqued my curiosity, causing me to surf their respective websites for a good bit of time.
These do not even include all the other research and application bodies associated with our great university.
I am glad that I still have some time as an undergraduate student to look into all of these even further.
What’s more is the fact that many of these research bodies are associated with more than one university, being connected to either another Mississippi university or others around the world.
I strongly encourage other students to look into all of the research and application bodies associated with the university as a whole, but specifically look into the ones directly associated with your major, minor or just general areas of interest.
Ole Miss has so much more to offer beyond a higher education for students.
Take the time to discover and understand what the additional aspects of the university can offer you as an undergraduate, graduate and beyond.
Who knows, you could very well learn more about your ambitions and interests in a setting other than the traditional classroom.
Trenton Winford is a junior public policy leadership major from Madison.
