- Founding Director & Chair of Engineering
- Assistant Professor of Engineering
EDUCATION
A.T., Auto Restoration Technology, McPherson College
PhD., Mechanical Engineering, Drexel University
Dr. Stichter has returned to his alma mater after many years in industry and is bringing passion for engineering analysis to teaching in the new Mechanical Engineering program.
Dr. Stichter is a licensed professional mechanical engineer with extensive experience in aviation, automotive, recreational, transportation, agricultural, commercial and industrial equipment and systems.
He has more than twenty years of experience in industrial manufacturing engineering; including gas turbine blades and vanes coatings, box trucks, hot aerospace structures, and gas generation equipment. His experience also includes design of manufacturing operations and specialized equipment such as machine guarding for personnel safety. He has provided engineering consultation for player safety for the NHL.
Dr. Stichter has more than twenty-five years of experience in the design, manufacture, repair, and operation of passenger and high-performance motorcycles and racing cars from model years 1910 until today.
His interest in automobiles inspired him to start his post-secondary education at McPherson College, in McPherson, KS, where he earned an Associate of Technology degree in Automotive Restoration Technology. He applied this hands-on experience to further education by going on to study mechanical engineering at Drexel University. While pursuing his BSME degree, he gained experience in aviation and aerospace development and manufacturing.
After earning his BSME, he joined Teledyne Energy Systems where he continued working on development projects for aerospace H2/O2 PEM fuel cells. He developed systems for micro- and lunar gravity passive reactant recirculation and water separation, and controls for the fuel cell system. He also engineered, commissioned, and repaired hydrogen (and oxygen) generation plants. These systems included the hydrogen generators (by electrolysis), compressors, storage tanks, deionized water, chillers, control systems, flame and gas detectors, and interconnecting piping.
Dr. Stichter’s graduate research work focused on optical diagnostics of combustion chemistry and included performing ultraviolet (uv) laser induced fluorescence (LIF) experiments studying the OH radical in the afterglow of a nanosecond pulsed plasma discharge at temperatures below the autoignition threshold; cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS), magneto-optic rotation (MOR), and cavity enhanced magneto-optic rotation (CEMOR) experiments studying OH concentrations in a lean methane-air slot burner; and development of a novel cw-CEMOR spectroscopy system to study small peroxy radicals in a flash photolysis facility using a narrow bandwidth continuous wave laser. This research is applicable to engineered products such as in flame detection and chemical concentration measurement for safety and process control.
Dr. Stichter received his Doctor of Philosophy, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and a BSME from Drexel University.
Dr. Stichter has been teaching as a guest instructor in the Trial Advocacy LL.M. program at Temple University Beasley School of Law on eliciting testimony from an engineering expert witness.
