The Wind Tunnel University NASA LaRC WTU History

The WTU grew out of a mission goal set in a WTE Strategic Planning DesignShopâ in 1997. That goal stated: By 1998, the WTE will create a culture of excellence through creation of a university-like environment which Trains all staff to Sustain and expand wind tunnel operations skills and knowledge Continually develop technical skills Based on this goal, the goal managers Jim Yu and Ajay Kumar laid out the plan. This shows the elements of the Langley WTU which will be implemented. The major elements are developing the curriculum, determining the skills necessary, and implementing those skills into the workforce by the year 2004. The first milestone was a rapid-prototyping to be done in 1998. The second milestone was the implementation of the beginning of the phase 1 program. Both of these milestones have been meet. The first milestone was meet in 1998. As can be seen, a decision to move forward with the WTU was made in January 1998. After this, a solicitation for potential classes and the formation of the WTU Advisory Board (WTUAB) and the WTU Curriculum Committee (WTUCC) was accomplished in February of 1998. The structure of the WTU is shown. After that policies and guidelines were established by the WTUAB. The future skill mix as viewed by management at this time is to be similar to a lean management environment. The skills required to work in a lean management environment are much broader and the level of understanding is deeper. Education is crucial to incorporating lean management effectively with fewer and broader job categories in the future.