SPRING 2009

Riddle Roundup

Construction of James Hagedorn Aviation Complex Begins

Construction of the James Hagedorn Aviation Complex began Jan. 13 at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus.

At the controls of a track hoe excavator, President John Johnson kicked off the demolition of the Gill Robb Wilson Flight Training Center, the 29,600-square-foot facility that housed the campus’s flight operations, a flight tower, instructor pilot offices, and flight briefing/debriefing spaces for 37 years.

The new state-of-the-art aviation complex, a 96,000-square-foot, three-building facility, will house flight training operations, aircraft maintenance training, and a fleet maintenance hangar.

James Hagedorn, chairman, CEO, and president of Scotts Miracle-Gro and an Embry-Riddle alumnus and trustee, pledged $2.5 million to help build the $26 million facility.

EcoCar Designers Pick Volt-Style Powertrain

A team of students at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, is helping to “green” Detroit’s best effort with a powertrain design similar to the Chevy Volt’s.

The student engineers are devising a Power-Split Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) propulsion system for a fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly, high-performance car they’re designing for the three-year EcoCar Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, and other government and industry leaders.

With the EREV, they’ll be able to test full performance with a hybrid-electric powertrain that has an all-electric driving capability and a diesel engine/electric motor combination that can extend the vehicle’s electric range using bio-fuel stored on-board.

The Embry-Riddle team is one of 17 competitively selected university teams designing cars that will be judged on efficiency, environmental impacts, performance, consumer appeal, safety, quality of workmanship, ride quality, noise, and vibration. “Our vehicle will be built on a Saturn Vue chassis and be able to be driven in three modes: the electric-only mode, series hybrid mode, and parallel hybrid mode,” says Vince Sabatini, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and the team’s leader.

Astronaut Nicole Stott Touches Down for Engineers Week

Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus celebrated National Engineers Week Feb. 16-21 with presentations by astronaut Nicole Stott, an alumna, and Dan Linehan, author of SpaceShipOne.

Stott took attendees on a tour of the International Space Station as she discussed its final phases of assembly and utilization.

A mission specialist and ISS flight engineer, Stott is scheduled to make her first trip into space on Aug. 6, 2009, with the shuttle crew of STS-128 on a mission to the space station focused on station assembly and outfitting.

Stott, who graduated from the campus in 1987 with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering, is one of six Embry-Riddle alumni who are current or former astronauts.

In another presentation, Linehan, a science editor with degrees in engineering and physics, spoke on the design, construction, testing, and operation of SpaceShipOne, the world’s first privately built and piloted manned spacecraft, which captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 by reaching space three times.

Linehan explained the spacecraft’s innovative features and shed light on the development of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, the commercial, passenger-carrying version of SpaceShipOne.

Additional events during the week included student competitions, a display of student posters on engineering topics, and a charity event benefiting local homeless shelters.

New Program Mentors Female Engineering Students

Embry-Riddle has launched an innovative peer mentoring program for young women who aspire to become engineers.

The program, called FIRST (Female Initiatives: Reaching Success Together) and funded by a grant from the Boeing Corp., offers tutoring in math and physics, special activities, and mentoring to help female engineering students succeed in their first year.

Nationally, 20 percent of undergraduate engineering students are female. However, these women drop out at a much higher than their male counterparts, despite the fact that many are high academic achievers, according to national studies. Two thirds reported leaving because they felt isolated from the industry and from other women at their university.

Embry-Riddle’s program is on target. First-year students meet with their upper-class mentors several times a month in one-on-one and group settings to address issues ranging from registration to life-coaching.

Some 50 students and eight faculty and staff are part of the FIRST program’s initial class, which started last September, according to Cindy Oakley-Paulik, creator of the program and director of Embry-Riddle’s Women’s Center.

“The program has given female students the opportunity to gain confidence, make new friends, and grow academically,” Oakley-Paulik said.

Robotics to Expand at Prescott Campus

More students at the Prescott campus soon will be getting involved in robot exploration and projects such as the Embry-Riddle student-designed underwater rescue robot “Medusa” that won a first place award at the National Underwater Robotics Challenge in 2008.

“Embry-Riddle has invested in a new Robotics Laboratory in the College of Engineering to support engineering robotics education and student projects and to promote multidisciplinary robotics and autonomous vehicle research” said Prescott Chancellor Dan Carrell, in announcing the new effort. Lockheed Martin will help fund the expansion.

“A multidisciplinary education that includes electronics and real-time systems is key to preparing our aerospace and mechanical engineering students to help them develop their design approach, research, and future value to employers,” said John Nafziger, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and head of the Robotics Laboratory. “We’ve added new computers and instrumentation for data acquisition and for real-time sensor filtering and motor control.”

Lockheed Martin’s gift will be instrumental in adding a mechanical/electronics component to the curriculum.

The lab now houses a six-degree-of-freedom industrial assembly robot to support traditional manufacturing robotic design and a series of mobile robotics platforms for autonomous research. For ground-based mobile robotics, the lab uses differential drive robots that integrate microprocessor-controlled pan-tilt cameras for computer vision, embedded Linux computers, and dedicated motor controllers. The lab is also home for the “Medusa” student project, enabling further national competition.