Professor Andrea Vacca, from Purdue University’s Maha Laboratory (Lafayette, USA) was visiting SSAU from June 2 to June 6. This university is on the 14th place in the world in the field of engineering sciences. Maha Laboratory enters the network of Fluid Power Research Centres in the USA. Andrea Vacca is the leading secretary of the Fluid Power Committee in the USA, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and for SSAU he is a member of SSAU International Expert Council.





Foreign scientist got acquainted with SSAU and its roadmap, met with Rector E. V. Shakhmatov, explored the possibilities of the Department of Automatic Systems of Power Plants and the Research and Development of Machines Acoustics.



Andrea Vacca attended the graduation projects overcurrent protection by specialists at the Department of Automatic Systems of Power Plants. Students did not panic and presented several projects in English. American professor noted the high qualification level of Samara students. During the visit the question on establishment of joint educational Master, postgraduate and doctoral programs was raised. The question of obtaining double diplomas was also discussed. Mr. Vacca noted that the Department and the Institute already have unique equipment (for example, for noise measurement), for which graduate students from the USA may come to Samara to prepare their theses. Such exchanges could be quite mutual. There is also a development plan of distance education in the field of machine dynamics and control systems, when professors come to Samara, read the overview course and then conduct the grades.
In SSAU Mr. Vacca conducted seminars on the dynamics, vibroacoustics and control systems. He also read a series of lectures on the dynamics of hydraulic machines, challenges of fluid power in aerospace and general industrial use. It turned out that there are common themes between the studies conducted at Purdue University and SSAU. Mr. Vacca discussed them with young scientists. Some topics, such as asteroid security is a problem that can be solved only in international cooperation.
Creation of Fluid Power Laboratory in SSAU jointly with Purdue University was discussed during the visit. This laboratory will be a research and educational centre of international level, the base in Russia, which will focus researches on fluid power, pneumatics, mechatronics and machines control. In Europe there are 12 such centres. They are networked in Fluid Power - FPCE.net.
Mr. Vacca appreciated the possibilities of our institution and Samara and offered to host the next international conference on fluid power in SSAU. The conference like this is organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. It is held every two years in one of the countries in the world (in 2014 is Finland, where four participants from SSAU will also participate). These conferences will be in Scopus database iWeb of Science.