MAE Graduate Research Seminar

Baseball Aerodynamics Research at USU In 2019, the USU Experimental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory began investigating the aerodynamics of baseballs in an effort to determine the reason for a spike on home runs in Major League Baseball (MLB) that year. Results from that study led to a new, more important discovery: That seams alter the path of a baseball by changing the location of boundary layer separation when the seams are in specific positions. The effect was termed Seam-Shifted Wake (SSW) which has become a common term in baseball since then. New measurement equipment added to MLB stadiums in 2020 (The camera-based HawkEye system) validated these claims. Since that time, it has become clear that SSW effects are important to most baseball pitches. Exploiting these effects allows pitchers to make the ball move in directions that are not suggested by their arm slot, which has been shown to put batters at disadvantage. In this presentation, we will review the discovery of SSW, show what has been learned since then, and discuss lessons learned along the way.

When

Monday, February 09, 2026 | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Where

Engineering Laboratory
   Room: ENLAB 221

Event Type

Conference/Seminar

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Target Audience

Students,Faculty

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Event Contact

Name: Kendra Dixon
Phone: 435-797-7467
Email: kendra.dixon@usu.edu

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