Faculty Voices

Michele Summers Halleran

Assistant Professor of Aeronautical Science, Daytona Beach campus

Before joining Embry-Riddle, you were a pilot for a cargo company, a commuter carrier, a corporate flight service, and an airline. Which was the most exciting?
Corporate is never the same thing. We flew superstars, rock stars, and the lawyers that sued the tobacco industry. I got to fly to different airports and all around the United States and Central and South America. I learned about different cultures and about fatigue and the limits of my body. I learned how not to get thrown into jail for not filling out the correct forms. Once, when we arrived in a certain country, they said clearance cost more than what we’d paid. They told me, “Captain, it looks like you’re going to jail.” When my co-pilot finished refueling the plane, I said, “We’re taking off now!” We got our clearance when we were in the air.
You lead a three-university research team that is developing a new pilot curriculum. How’s that going?
We’ve created a scenario-based way to assess judgment in the areas of controlled flight into terrain, situational awareness, management of risks, tasks and automation, and decision-making. The FAA just informed us that from now on everyone in general aviation will be trained and tested to our standards. That’s huge! If I were a student, I’d be looking at a school the FAA chose to develop its curriculum.
What do you tell students about downturns in the airline economy?
There are still pilot jobs, but sometimes you have to look. I just read a report that 5,555 pilots were hired and 3,016 were furloughed in 2008 as of Sept. 12. Of those furloughed pilots, some have already taken the flying jobs. Overseas, flying is gearing up. Cathay Pacific and Emirates Airlines are looking for pilots. I tell students to have a Plan B – consider working as a scheduler, dispatcher, or air traffic controller for a year until the airlines hire you back. There is always flux and movement.
What do you do for fun?
Travel – it’s ingrained in me. I just returned from a honeymoon in Spain, and I’m planning a trip down the Amazon.

Maranda McBride

Assistant Professor of Human Factors and Systems, Daytona Beach campus

What led you to the career you have today?
When I was in high school, I wanted to be an artist and then a psychologist. But then I learned about industrial engineering. It deals with design, has a human component, and uses math and science, which I did well in, plus there is a demand for it. That’s what I got my Ph.D. in, concentrating on human-machine interaction. I joined Embry-Riddle’s faculty four years ago. Besides juggling my research and teaching, I keep pretty busy as director of the McNair Scholars Program and faculty advisor to our campus’s student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.
You’re studying the conduction of sound via the skull. What is that all about?
In a nutshell, bone conduction involves either transmitting sound wave vibrations to or picking up vibrations from the skull. When transmitting to the skull, the vibrations travel from a vibrating device through the hair, soft tissue, bones, and fluid to the inner ear, where they are processed like any other sound wave. When picking up vibrations from the skull, the vibrations are produced by the vocal chords, which ultimately cause the skull to vibrate. A contact microphone can be used to pick up these vibrations to transmit to a recording device or directly to a listener.
Since you specialize in human-machine interaction, are you a gadget junkie?
No. I don’t like throwing away things that are good just to get the latest version. I have lots of gadgets for my research, but the only thing I have for personal use is the iPod that keeps me sane in airports.
Sounds like you have some reservations about technology.
Technology draws you in. There’s a perception that we’re always available to others at any time. If you don’t get back to someone right away, you’re neglecting them. My daughter texts me and expects an immediate response. It’s not healthy always being “on.” Besides, I think we lose the benefits of face-to-face communication. In my spare time, I’m co-writing a book for working mothers on how to better manage their lives, families, and resources using industrial engineering techniques.

Darrel Smith

Professor of Physics, Prescott campus

How is your research likely to be applied in the future?
In particle physics and neutrino physics, the applications come later. The technologies we develop for experiments we do out of necessity, but we don’t know what life they might take on of their own. The photo tubes in the 1980s became today’s CT scans for hospitals. The technologies we’re developing today weren’t even on the drawing board 18 months ago.
In exotic propulsion, we have a connection with the Center for Space Nuclear Research in Idaho Falls. They’re a repository for research in nuclear thermal propulsion, which I believe is the way we’ll go to Mars. Once rockets are in space, we’ll turn on nuclear thermal rockets. We’re one of very few universities focused on this.
Many times students ask me, “Is this program where I sign up to be an astronaut?” I say, yes, because we’re helping develop the means to get there, but we’ll also need engineers and scientists on this craft. It’s going to take Embry-Riddle students.
What is frustrating or challenging about your research?
The weakening of support by the government for basic scientific research over the past six to eight years. It needs to be bolstered if we’re going to remain competitive with the rest of the worlds and see these visions and dreams come to fruition. It’s going to take a concerted effort by the American public to value what education can bring to society. If we don’t invest in research we’re going to be paying for it 30 years down the road.
If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be involved in?
When I was a doctoral student, Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize winner, asked me what I was going to do in five years. I told him I was going to publish my Ph.D. paper, get a post-doc, find an associate professor position, and so on. He laughed and said, “None of us knows what we’re going to be doing five years from now, so enjoy what you’re doing right now and be open to the possibilities.” That’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
What unexpected smart things are we likely to see in the future?
I think biophysics and nanotechnology will be in the forefront for the next 30 to 50 years. In medicine, we’ll see little robots fixed to the cells so they can repair themselves. I’m convinced that 100 to 200 years from now we’ll be able to travel in space faster than light.

Angela Beck

Associate Professor of Humanities and Director of Honors Program, Prescott campus

How is Embry-Riddle different than other universities where you’ve taught?
Students here are super motivated and focused. They have a very clear idea of what they want from their education. They are extremely productive. By the time they get to their senior year they seem to be much more professionally engaged than students at other institutions. In part, I lay that at the feet of our faculty, who try so hard to bring them up to professional standards very quickly. They faculty here are very student- and teaching-oriented. That’s why I came here.
What has changed the most since you started teaching?
Technology. Our students are more wired and connected. They text and e-mail each other all the time and they expect me to do the same, to be constantly connected. [Her cell phone rings and she laughs and apologizes for forgetting to turn it off.] They’re so wired they sometimes forget to take their iPod earphones out when they come into talk to me. To me, that’s a rude thing, to not give their full attention to a faculty member, but they don’t see it as a sign of rudeness. It’s a completely natural gesture.
Do you ever find that students are too young to know about some of the examples you give in class?
Yes, even something as seemingly relevant as pop icons or TV icons or newsworthy icons for political events are outside their immediate knowledge. But I’ll give them credit. If I bring up someone they’re not familiar with – Malcolm X, for example – they’re willing to find out. They’re really aware of how quickly history has evolved.
What do you love about your job?
I have the opportunity to serve students, not only academically but to enrich them as whole people. I recently got an e-mail from a graduate who’s now in Korea teaching English as a second language, which has nothing to do with her degree. A conversation we had when she was a student had shaped the path she too