PAGE EIGHT TIRE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 1965 PAGE EIGHT THE MiCHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY. 12 FEBRUARY 1965 4 6116 World War Fostered Willow Run Labs By ROBERT JOHNSTON The Willow Run Laboratories, when they- merged with IST in 1960, were a pretty large hunk to swallow. The move was designed to bring these labs and their $8 million re- search budget into a more Univer- sity-centered orbit, to make them relate more to University func- tions. But to assess the actual effects, one must first examine the nature and work of the Willow Run work, which presenttquite a different picture from the other parts of the IST organization. The history of the Willow Run Labs goes back to the post-World War II years-1946, to be exact- when the University consolidated its initial toe-hold as a recipient of federal money for research. With memories of the war still strong, the government was in- terested in developing an air de- fense system for the United States. The University was chosen to do research in this problem and 'purchased' the Willow Run area from the federal government as a location for the work. Good Deal The price for the entire Willow Run airport-one dollar-probab- ly makes that investment the Uni- versity's most profitable. The Michigan Aeronautical Re- search Center was soon set up there and began work on Project Wizard, the first attempt to adapt ballistic missiles for defense pur- poses. This work, which went on until about 1954, was budgeted at about $1 million per year. In 1950 the center began work in- cooperation with Boeing Air- craft, the prime contractor, on the development of a missile system capable of knocking down super- sonic and sub-sonic bomber air- craft. The principal objective of University scientists was to put together a guidance system and ground-based equipment for the missile. ' J Named After 'U' The result was the BOMARC missile--probably the only missile anywhere named after a univer- sity: the initials stand for Boeing and Michigan Aeronautical Re- search Center. These projects and related ones comprised most of the Willow Run work until 1933. At that time the giant of all past and present University re- search, Project Michigan, was born and is still carried on under the auspices of the Army. Last year expenditures for Project Michigan, directed by Prof. Rob- ert L. Hess, totaled almost $3.7 million. In simplified terms, Project Michigan is devoted to developing advanced techniques for combat surveillance and target acquisi- tion in warfare. Radar, infrared technology and control and guid- ance systems are emphasized. It is around this work, and the staff and facilities assembled to do it, that much of the Willow Run research has developed. Funds for Project Michigan once made up about 80 per cent of the Willow Run budget. Now, while that Proj- ect's expenditures remain fairly constant over the years, its amount as a percentage of to- tal Willow Run expenditure has dropped to about 40. Willow Run and IST The assimilation by IST of the Willow Run research effort, diver- sified as it is yet often very ad- vanced, has had major effects on the character and shape of IST. Conversely, IST has had and is having important effects on Wil- low Run. An analysis of the Willow Run work is therefore in order, though the task is much complicated by the classified nature of many of the projects. The fact that much of the current-and therefore most interesting and exciting-work cannot be discussed except in gen- eral terms, must be borne in mind in assessing the character and im- portance of Willow Run. (Some critics have charged that there is much more concern for secrecy at Willow Run than there need be.) Airborn Labs . Nine of the sixteen IST labora- tories are located at the lab area on the east side of the Willow Run airport. This area is now called the University's Willow Run center. It should be noted, how- ever, that the laboratory organi- zation is highly fluid. Changes oc- the ground are collected, stored, A "temperature map" of a wide cur as labs are moved to North and later processed in such a way strip of terrain can be made from Campus or are created or deacti- as to give the same results as a an aircraft to provide an image vated as the support for programs very long antenna extending along 1imilar to an aerial photograph changes in emphasis and as re- the flight path. but emphasizing and detecting ob- searchers move into new areas of 'U' Methods jects whose temperature varies interest and abandon old ones. The fundamental idea for this from their surroundings. The Willow Run labs are: type of radar did not originate at From the air, factories under- Acoustics and Seismics, Analog the University, but many of the neath a fog or at night, forest Computer, Computation, Infrared data processing and storage meth- 'ires underneath smoke or the Physics, Infrared and Optical Sen- ods which made the system suc- Gulf Stream can be precisely pin- sor, Radar, Moving Target Indi- cessful were worked out at the pointed. cation Radar, Optical and Radio University. An interesting aspect Specific programs have includ- Systems and Radio Science. Work of this high resolution radar is d sea-ice and snow mapping in on Project Michigan is done in al- that the plane can be flying many Greenland and Canada, water sur- most all of these laboratories. miles to the side of the area being face temperature detection on the 'Eyes of Army' "photographed" but the "pic- Great Lakes and studies for eval- The initiation of Project Mich- ture" obtained will show the area gating instruments for detecting igan can be traced back to an ini- as seen from directly above with biological life on other planets. tial Army study called "The Eyes no apparent side perspective. Also, New programs are under way for of the Army," followed by a sum- like other types of radar, it can terrain surveys in Thailand and mer study held at the University observe the terrain both day and _osta Rica. in 1953 under the title Project night and through a cloud cover. Also included in these two lab- Wolverine. One device developed last year aratories are important projects At these sessions, the need for by this lab may prove of special -oncerned with infrared and opti- a comprehensive attack on the significance. This instrument can zal technology. The Infrared In- problem of aiding the human detect and recognize geometric formation and Analysis Center is senses with man-made instrumen- shapes including alphabetic and concerned with handling the great tation was fully recognized. This numeric characters without the uantities of technical informa- "remote sensing" concept forms need for scanning. In other words Jion relating to infrared technol- the coreidea around which much a computer could read a book, or gy, particularly those develop- of the research at Willow Run has some other form of printed in- ments' applicable to its military developed. It is a concept that formation, and record it in its uses. can be applied in many different memory without the need to type The Ballistic Missiles Radiation ways and in many different fields; out the entire book on punched center also collects, analyzes, and hence the many facets of Project cards or some other form of com- disseminates information relative Michigan and the many labs at puter input. to ballistic missile radiation, a Willow Run. Ale.. 4a .. v .l ...s.,,ubject important in developing a '1 Radar Work High-resolution radar, as devel- oped by the Radar Laboratory, directed by Prof. William M. Brown, meets a need for radar I ST's Mission In June, 1959, the Institute of Science and Technology wasl established by Regents' Bylaw 31.20. This bylaw outlined five raisons d'etre for the new or- ganization: -"To serve as a center of science and technology: --"To provide administrative arrangements and support . . whereby outstanding scientists and engineers can be brought to the University . . ,. and pro- vided an environment suitable for conducting research at the most advanced levels; -"To assist the separate de- partments, schools, colleges and other University agencies in conducting research in all fields of pure and applied science, en- gineering and technology; -"To support outstanding, promising and potential scien- tists and engineers ... through- out the State of Michigan, and -"To encourage, support and conduct research in all fields of pure and applied science, engi- neering and technology which are potentially important to the future business and industrial development of the State of Michigan and to the security of the United States." M6 'S4tudent oriented shopping UflIV(,RSIY TOWERS sNow renting for Aug. '65 S. UNIVERSITY AVE. & FOREST AVE. PHONE:.761-2680 L Also in the Aadar J.L, work on a system of three-dimensional, lensless photography is being car- ried out by Emmett Leith. Exten- sions and improvements on the system are also being worked on by Prof. George Stroke in the campus-based Electro-Optical Sci- ences Laboratory.! Using apparatus set up at Wil- low Run, laser light is used to illu- minate the scene to be photo- graphed. This light is also reflect- ed to the film by a prism placed near the scene, providing a "ref- erence beam." A camera records the scene using ordinary film but without lenses. A Blur The film is developed using reg- ular photographic processes and, in regular light, shows only a zlur. But when looked at using laser-originated light, it shows a perfectly three-dimensional pic- cure. Looking through the photo- graphic plate, the original scene is visible, apparently located on1 the other side of the plate. Per- spective is such that the observer can move his head from side to side and look "behind" objects in the scene, and a spot of light re- flected from a bright surface dis- appears when looked at from an-j ather angle. Target Radar Moving-target-indication radar is also under development at IST. This type of radar operates in such a manner as to display all moving targets such as military vehicles, but to blank out radar return signals from stationary tar- gets. This can be accomplished, for example, by "subtracting" one radar picture of an area from a similar picture made after a slight time delay. Since only the moving targets will have changed their position, they will be the only ones to appear in the final image. The Infrared and Optical Sen- sor Lab, directed by Marvin R. Holter, and Infrared Physics Lab, directed by George J. Zissis, are concerned with the use of infrared scanning devices to observe objects such as missiles or terrain by de- tecting their radiated hear as well' as infrared radiation reflected from them. defense against such missile radi- atin, a subject important in de- veloping a defense against such missiles. In addition to its func- tions as an information center, BAMIRAC also does significant research in this technical area. Collect Information These units gather information by visits to industries, government agencies and other universities, from abstract journals and refer- ances and from personal contact with investigators. Computer re- trieval techniques are used to handle and process the informa- tion; and bibliographies, reports and proceedings are published. The centers also maintain ref- erence libraries and, in many cas- es, are able to make actual contri- butions to the technology by their analyses of information on a par- ticular subject. The centers' serv- ices are available to any group .with a legitimate need for them. Researchers throughout the country are thus brought into contact, with a minimum of effort on their part, with information valuable to them which they may not have known existed. Counter-Measures EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED which is capable of automatically growing alumina crystals by the Verneuil method. By means of this automa ted crystal growing system at IST's Willow Run -Labs, large high-quality single crystals can be produced which have application as laser and maser materials. Research on Biophysics, Optic s, Great Lakes, State'sIndustry The 1962-63 literary college budget totaled about $11 million. So did the expenditures of the Institute of Science and Tech- nology. But the similarities stop there. For while the literary college is the principal teaching center of the University, IST is the largest research organization on campus, one characterized by its direc- tor, Prof. James T. Wilson, as a "non-teaching unit of the Uni- versity." The Institute can be broken down into several groupings of laboratories and divisions: the Willow Run Laboratories, the rela- Radio Science is mainly con- tively unrelated North Campus and cerned with "counter-measures" campus labs, the Great Lakes Re- such as might be used by a mili- search Division and the Indus- r L imagery of battlefield areas hav-. ing much greater detail than is available from the type of radar developed during World War II. Such high-resolution pictures re- quire an extremely narrow radar beam, which in turn requires a radar antenna far larger than any airplane could carry. In the high resolution radar system developed, the problem is solved by creating a "synthetic antenna array." An airplane car- rying an antenna a few feet in diameter flies along a straight path. The radar signals trans- nitted by the antenna and re- flected back to the antenna from tary aircraft to defend itself by :ionfusing the radar system of an l attacking missile. Work is also be- ing done on communication sys- tems-sending information as cod- ad pulses and developing a meth- )d whereby switching centers do not add so much background noise that the message becomes unintel-! tigible. Optical and Radio Systems is concerned with the investigation of air defense, air traffic control, and communication systems, which depend for their operation on the use of radar, radio, and optical techniques. Current work is con- centrated on finding ways to im- prove the future capabilities of air defense systems to maintain rap- id and accurate fire against at- tacking aircraft. Future Aircraft Problems Navigation and Control works with such problems as how to (Continued on Page 9) trial Development Division. Three Categories Prof. James T. Wilson of the geology department, the Institute's director, divides IST functions in- to three categories: (1) indus- trial development and liaison, (2) new or specialized programs and (3) the applied sciences programs, which include Willow Run. In the first category, indus- trial development and liaison, In- stitute personnel aid state indus- trial firms in finding University consultants for technical advice that the firms cannot get from other sources. The program also serves, to aid industry in finding places where actual research that they cannot do themselves can be carried out. Frequently such work is channeled to groups out- side the University that are bet- ter equipped for such programs. Applications The Industrial Development Di- vision (IDD), directed by Prof. Hansford W. Farris, also carries on a program of applying science and technology to aid certain in- dustries. For example, Frank R. Bacon has directed an exhaustive study program of the machine tool and electronics industries, import- ant parts of the Michigan econo- my. Conclusions from the study have been used as guides for institut- ing programs to aid the machine tool industry in adopting new techniques and meeting new chal- lenges that were previously receiv- ing only half-hearted attention within the industry. The study also pointed to a need for further university in- volvement in developing new tech- niques, disseminating information about them and training people to design, use and improve them. Other IDD reports have dealt wi.th "The Michigan Electronics Industry" and "Methods of Stim- ulating Research and Develop- ment"; a conference in 1963 stud- ied "Production Research Abroad." As Farris said in an article for "Industrial Research" magazine last year: The break from the ivory- tower tradition comes hard. The developing cracks, however, are signs of the future relationships which universities are recogniz- ing to be a proper concern in today's science-based world of industrial technology. The two principal examples of' the new or specialized programs function of the Institute are the Biophysics Research Division and :he Great Lakes Research Division. Several years ago various Uni- versity groups recognized the im- portance of the emerging science of biophysics, a field in which rapid strides are being made in the understanding of life processes. Put in IST After some discussion about how a laboratory in this new area could best be set up and administered, the decision to put it in IST was made. State funds were provided to get the lab started, and Prof. J. Law- rence Oncley came from Harvard University to direct the division. It is expected that the operation will soon be supported principal- ly from federal research grants. Similarly, the Electro-Optical Sciences Laboratory has been set up by Prof. George W. Stroke, Much like biophysics, electro-op- tics attempts to syntthesize work in two previously unconnected fields - in this case, electronics and optics. Such a relationship comes about, Stroke has said, be- cause many of the developments in optics in the past two decades have been patterned on previous FEB. 14 or simultaneous developments in electrical engineering. Varied Inquiries Studies are being conducted in the lab on diffraction gratings, light propagation, "lensless" pho- tography and its extensions to X- ray microscopy, speed of light measurement, electro-optical com- munication and optical electronics. The Great Lakes Research Di- vision was set up in 1945 "for the encouragement and integration of studies of the physical, chemical, biological and other aspects of the Great Lakes and related areas." It became the first division in April, 1960, when it was trans- ferred from the graduate school. The division's research is con- cerned with collecting and study- ing many kinds of information about the lakes having both scien- tific and practical values: water flows, outflows, level and storage; physical, chemical and biological properties of the water; circula- tion and waves; phenomena oc- curring between the air and water surfaces; regional meteofological' effects; the structure, formation and extent of the ice cover; the history; current erosion and dep- osition; the nature of the lake basins; biological productivity, and biological resources; and engi- neering and development connect- ed with the lakes. The division operates four research ships to carry out its work. Two Labs Here. Two campus-based labs are more closely associated than these two divisions with work in other parts of the Institute, .the Engi- neering Psychological Lab and the Industrial Systems Research Lab. Engineering Psychology is an outgrowth of the Willow Run work in developing new and complex communications and surveillance systems. Human factors must be considered in designing all such systems, and this lab tries to learn more about the way in which hu- man beings perform their func- tions in complex, man-machine systems. Basic research is done on human information acquisition and processing, decision making and the application of this re- search to military systems prob- lems. Industrial Development Industrial Systems activities are somewhat related to the work of the Industrial Development Division and cooperates closely with the industrial engineering de- partment. The actual technology involved in machine tool industry- advances, for example, has to be studied and reduced to practical methods that the industry can use. Studies have included inven- tory and automation problems, hospital staffing requirements and automotive production scheduling. To assist the technical staff of the IST laboratories, the Institute maintains a series of supporting services. They include facilities coordination, administrative serv- ices, publication service, service facilities, technical documents service, and an informationoffice. I VALENTINE'S DAY A gift from Saffell and Bush in "Men's W " is doubly appreciated ......... . .. .. .. v:.-. v.. $vv --: . vx :n m -~. . . ..: t v. . v - ,-v: . vv. : c:%-i:"':"? : ": ' ??::.*.:..}. ..,"... ..... 4 .tl v: ;:y " n . : :v., :r % , .. .... }-n..'....*. .. . . . }r. : t".n,,v"4.,.x::rr:: . ...t . n , f. :ir DON'T FORGE T H E R on Give her a CONTEMPORARY CARD fom the most complete selection in town1 The ultimate in VALENTINE candy is RUSSELL STOVER Candy Pre-Weekend Sale WINTER WEEKEND TICKETS only $1 on the Diag good for "CUPID'S COTILLION" and "NIGHT AT VALHALLA" BOTH! Prices increase to $1.25at door i ....._.._. : : i Registration for candidacy for the USNSA National Student Congress I I I 4 1 -k