Frank Leone
Future City 1998
Our Lady Help of Christians
Abington, Pennsylvania

EDUCATION: BSci., M.Sci., mechanical engineering, Drexel University

CURRENTLY:  Ph.D. candidate, mechanical engineering, Drexel University.  Test engineer, FAA Technical Facility, Atlantic City, NJ.

I entered Drexel University in September 2002 to pursue my bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.  In September 2005 I began supporting the Master's thesis research of a member of the FAA-Drexel Fellowship.  Their work centered on the fatigue testing of a lap joint in a full-scale aluminum aircraft fuselage panel with multiple-site damage and widespread fatigue damage.  I performed scanning electron microscopy work inspecting the fatigue fracture surfaces around the rivet holes through which the damage progressed, collecting data to rebuild the cycle-by-cycle failure history of the panel.  At the same time, I began taking graduate level courses in mechanical engineering to complete my bachelor's and master's degrees simultaneously.

In March 2006, I began working at the FAA Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey as a test engineer in the Full-Scale Aircraft Structural Testing and Research (FASTER) facility.  There, I was given the opportunity to oversee the residual strength tests of full-scale honeycomb sandwich composite fuselage panels, gathering data on damage tolerance and failure progression.  In June 2007, I received my bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Drexel University.  I am continuing on to a Ph.D. at Drexel, expanding on the research I conducted at the FAA Technical Center, and am currently being funded by the FAA-Drexel Fellowship program.

I participated in the 1998 Future City Competition while attending Our Lady Help of Christians School from Abington, Pennsylvania, and for the past several years I have volunteered my time as a special awards and presentation judge in the Philadelphia regional competition.