1. James A. Menart, Ph.D.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering
3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy.
Dayton OH 45435
Phone: (937) 775-5145
Fax: (937) 775-5009
e-mail: james.menart@wright.edu
Reference Letter for Matthew Raska
June 22, 2016
Dr. James A. Menart
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Wright State University
Dayton, OH 45435-0001
Dear Sir/Madaam:
Matthew Raska is currently a graduate student at Wright State University working on a Master’s degree
in Mechanical Engineering. Matthew was a student of mine in my graduate level Convective Heat Transfer
course and my graduate level Wind Power course. Currently Matthew is working on an independent study
project under my direction. I meet with Matthew one or more times a week to discuss this project.
It has been an absolute pleasure working with Matthew on his independent study project. Matthew has
went above and beyond what is required for an independent study. I tell students that an independent study
project requires about 150 hours of commitment in a semester. Matthew has already went well beyond
this commitment and he is still going strong. Matthew is writing a computer program that analyzes many
aspects of a wind turbine. His program currently analyzes the wind resource, how the wind turbine blades
extract energy from the wind, and the mechanical aspects of the wind turbine blades. Modeling the wind
turbine blades is an especially difficult task. At the present time Mathew’s computer code produces a large
number of graphs and information on the wind turbine. The results coming from Matthew’s program are
extremely interesting. Matthew has truly done an exceptional job on this project.
It has also been a pleasure having Matthew in my Convective Heat Transfer class and Wind Power class.
In Wind Power Matthew wrote an especially interesting report comparing wind power and hydropower.
The students can pick any topic on wind power they desire for this report. I have never had a Wind Power
report that compared wind power to hydropower. This was a very interesting idea. Just like his independent
study project Matthew went above and beyond with his Wind Power class report. I enjoyed reading his
report very much.
Matthew is a good student and he is a very hard worker. Matthew takes pleasure in his work and is a joy
to work with. Not only is Matthew a good student, he also has a good deal of engineering work experience.
Matthew worked at Airtrim Incorporated for two years and performed a number of engineering tasks.

2. These tasks included some engineering design and some engineering project management. Matthew has
also been a teaching assistant at Wright State for our Systems Dynamics class.
Sincerely,
James A. Menart
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Director of Renewable and Clean Energy Engineering Master’s Program