The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Vessel Thomas Jefferson
Webb Alumna, Sarah Wickenheiser ’08, has been named the 2017 Coast Guard Engineer of the Year! Her selection was based on her exemplary educational, professional, and personal achievements.
Wickenheiser, who serves as a staff engineer in the Hull Engineering Branch, provides technical engineering solutions to Yard projects. During the modification to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Vessel Thomas Jefferson, she identified design deficiencies in the ship’s structure that could have resulted in catastrophic hull failure. Wickenheiser’s structural vulnerability analysis was used in the construction and addition of the new liquid storage tanks, allowing for a 50% improvement in vessel operating efficiency. Additionally, to avoid hull damage to the CGC EAGLE while drydocked for sequential shell plating renewal, she developed an innovative protocol using finite element analysis to validate segmented sections of EAGLE’s hull.
In addition to being a graduate of Webb, Wickenheiser is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Maryland and has served the Membership of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME).
Webb congratulates Wickenheiser on this grand achievement and wishes her continued success!
Portion of text courtesy of SNAME