At Iowa State's Center for Nondestructive Evaluation (CNDE), I worked on a program called UT Sim (Ultrasonic Testing Simulator) developed by my supervisor Mike Garton. The Center's focus was nondestructive evaluation (e.g. X-rays), and UT Sim was a tool for simulating ultrasonic probes in software using realistic models of material properties.
The program allowed users to load 3D models (e.g. jet engine parts, airplane wings, space shuttle insulation tiles, etc.) and inspect them with a simulated ultrasonic probe. UT Sim was originally designed for unix, but my main task was to help port it to Windows using Visual Studio 6. I also integrating a STL file importer, an octree space partitioning system, and several visual features. This project was my first exposure to OpenGL and 3D graphics programming.