James Croughan
PhD in Mechanical Engineering
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Fail often but safely. Often the fastest way to learn and master something is to learn every way of not doing it, either by trying it yourself or watching others attempt it. That being said, you need to make sure each failure does not result in harm to yourself or others. So long as that is possible, the fastest path to success is to fail constantly and creatively.
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
In high school I struggled with maintaining enough body weight, and had several health issues related to that. At the time I was about six feet tall and weighed 130 pounds, and my doctor told me I needed to put on at least 30 pounds of muscle to be healthy, but the more I put on, the healthier I would be. I very much took that to heart and have been getting stronger ever since. It has been 13 years since I started daily weightlifting and monitoring my diet, and I have now put on nearly 70 pounds of muscle and am the healthiest I have ever been.
What's your favorite impulse purchase from the past 12 months?
Blackout curtains. I saw them at Target and decided to try them out, and instantly started sleeping much better. I had no idea how sensitive to light I was until I experienced sleeping in a genuinely dark room. I probably get an extra 2 hours of sleep now, simply because the light isn’t waking me up too early.
Please describe a little about your research and what excites you about it.
I am an experimentalist who works on very high-performance wings in the Dryden Wind Tunnel. I have built several wings designed to invalidate many of the assumptions used in traditional wing aerodynamics, with a goal of explaining how and why these models must change when key assumptions are false. The two most exciting parts of this are the implications and how my analysis process works. My research clearly shows that many of the design rules currently used in wing design only apply to a small range of wing designs. If you go outside of these traditional designs, much higher performance wings are possible than what traditional aerodynamics would predict. How I determine this is also very exciting. All of my wings were designed to cover a broad range of possible outcomes without knowing the exact math that might predict those outcomes, making an accurate prediction of the results impossible beyond basic intuition. As such, I really didn’t know what to expect when I first started seeing my results. When they finally came in, they far exceeded my expectations, which is awesome.
If you could choose any other profession outside of engineering or computer science, what would it be?
Lawyer. I love debating anything and everything and am very extroverted and analytical, so trial lawyer or something like that would make sense and be fun.
What are some factors that helped you decide to pursue your PhD at USC?
I wanted to pursue bigger and crazier projects than what I had been doing previously, and I knew I needed a stronger educational background to be qualified to do that. USC and Dr. Uranga were the only school and advisor combination I looked at that offered a specialization in system, experimental, or mechanical design, in combination with a specialization in a more traditional engineering area. Additionally, I am from the LA area, and have absolutely zero desire to leave and have been a fan of USC for a long time, so that made it a very easy choice.
If you were to recommend to an incoming student 3 places to go in California/Los Angeles, what would they be?
- Watch your favorite band at the Hollywood Bowl.
- Climb Mt. Baldy or Mt. San Jacinto.
- Take a long walk on the beach in Malibu around sunset.
What is a memory you'll cherish about your time at USC?
All the trips to all-you-can-eat sushi and Korean bbq with lab-mates and classmates. Lots and lots of good food and good times.
What's one thing about you that might surprise me?
I travel a ton but have a rather short list of places I have been. I am on a round trip plane flight about every 50 days on average, yet have somehow never been to New York, for example.
What are your plans after graduation?
I am in the pure writing stage of my thesis work, and have already started working full-time for an aerospace company as I finish that up. I was previously a consultant for Rhoman Aerospace, and became VP of Engineering and Controls in July.
Hometown (city, country):
Claremont, California, USA
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Alejandra Uranga
