Black engineers honored during annual gala Published March 18, 2008 By 003108 EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Two Air Force Research Laboratory members were recently honored for their achievements during the 22nd Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) Conference, held Feb. 14 through 16, in Baltimore, Md. Roosevelt Davis and Virginia Swindell, mechanical engineers at the AFRL Munitions Directorate, were recognized as "Modern Day Technology Leaders," during the awards banquet for their achievements. Since 1986, the BEYA Awards have recognized the ongoing achievements of black leaders in science, technology, engineering and math-related careers and are presented in more than 25 categories. Mr. Davis received the honor for his outstanding accomplishments as a young engineer. According to his supervisor, "Roosevelt has made exemplary contributions to AFRL since his arrival at the Munitions Directorate four years ago," said Jeffrey Hess. According to Mr. Hess, Mr. Davis' most significant contributions are in the study of munitions blast effects. Airblast characterization is critical to fully understanding the potential lethality of existing or concept munitions. His efforts have provided a one-of-a-kind facility to study and characterize airblast phenomenology. Mr. Davis' expertise was crucial in a collaborative effort between government and industry to design the instrumented blastpad. Cased weapons are particularly difficult to characterize because of fragments produced during detonation; these fragments are hazardous to most measurement devices. Mr. Davis' design includes features that nearly eliminate fragments that would interfere with successful data collection. In addition to the facility design, he managed the day-to-day construction events, test planning for upcoming experiments, execution of experiments and data analysis/interpretation of experimental results. "Ultimately, Mr. Davis' technical expertise will provide our warfighters the capability to predict munition effectiveness against a selected target before being loaded on the plane thus increasing the probability of successfully destroying the target, minimizing undesirable collateral damage, and ultimately decreasing costs," explained Mr. Hess. In addition to his technical responsibilities Mr. Davis participates in several directorate outreach programs. He provides math tutoring to fifth grade students at Cherokee Elementary School to help prepare students for the Florida comprehensive exams. He also provided presentations at Niceville High to show students the benefits of studying engineering and the types of opportunities available to engineers. Virginia Swindell is a graduate of North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. She currently serves as a Mechanical Engineer for the Munitions Directorate. In this position, she focuses on in-house technical activities such as experimental design for penetration weapon environments, designing of test hardware, structural and dynamic calculations with modeling and conducting test analyses. In addition to in-house activities, Ms. Swindell manages programs and provides technical direction for contractual efforts in the areas of penetration fuzing and advanced initiation technologies. She has been recognized for her work in the field of penetration by receiving a Special Service Award for High Speed Penetrator Soil testing. According to her supervisor, Tim Tobik, "Virginia is both people and task oriented with a strong dedication to making a long lasting positive impact on the groups she is a part of." Ms. Swindell is an active member of the Directorate Diversity Council and she is very involved with the community where she resides. One of her passions is working with youth. She is a member of the Ambassador Team, the National Engineer's Week community outreach program of AFRL/RW. She is an Okaloosa County Take Stock in Children Mentor, on the Board of Directors for Royal Generation Development Council and is the Teen Coordinator for Striving for Perfection Ministries.