Students and research — an exciting path to knowledge

by Kay Semion

Embry-Riddle is known for its unmatched research capability in aerospace fields, but it is also gaining recognition for wide-ranging research in fields like human factors, alternative energy, virtual languages, and more. What may not be as well known is that the university offers unparalleled research opportunities for students, including undergraduates.

On the following pages are profiles of Daytona Beach and Prescott students who are doing cutting-edge research, such as conducting a zero-gravity experiment with NASA, testing wind turbines in Colorado at the National Renewal Energy Lab, or designing living spaces for a future Mars settlement.

Indeed, there are so many exciting research projects that it is impossible to profile them all here.

On both campuses, faculty members enthusiastically integrate students into research work.

“There is a laundry list of benefits,” says Albert Boquet, associate professor of human factors in Daytona Beach, who helped Sacha Duff design a unique experiment in medical studies. “It gives students a true picture of what they are studying. It gives them a depth of understanding they could not get in any other way. And it helps them stay current in their fields.”

It also helps undergraduate students get into graduate schools or land the jobs they really want. “Research is critical for students’ careers,” says Darris White, an associate professor in mechanical engineering.

Research can also help professors understand what students are interested in and thinking, to help them improve their performance in the classroom. In fact, Raynald Bedard, an assistant professor in aeronautical science in Prescott, invited Ryan Furtado to help him design a flight simulation program for the classroom that won notice at Microsoft Corporation. After Furtado’s graduation, Tyler Barnett is continuing the research.

Research by students often contributes well beyond campus. Students collaborate with professors on projects to advance aviation, such as testing aviation fuel alternatives or next-generation aircraft. They are working on high-security government projects that could save military and civilian lives. And they are engaged in research that could lead to revolutionary advances in space physics by opening windows to hundreds of galaxies.

At Embry-Riddle, research is part of the whole package for students that activates their minds and builds a strong foundation for their future.

Greg Igel

Sophomore and McNair scholar from Evergreen, Colo. Served five years in the U.S. Army as an air traffic controller. Was medically discharged and underwent extensive medical treatment for a traumatic brain injury received in a car crash. Studied computer graphics at Purdue University before transferring to Embry-Riddle to study human factors and systems. “I don’t want just the degree,” he says. “I want the skill.”

Project: Study of team coordination between pilots and air traffic controllers in Embry-Riddle’s Team Simulation and Gaming Laboratory; Daytona Beach campus.

Principal investigators: Elizabeth Blickensderfer and Jason Kring, assistant professors in human factors and systems.

Research purpose: Create better training systems in which air traffic controllers and pilots can improve communication and performance, which would increase airway safety and prevent runway incursions. Researchers have developed a simulated training system using high-end computers and low-cost gaming software. Research participants have air-traffic control and pilot backgrounds. Partners include Old Dominion University and the Simulated Systems Research Unit of the Army Research Institute in Orlando.

Challenges: Implementing measurable design, incorporating human factors into gaming system, and getting computers to speak to one another. Identifying and narrowing communication gaps between pilots and air traffic controllers.

Rewards: “I am learning how to set up an experiment and research the design. I am learning to write grants and do literature reviews,” Igel says. He notes that it is unusual for undergraduates to have as much access to research as is offered at Embry-Riddle.

Past experience: Igel used knowledge gained from his study of computer graphic design and prior involvement in survey development.

Career goal: A job in training for aviation or military, with a focus on working with men and women returning from war or combat with traumatic brain injury.

Tara Allen

Graduate student in human factors and systems at Daytona Beach campus, where in May she received her B.S. degree in human factors and psychology. She is from Brooksville, Fla. She was one of three paid summer interns in 2008 at 4 Frontiers, arranged through NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and the Florida Space Grant Consortium.

Project: Design of living space for a settlement on Mars for 4 Frontiers, a firm in New Port Richey, Fla. that aims to ultimately establish the first permanent, economically viable, and self-sustaining settlement on Mars.

Principal investigators: 4 Frontiers CEO Mark Homnick and Vice President Joseph Palaia, an architect.

Research purpose: Design interior spaces of a circular building in a proposed Mars settlement for a crew of 24 men and women. Determine dimensions of interior spaces for private suites, provide for maximum efficiency, and examine materials to use for furniture.

Challenges: Allen focused on both the design and the psychology of the design, “I wanted to make it unique to Mars, but resemble what you would have on Earth,” she said. The designs had windows onto the Mars landscape, lighter colors to make rooms look larger, pictures from home, and greenery, including edible plants. Beds were blow-up mattresses from Earth, and furniture was made of materials that could be grown in a Mars colony, such as bamboo.

Reward: Learning to think 15-20 years out.

Past experience: Allen used knowledge gained from Embry-Riddle courses dealing with direct human interaction in small spaces and human factors in space.

Career goal: Jobs that range from designing automobile interiors to amusement parks to space environments. An accomplished collegiate golfer, Allen also considers turning pro in the near future.

Sacha Duff

From Ormond Beach, Fla., a graduate student in human factors and systems, who earned a B.S. in human factors psychology in 2007.

Project: Application of human factors in the operating room, based on observation at Florida Hospital in Ormond Beach.

Principal investigator: Albert Boquet, associate professor and chair, human factors and systems, Daytona Beach campus.

Research purpose: Investigate if successful models to investigate error in aviation can be adapted for medical fields. Both have highly complex technical environments with different levels of experience. With medical supervision, Duff is observing and filming actual medical procedures in the operating room, namely laparoscopic removal of the gall bladder and open hernia repair. “Aviation is moving away from blaming the pilot in air accidents and toward looking at systematic causes of errors,” Duff says.

Challenges: Creating a classification system for types and causes of errors. Using diplomatic skills to build trust among operating-room personnel who worry about being blamed.

Reward: “The opportunity to pick an area and delve into it,” Duff says. “Human factors never made any sense to me until I started doing research.”

Past experience: Undergraduate research in single-pilot management, observing solo piloting needs and support mechanisms, and research in how adverse mental states affect human error in rotorcraft operations.

Career goal: Stay in academic research, possibly in medical fields but preferably in aviation.

Marie-Jeanne (“M.J.”) Onikeh Steady Ndiaye and Mark Bartosiewicz

“M.J.” -- a McNair scholar and junior in human factors and systems, from San Francisco, Calif., but raised in Senegal.

Bartosiewicz -- a graduate student in human factors and systems engineering from Lewisburg, W.V., who received a B.S. degree from Embry-Riddle in 2005.

Project: “Assessing how novel adaptive visualization displays can impact pilot performance,” an Embry-Riddle partnership with Charles Rivers Analytics, a Massachusetts-based research group.

Principal Investigator: Dahai Liu, associate professor of human factors and systems, Daytona Beach campus.

Research purpose: Help pilots in difficult military escort or combat situations stay on task by providing reliable, innovative cockpit information at strategic times, such as when pilots may be nearing an enemy nation’s border. Using simulated flight scenarios, researchers examined the effects of cockpit displays on flight technical performance, task performance, situation awareness, and workload. They designed a measurement of how pilots with varying levels of experience react to dangerous conditions.

Challenges: “The amount of paperwork,” Bartosiewicz said, adding, “The simple oversight is not simple. You have to make sure every ‘x’ is marked and every circle is filled in.” M.J. agreed. “You have to be so precise. Initially I assumed what the results would be and I was totally wrong. You have to be patient.”

Reward: Hands-on experience in a study that requires precise procedures. The level of difficulty and discipline will be valuable in other scientific applications, whether in graduate school or in real-world jobs.

Past experience: Both students participated in research with human factors faculty that led to their being chosen for this ongoing experiment. Bartosiewicz worked with Elizabeth Blickensderfer on her research in pilot training, which is affiliated with the FAA Center of General Aviation Research (CGAR). M.J. worked with Jon French on the adverse effects of fatigue on pilots’ performance and with Maranda McBride on the effectiveness of bone-conducted verbal communications.

Career goals: Eventually Bartosiewicz wants “to dabble in ergonomics.” M.J.’s “dream job is working on the shuttle.”

Ryan Furtado

From Merced, Calif., earned a B.S. degree in aeronautical sciences in May 2008. He worked with other students for a year and a half to help develop a classroom program using Microsoft systems. He is now an aviation instructor at the Prescott campus.

Project: Integration of flight simulation in Embry-Riddle classrooms, Prescott campus.

Principal investigator: Raynald Bedard, associate professor of aeronautical science.

Research purpose: Incorporate into classrooms simulation research based on students’ perspectives and interests. Furtado worked with Microsoft Flight Simulator X to create what he says is “a hands-on teaching experience that is more effective than Power Point lectures.” In the simulation, students can fly cross-country, learn theory, practice procedures, and become familiar with flight preparation.

Challenges: Incorporating theory into a simulation program that students can both enjoy and take seriously.

Rewards: Furtado learned mission and courseware design. He led effort to attend an International Flight Simulation Conference in Seattle in 2007 to demonstrate the Microsoft project. It also led to a grant from NASA for him to work on the project and an invitation to visit one of Microsoft’s simulation studios.

Past experience: Internship at Alaska Airlines, where he learned about pilot hiring and crew planning.

Career goals: A job flying for a commercial airline.

Ellie Jesse
A senior from Salem, Ore., pursuing a double-major in aerospace engineering and space physics at the Prescott campus.

Project: Study of mirror coatings for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which is funded by the National Science Foundation to detect and measure cosmic gravitational waves.

Principal investigator: Andri Gretarsson, assistant professor of physics, whose research focus is the improvement of high-reflective mirrors that lie at the heart of LIGO detectors.

Research purpose: Experiment with coatings for the suspended mirrors, which are critical to precise measurement of the time it takes light to travel in the LIGO arm cavities. The coatings facilitate reflection.

Challenges: Keeping up with the rapid variations in the travel of light in LIGO arm cavities. Her latest challenge: using infrared light, which is invisible.

Reward: Delving into study of the universe: “I’ve always been interested in what is out there,” Jesse said. “I want to know how the world works.”

Past experience: Summer study tour to the University of Glasgow in Scotland to work with a LIGO team on mirror coatings. Summer research program at Texas A&M University on simulating supersonic speeds in a high-pressure shock tunnel.

Career goal: Work on quantum mechanics and particle physics in an academic setting, probably teaching.

Michael Desmond

From Clayton, Del., a graduate student in mechanical engineering who earned his B.S. in the same field from Embry-Riddle in 2007. His research will be applied toward his master’s thesis.

Project: Testing the flutter of wind turbine blades, as an intern at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colo.

Principal investigators: Research staff at NREL, Darris White, associate professor of mechanical engineering, Embry-Riddle, Daytona Beach.

Research purpose: Determine frequencies at which the blade vibrates and flutters – “like when you hold your hand out from a moving car and the wind moves your hand,” said Desmond – to gain information to reduce flutter, perhaps changing the shape of blades. “Ultimately, the goal is to develop wind turbines that can survive 20 years or more, operate cost-effectively at lower wind speed sites, and increase national capacity.”

Challenge: Redefining the test for wind turbine blades.

Rewards: Learning to think about physical practicalities, such as modal shapes, experiment design, and data acquisition. Research “gets you in a mindset to think about solving problems,” he said.

Past Experience: Worked with Dr. White on wind turbine models at Embry-Riddle and with Sathya Gangadharan, professor of mechanical engineering, on aircraft wing technology to improve stability and maneuvering during flight.

Career goal: Work with wind power, leaning toward the structural testing aspect of wind turbines or “alternative energy in the wind industry.”

FuSSION Project

Student researchers: Brandon Marsell, of Mount Dora, Fla., a graduate student in aeronautical engineering; Dillon Sances, of Dundee, Ill., a senior in aerospace engineering; Shayna Neumann, of St Louis, Mo., a junior in aerospace engineering; Brenton Cody Thompson, of Annapolis, Md., a junior in engineering physics; Josh Gibson, of Morristown, Tenn., a senior in aerospace engineering; and Thomas Smith, of Oswego, N.Y., who recently graduated in aerospace engineering.

Project: FuSSION (Fuel Slosh Simulation of Induced Oscillatory Nutation), a year-long study of effect of liquid slosh in fuel tanks on nutation (wobble) of spinning spacecraft in unmanned missions in partnership with National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Principal investigator: Sathya Gangadharan, professor of mechanical engineering, Embry-Riddle, Daytona Beach campus.

Research purpose: Spinning is beneficial to stabilizing the launch of unmanned spacecraft in upper stages and may be beneficial to manned aircraft in the future because it can be used to create artificial gravity. However, liquid slosh in spacecraft fuel tanks is an unresolved problem, because it leads to the loss of kinetic energy, causing the spinning spacecraft to wobble (“nutate”) and could cause it to spin out of control. The research is aimed at finding better ways to control slosh caused by spinning.

Challenges: Design in Embry-Riddle’s machine shop a testing device to model chaotic liquid behavior; design computer testing programs; and build on previous slosh-fuel research.

Rewards: The students participated in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, which included a trip to Houston in July to test their Nutational Experiment Slosh Simulation device in NASA’s C-9 aircraft, which flies parabolic maneuvers producing 30 seconds of hypergravity followed by 25 seconds of zero gravity. In October, they presented their research results to NASA officials at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Past experience: Marsell studied at the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colo. Undergraduate students have spent four semesters preparing for and participating in the study. “We had to figure out everything for ourselves,” Neumann said. “We had to apply what we learned in classrooms.” Cody said it was “integral to the past two years” of coursework, from the study of physics and fluid dynamics to aerospace, mechanical and electrical engineering to computer graphics.

Career goals: Sances and Gibson want to work for NASA or a top aerospace company. Cody wants to do research in physics. Josh wants to work in aerospace or general aviation. Smith, now employed at Jacobs Technology in Texas and a graduate student in space systems engineering, wants to be an astronaut. Neumann is undecided.

Other student researchers:

In Prescott, Dillon Foight leads a team of fellow students at that campus’s Observatory Complex who are studying stellar atmospheres of stars of the spectral type F, which have a yellow-white color. Marc LeBourdais is helping build a hydrophone array to look for sunken Roman artifacts in the Venice Lagoon in Italy. Erik Lentz is researching a new technique, “Violation of Lorentz Symmetry,” to look for violations in fundamental conservation laws in nature.