After graduating Power Memorial Academy H.S. in New York City, Dr. Joseph C. DeFranco entered the Academy of Aeronautics where he received a certificate in aircraft maintenance technology and a Federal Aviation Agency mechanic's license. He continued engineering studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn where he received his B.S.M.E. and M.S.M.E. He then joined Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as a gas turbine engine stress and vibrations analyst. Dr. DeFranco resumed graduate studies at the University of Connecticut where he received his Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics. His thesis was the development of a digital finite-difference analysis of elastic beams subjected to large-scale deformations. Having application in prosthetics, a research paper based on his thesis was published in the Journal of Biomechanics.
Following graduation, Dr. DeFranco joined the analytical development staff at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory near Pittsburgh. There he participated in scale model testing studies related to flow-induced vibrations in naval submarine nuclear reactors. He then accepted a position at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation conducting finite element stress analysis and computer-aided modal vibrations testing of electro-optical system structures. He presented and published a research paper in the classified Proceedings of the High Power Laser Topical Meeting held in Boulder, Colorado providing design guidance for the control of flow-induced jitter in high energy laser devices. Returning to the aviation industry, Dr. DeFranco joined Sikorsky Aircraft as a structural dynamicist conducting finite element analysis and computer-aided modal vibrations testing of helicopter airframe components. He was subsequently selected for successive positions on the systems and project engineering management staffs for a number of military helicopter programs. |
Dr. DeFranco is a professionally licensed engineer in Connecticut and Pennsylvania and practices as an independent consultant or by contractual arrangement.
Professor DeFranco's early teaching experience was as a graduate student instructor of Engineering Statics. An adjunct associate professor at Fairfield University, he teaches EG 31 Fundamentals of Engineering I and EG 32 Fundamentals of Engineering II. Other courses he taught are ME 201 Statics, ME 202 Dynamics, ME 203 Kinematics & Dynamics, ME 207 Statics & Strength of Materials, and ME 312 Advanced Machine Design/MF 354 Product & Process Design for Manufacturing. Professor DeFranco has a special interest in industrial history and volunteers as History & Heritage Chairman for the Fairfield County Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Projects to which he contributed were the ASME Centennial museum exhibit held at the Museum of Art, Science & Industry in Bridgeport and the designations of the Pitney-Bowes Model M postage meter, the Sikorsky VS-300 helicopter, and the Westinghouse electrification of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad as national historic engineering landmarks. Dr. DeFranco is a member of the Pi Tau Sigma, Tau Alpha Pi, and Tau Beta Pi national honor societies, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Helicopter Society, and the American Society for Engineering Education. He is a former reviewer for the Journal of Applied Mechanics. |
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