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CONTENTS
Department of Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University — Daytona Beach
EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY
Snorri Gudmundsson was part of the team behind the Collier Trophy-winning SF50 Vision Jet, the rst
single-engine general aviation jet with a self-supporting parachute. - page 6
DECEMBER 2018
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Message From the Chair
CONTENTS
02 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
03 NEW FACILITIES
06 RESEARCH NEWS
11 FACULTY AND STUDENT NEWS
17 ALUMNI UPDATE
18 FACULTY ROSTER
AEROSPACE
NEWSLETTER
It has been another very exciting year! The
Aerospace Engineering Department continues to
be the largest in the country with 1404 BS, 119
MS (including 24 distance students), and 33 PhD
students as of fall 2018. It should be noted that
about 13.1% of our undergraduates are honors
students, while the remainder of the Embry-Riddle
Daytona Beach campus has 5.5% honors students.
Embry-Riddle continues to hold the altitude record-
thirty eight miles- for a university student designed
and built rocket, despite a number of challenges
during the past year. In addition, we continue to have numerous design/build/
test projects at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Our relatively new MS distance program (started Jan. 2017) is doing well and
has 24 students currently. Also, our certicate in Airworthiness (1st program of
its kind) is continuing; this program now has 18 students. It started in Jan. 2017
as a partnership with Northrop Grumman and is now open to everyone.
The undergraduate AE program has been ranked No. 1 by the US News
and World Report for the past 16 years while ERAU at Daytona Beach
was classied among the non-PhD granting institutions (2000 - 2015). In
2016, for the rst time, US News & World Report moved ERAU’s Daytona
Beach campus into the PhD-granting category, which includes the most elite
universities in the nation. In this new category, our undergraduate program has
now (Fall 2018) moved up nationally to No. 11 and 1st in the State of Florida.
This is up two spots from last year. In Spring 2018 our Graduate program was
ranked No. 27 (tied). Our program moved up eight spots, a substantial rise.
The research expenditures increased signicantly for FY18 (7/1/2017- 6/30/18).
The expenditures for Aerospace Engineering (AE) were about $1.41 Million
(a 117% increase over last year) and for the Eagle Flight Research Center
(EFRC) $1.14 Million (a 87% increase over last year). Some signicant
grants that were active in 2018: Virtual Flight Demonstration of Stratospheric
Dual-Aircraft Platform (NASA, PIs: Engblom, Moncayo); Exploiting Non-
linear Interactions within Wall Turbulence for Flow Control (AFOSR Young
Investigator Program, PI: Gnanamanickam); Fidelity Requirements for Ship
Airwake Modeling in Dynamic Interface Simulations; U.S. Army/NASA/
ONR/Penn State Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence, (PIs: Leishman,
Gnanamanickam); Time-Resolved PIV System for High Resolution Flow
Measurements; ONR, DURIP (Defense University Research Initiative Program)
(PIs Leishman, Gnanamanickam, Zhang); Free-Flying Unmanned Robotic
Spacecraft for Asteroid Resource Prospecting and Characterization (NASA, PIs:
Moncayo, Prazenica); Low-Cost Miniaturized Control System for Autonomous
Flight (DARPA, PIs: Prazenica, Moncayo, Henderson); Investigation of Load
Path Based Topology Optimization (AFOSR Young Investigator Program, PI:
Tamijani), Multi-scale Models for Transportation Systems under Emergency,
(Department of Transportation; (PIs: Liu (Aviation), Namilae); Integrated
Structural Health Sensors for Inatable Space Habitats, (NASA, PIs: Kim,
Namilae). Also, our Department obtained a grant from the Department of
Education, GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas on National Need) program
to support 4-6 PhD students/year for 3 years (US citizens), which is very
important for our PhD program.
Currently, researchers at the Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) are working
on hybrid and full electric airplanes and have started the ERAU Hybrid
Consortium to focus on hybrid electric airplanes. The consortium now includes,
Airbus, Textron, Rolls-Royce, P&W, Hartzell and GE. This consortium’s
Dr. Tasos Lyrintzis
Dr. Tasos Lyrintzis
Distinguished Professor, Department Chair
vision is to explore the design space for turbine/electric aircraft
propulsion systems. In addition, ERAU is now a Charter
Member and the only University in GAMA (General Aviation
Manufacturers Association) under the new EPIC (Electric
Propulsion Innovation & Competitiveness) program for electric
and hybrid propulsion innovation.
ERAU was selected to be a Boeing top-tier focal University
-Engineering Accelerated Hiring Initiative (EHAI). With this
selection, we are joining an elite group of about 15 highly ranked
universities. By being on this group, our students have a greater
chance for internships and jobs at Boeing and our faculty will
have a better chance to be involved in Boeing R&D projects.
Finally, the Department has a signicant presence at the newly
constructed John Mica Center for Engineering and Aerospace
Innovation Center (MicaPlex). Descriptions of the labs can be
found at https://erau.edu/micaplex/labs. Aerospace Engineering
faculty are involved in the Advanced Dynamics and Control Lab,
the Composites Research Lab, the High-Performance Computing
Lab, the Materials Research Lab, the Space Technology Lab, the
Structures Research Lab, and the Thermal Systems Lab. Also,
a new state-of-the-art wind tunnel was commissioned in the
summer of 2018 (details can be found in page 3).
Best Regards,
PAGE 3
New Facilities
Wind Tunnel (MicaPlex) (Dr. J. Gordon Leishman)
The summer of 2018 saw Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University (ERAU) commission its long-awaited new
wind tunnel facility. The Director of the facility is Dr. J.
Gordon Leishman, a Distinguished Professor of Aerospace
Engineering. Taking ve years from inception to completion,
the ERAU wind tunnel is a large, state-of-the-art, closed
return type, atmospheric pressure, subsonic wind tunnel
(Figure 1), capable of reaching ow speeds of up to almost
Mach 0.4. The installation of the new wind tunnel at ERAU
commenced in January 2018 and was commissioned in
June. The entire installation process of the wind tunnel took
over three months, and proceeded concurrently with the
completion of the building in which it is housed.
Figure 1: A view of the new ERAU wind tunnel and the test section, which
sits in a dedicated 16,000 square-foot building.
The test section for the new wind tunnel (Figure 2) is 6 ft
wide and 4 ft high with tapered corner llets, and is 12 ft
long. Measured ow speeds of up to 420 ft/s (286 mph,
Figure 2: The test section of the wind tunnel is comprised of more than
65% optical grade glass, and is reached from elevated work platforms on
two sides. The windows on both sides can be opened giving unimpeded
access.
Mach 0.38) have been obtained in the test section with
the 1,200 hp (0.9 MW) motor driving its 8 ft diameter,
10-bladed low noise fan. Turbulence levels in the test section
are uniformly less than 0.1% of ow speed below 150 ft/s
and 0.25% at 350 ft/s. Made of aircraft grade aluminum,
the test section is about 65% optical-grade glass by surface
area. Replaceable ceiling plates allow for either windows
or other mounting xtures for instrumentation or models.
A secondary (larger) test section is located upstream of the
primary test section before the contraction, which can be
used to accommodate larger test articles, albeit at lower wind
speeds.
The primary test section is equipped with a comprehensive
set of complementary instrumentation. A high accuracy,
research-quality 6-component balance sits under the test
section, the balance is mounted on a seismically isolated
concrete foundation to minimize any vibrations. The balance
has a remotely controlled two-axis model positioning system
in pitch and yaw. On the top of the test section is a work
platform, which includes an instrumentation traverse that
can be used with appropriate probes and other devices. The
traverse carriage sits on a rails so that measurements can be
made almost anywhere inside the test section
Other available instrumentation at the wind tunnel include
high-resolution multi-channel pressure measurement
systems, 5-hole and 7-hole pressure probes, multi-channel
hot wire anemometry systems, and advanced optical ow
diagnostic systems including Particle Image Velocimetry
(PIV), all providing a set of powerful measurement
capabilities. The large area of glass in the test section
allows almost unimpeded optical access for the lasers and
cameras needed to undertake PIV. One of the rst PIV
tests in the wind tunnel is to study the temporal evolution
of the turbulent airwake produced by a ship model (Figure
3), which is sponsored as part of the Vertical Lift Research
Center of Excellence (VLRCOE) program.
Many custom features were included in the design of the
new wind tunnel. These include a recongurable and/or
replaceable test section, low-noise fan, a variable frequency
drive (VFD) motor system, seed/smoke injection ports as
well as a smoke purge system, removable 6-bank turbulence
screens, noise suppressors at the test section, and a powerful
heat-exchanger. The heat exchanger allows precise control
over the temperature of the ow in the tunnel, and can
maintain constant temperatures and ow properties during
testing.
NEW FACILITIES
PAGE 4
Figure 3: Setting up a ship model in the test section for high-speed, time-
resolved PIV ow measurements of the downstream airwake.
The ERAU wind tunnel is located in a dedicated 16,000
square-foot building (Figure 4) that is part of the John Mica
Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex (MicaPlex).
This new building was designed around the wind tunnel and
its operational infrastructure, allowing for high levels of
functionality and productivity for both research and teaching.
This building contains a well-equipped control room with
operator and engineer locations (Figure 5), a conference room,
student workroom, a model shop, an instrumentation lab, as
well as a dedicated guest suite with a laboratory and an ofce.
Figure 4: A northward facing view of the wind tunnel building, which sits just
south of the main ERAU campus at the John Mica Engineering and Aerospace
Innovation Complex.
Figure 5: The entire wind tunnel and all of its systems as well as data
acquisition are operated remotely from a fully equipped and functional control
room.
The wind tunnel is controlled using a custom-designed
computer interface, which networks to all of the tunnel systems,
including the VFD. The ow speed can be set using direct fan
control, or by close-loop control in ow speed or dynamic
pressure, along with the required ow temperature. Besides the
operator’s control page, the software allows a process diagram
display of the wind tunnel and all of its sensor readings, a real
time plotting capability of any accessible parameter, system
status and alarms pages, automatic logging of all events and
tunnel running time, as well as full system diagnostics.
Wind Tunnel Cont. (MicaPlex)
(Dr. J. Gordon Leishman)
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NEW FACILITIES
On June 13, 2018 reporter Brittany Jones from Spectrum News
13 interviewed Dr. Sirish Namilae and his graduate student
Sabique Islam on his research to model hurricane evaluations
in Florida and how fuel shortages affect the evacuation process.
Embry-Riddle researchers are hoping to improve hurricane
evacuations and fuel supply for future storm seasons.
The research comes after millions hit the roads to evacuate
from Hurricane Irma, where roadways were jammed and gas
stations were out of gas. Now the university’s study is expected
to help change that. “This is the rate at which gas stations
run out of fuel,” said Sabique Islam. Islam remembers how
difcult it was for him to evacuate during Hurricane Irma. Gas
was a big problem. “It is actually pretty devastating because I
was one of those people traveling to Atlanta at that time, and I
saw a lot of people on I-95 and I-75 just stuck,’ Islam said. It
looked like a parking lot as millions of Floridians headed away
from the storm. He was prepared with extra gas but felt sorry
for others. ‘’I planned ahead, and I had two big gallons of fuel.
But there was no way that I could help them; I had my family
with me, and I was trying to get out of harm’s way,’’ Islam
said.
Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation has granted
Islam and other graduate students and ERAU professors
the opportunity to help. The team is working on a study to
improve gas availability and trafc during storm evacuations.
“We can run 3,000 scenarios simultaneously,” said Dr. Sirish
Namilae, Asst. Professor of Aerospace Engineering. With the
university’s super-computer (Figure 1) helping them calculate
massive data, the team is using predictions and codes to gure
out fuel issues, trafc jams and gas locations. “We can predict
at what rate more and more gas stations are going to run out
of fuel. Knowing that rate, we can predict what time we have
to start refueling gas stations,” Islam said. For example, he
said at least 39 percent of gas stations in Orlando were out of
fuel the day Irma hit. “The very interesting thing is the pattern
it follows is just like a regular mix of mathematics,” Namilae
said. It’s an equation they hope to solve; what he’s doing now
will make the process smoother for evacuees in the future. “It’s
putting people’s lives in danger so at the end of the day the
main goal is to help people,” Islam said. The study will run in
Feb. 2019, and the professor hopes they’ll be able to extend
that. They say if this hurricane season is very active, then
they’ll have real time data to track.
Hurricane Evacuations and Fuel Supply
(Dr. Sirish Namilae)
Figure 1: Vega; ERAU’s four-cabinet Cray CS400™, with 3,024 cores and estimated performance of 3 Tera FLOPS.
PAGE 6
Research News
As a boy growing up in Iceland, Snorri Gudmundsson thought a
lot about how airplanes could y. During many trips to a nearby
airport in Reykjavik with his father, he would ask “How can
something made of metal become airborne? It’s heavy. How
can it lift off?” If he wanted to understand, Gudmundsson’s
father told him, he needed to read a lot and do mathematics. “I
remember that disappointed me,” Gudmundsson says, “because
it would take time away from soccer.” Luckily, at age 12,
Gudmundsson found a simple book
on aeronautics, and the musings
of a boy began to transform into
understanding and ability. He was
fascinated by a basic aerodynamics
equation: lift/drag = weight/
thrust. “It’s a simple concept,”
Gudmundsson says, “but it really
got me.”
AWARD-WINNING WORK
Some decades later,
Gudmundsson’s fascination with
ying and his considerable skills
have led to his being honored,
along with a team he worked
with at Cirrus Aircraft, with the
2017 Robert J. Collier Trophy, the
world’s most prestigious aviation
prize. Now on the Embry-Riddle
faculty, Gudmundsson worked at
Cirrus from 1995 to 2009, serving
as the chief aerodynamicist on the
Collier Trophy-winning plane: the
SF50 Vision Jet, a single-engine
seven-seater equipped with a
parachute capable of lowering the
entire plane to the ground.
After the award was announced, former students of
Gudmundsson’s expressed their pride. “It truly is a remarkable
achievement, awarded only to the biggest achievers in the
aviation industry,” says Sumit Shibib, who currently works
for Rockwell Collins. “To know that someone who taught you
face-to-face in college has been a part of the team that designed
a Collier Trophy winning airplane is amazing.”
The SF50 Vision Jet is not the rst aircraft with a self-
supporting parachute, although it is the rst single engine
general aviation jet to have one. If an emergency landing is
required in the SF50, Gudmundsson explains, the pilot pulls a
handle in the cockpit, which ignites a rocket.
The rocket shoots out of the back of the fuselage, pulling
the parachute with it. The airplane’s original design was
developed by architect and designer Mike Van Staagen. “It’s
not like a magical device that’s going to save all situations,”
Gudmundsson says.
Nonetheless, as of May 1,
there were 88 parachute
deployments on record, with
more than 150 people saved.
The chute technology, which
was developed at Cirrus
for two previous aircraft
that were not jets, required
considerable trial and error,
Gudmundsson says. To test
the forces the chute would be
subjected to, a Cirrus team
assembled a 3,000-pound
pallet of concrete-lled
barrels and pushed it out of
a military cargo plane with
the chute attached. Over
and over, the parachute
disintegrated. “It looked for
a while like this would be
impossible,” Gudmundsson
says.
It was only after Chief
Engineer Paul Johnston
developed a solution — a
nylon disk on the lines
between the plane and the chute itself — that the parachute
survived. “It’s a very simple aerodynamic device that keeps the
parachute somewhat closed until the plane slows down, and
then it slides forward and slowly but surely opens it up,” says
Gudmundsson, sounding, at age 54, just as excited as ever by
aeronautics — and slightly less so about his own achievement.
“I’m of course immensely proud of the Collier Trophy,” he
says, “but I don’t want anyone to think I was the No. 1 person
on this. It’s Cirrus that received the award for an airplane that I
and many other individuals were involved in.”
The Aerodynamic Design of a Collier Trophy Winning Jet Led
By Dr. Snorri Gudmundsson
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Researcher Fall 2018 Research.erau.edu
Michaela Jarvis pp. 24-25 and front cover
FACULTY & STUDENT NEWS
PAGE 7
RESEARCH NEWS
The expandable structure currently docked at the ISS, built
by Bigelow Aerospace, is made of several sheets of exible
Kevlar-like materials with closed-cell vinyl polymer foam
between the layers. In a conguration like this, the structural
shell is expected to provide excellent Micrometeoroids and
Orbital Debris (MMOD) impact and radiation protection,
superior to existing metal structures in space. LUNA began
modifying its patented high-denition ber optic strain
sensors to be embedded into one of the multiple interior
company walls of a space module. The Embry-Riddle
researchers began work on their carbon nanotube sensors to
cover multiple outer layers. NASA requested sensors that
could detect and pinpoint the impact of MMOD up to 3
millimeters in diameter traveling up to 6 miles per second.
Graduate students Jiukun Li and Sandeep Chava helped
design, build and test the impact sensors. Three other grad
students, Muhammad Anees, Yachna Gola, and Audrey
Gbaguidi, worked on space applications of the sensors. In
static tests, the team successfully demonstrated dynamic
impact detection with the sensors. LUNA and the Embry-
Riddle research team have now begun Phase II testing, having
received an additional $750,000. Their goal this time is to
increase the capabilities of the sensing technologies. “Our
biggest current challenge is embedding these smart sensors
into a exible and compliant material that can expand as the
modules are inated in space,” Dr. Kim says.
Dr. Namilae is also developing a computational modeling
algorithm to gather data from the sensors when an MMOD
impact occurs, including its severity and the exact location
on the sensing layer. Soon, a crucial test will take place at
the University of Dayton Research Institute’s Hypervelocity
Impact Facility: 3 mm projectiles will be red at hypersonic
speeds (3 to 5 miles per second) at the sensor array, which
will be embedded in multiple impact-resistant layers
separated by vinyl polymer foam — materials similar to
what’s being used for the ISS module. “We also have to show
that our sensor materials are space-worthy and gure out how
much power the sensor array will use,” Namilae says. The
ultimate goal is a possible Phase III grant to commercialize
the sensor technology with NASA and NASA afliates, but
the research also offers more down-to-Earth benets. “We
hope that our work will lead to applications of our sensors
in space, but the thing I value most in this process is our
students having an opportunity to learn and grow as scientists
and create new knowledge,” Dr. Namilae says.
Inatable space habitat
Sensors In Space
Keeping Space Habitats Inated (Drs. Sirish Namilae and Daewon Kim)
PhD students Audrey Gbaguidi, Sandeep Chava and MS student Anees
Mohammad working with Drs. Daewon Kim and Sirish Namilae
PAGE 8
The Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) continues to push
the edge of technology in the emerging area of Urban Air
Mobility (UAM). For a number of years, the center has been
working on independent threads of technology that have turned
out to be the pillars, the fundamentals, of UAM. For years,
the focus area of the Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC)
has been ight controls and autonomy, Unmanned Aerial
Systems (UAS), alternative propulsion including electried
propulsion and FAA certication. All of these technologies
have now converged to allow for the rapid advancement of the
understanding of the UAM design space.
The “Trojan Horse” for the conuence of all of these
technologies has been electried propulsion which is either
fully electric aircraft propulsion or hybrid electric propulsion.
Electric propulsion was seen, early on, as a technology that
could lower emissions, lower direct operating costs and
enhance safety. In Europe, there was a movement to y
electric aircraft and design commercial aircraft with this
technology. The crux of electric propulsion implies non-
traditional methods of controlling the propulsion system;
y-by-wire. Conventional methods of control make little sense
in the realm of electried propulsion. Thus, in the enthusiasm
wave for electric propulsion, the ability to certify modern
aircraft controls was baked into the new regulatory landscape.
The embrace of automation then drew in the third generation
technology Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). It is becoming
accepted that UAV or UAS may be either manned or unmanned
which is clearly strange since “unmanned” is the main part of
a title. However, once the vehicle is autonomous, whether it
is manned or unmanned is irrelevant. Now, the research into
unmanned vehicle is spilling over into the people transportation
sectors. An example of this is UAS Trafc Management
(UTM). This was stood up by NASA as a method of separating
and controlling UAVs. Now that manned autonomous aircraft
are behaving like their unmanned counterparts, the UAV
technology has also been folded into Urban Air Mobility. As
seen, the UAM market has brought together three independent
columns of research, i.e. controls, UAVs, and electried
propulsion into a single thread by leveraging the desire for
electried propulsion, the “Trojan Horse.”
Electric propulsion is the second major disruption in aircraft
propulsion after the jet engine. Similar to the step to the jet
age there are early congurations that we are all comforted
seeing that look like the airplanes we know. However, like the
evolution of the jet the real advantage of electried propulsion
is not replacing an existing engine in an existing airframe,
but rather the design of an airframe that takes advantage
of the unique characteristics of the electried propulsion.
This dichotomy has led to two emerging paths in electried
propulsion: thin haul and Urban Air Mobility. Thin haul is
the idea that electric propulsion can take an existing short
range commuter aircraft and reduce the emissions and direct
operating cost much in the same way as a hybrid or fully
electric plug-in car. This category of electric airplane designs
looks much like the aircraft we have known for years. The
reason that this is a “thin haul” is because it was understood
early on that the limitations of a battery powered aircraft
where signicant. Early battery powered aircraft would be
small, slow, and range challenged. It is thin on every aspect.
This category emerged rst because it does not require much
imagination to envision this class of aircraft. This will be
a viable class of aircraft when the weight of batteries comes
down. This class of aircraft is in the future, because current
state-of-the-art battery technology does not support it. It is
clear to all aircraft designers that in aircraft design weight is
king. Right now the equivalent weight of energy of batteries
is 70 times greater than aviation fuel. When one considers
that the propulsion system of an electric aircraft is signicantly
more efcient, this drops to 20:1. The good news is that
batteries get better every day and gas does not. So, we can
predict using the average advancement of battery specic
energy the likely year of viability of thin haul. Using these
predictions this should happen this century but not this decade.
The other branch of electried propulsion is not as obvious
as thin haul. This obscurity is due to the novel nature of
the technology: a technology that is only possible through
electried propulsion. For thin haul it was discussed that
minimizing emissions and direct operating costs were the
motivation. The path that really takes advantage of the novel
aspects of electried propulsion is enabling missions that
are not possible with conventional propulsion; they are only
possible with this new technology. Also, when discussing
direct operating cost and emissions, something funny happens.
You may be comparing the UAM aircraft, not to another
aircraft but to a car or truck. This opens the control volume of
what is “good” to a different level. In future aircraft design
classes it may be necessary to analyze surface transportation as
the competitor to your design. It is interesting to note that the
division between thin haul and UAM also falls along the lines
of top level hybrid electric architectures. Thin haul designs will
likely employ parallel hybrid architectures whereas UAM will
deploy serial generators. As the entire design space is yet to
be understood, the state-of-the-art technology actually supports
UAM architectures and business models with thin haul will
have to wait for the advancement of battery technology.
There is, however, one question that has not yet been addressed
here. What is the mission of the UAM that cannot be own
by existing aircraft or helicopters? What does electried
propulsion enable that allows for the urban air mode of travel?
The answer is simple: noise. The public is unlikely
Eagle Flight Research Center - Urban Air Mobility (UAM)
(Dr. Richard Anderson)
PAGE 9
RESEARCH NEWS
PAGE 9
to accept thousand or tens of thousands of helicopters
to operate in a city because of the noise implications.
The deployment of electried propulsion comes with
the promise of ying vehicles that have the same noise
signature as a car. Clearly one component of this is
electric motors tend to be quieter than gas engines. But
more importantly, the ability of a propulsive electric motor
to turn a rotor at low RPM with the required high torque
makes the rotor quiet, very quiet, car-like quiet. When
all of this technology is added together, UAS technology,
automation, electried propulsion, the result is a ying
vehicle that competes with a car stuck in trafc with
respect to noise, emission and cost.
The Eagle Flight Research Center is addressing research
in both the thin haul and UAM design space. The thin
haul research is based predominantly on incrementally
modifying existing airframes and waiting for battery
experts to increase the specic energy of batteries beyond
certain easily denable thresholds. UAM, on the other
hand, has a clean slate, where we see rapid evolution and
the ability to leverage existing technologies right now into
viable vehicles. While both are being studied, much of the
novel research focuses on the UAM vehicles.
Current areas of research at EFRC are the mission enabling
reduction in noise and the scalability of solutions. Noise
has become a problem because it has not been used in
ours traditional aircraft design cycle. While we all know
that reducing the tip Mach number of a rotor decreases
noise, complex multi-rotor congurations with boundary-
layer ingestion are difcult to solve in a design cycle
timeline. The process of accurately assessing noise of
complex congurations needs to be at the forefront of
the conceptual design process. Tools to do this do not
currently exist. Scaling is another interesting problem.
Many look at UAM vehicles as scaled up commercial
drones like octocopter or quadcopters.
In the area of noise, EFRC has started a program to
develop design cycle, noise estimating tools for complex
UAM congurations. This is two-prong effort with an
experimental component and a two-prong theoretical
investigation. The theoretical investigations seek to
nd the lowest level of computational uid dynamics
(CFD) that can be applied to the problem and still result
in useful ndings. Instead of a full CFD solutions that
require days or weeks on high powered computers, this
research is to nd solutions that are viable on a PC in
minutes. The experimental component employs a prop-
rotor in an anechoic chamber with instrumentation and
sound measurements (see gure below). These two
efforts together seek to nd computationally efcient and
experimentally validated coding strategies that can be
deployed in the conceptual design of a UAM vehicle.
The scaling of a UAM is an interesting problem and one
that is confounding some investment capital. In the past
a successful sub-scale demonstrator would likely lead
to a successful full scale aircraft. The Boeing 747 for
example enjoys a very low empty weight fraction and drag
coefcient when compared to smaller but similar jets.
This is not so in UAM. The now classic example of this
is the desire to upscale a multicopter to a large manned
vehicle. This would be nice because fully electric is easy
and attitude control through RPM changes in individual
motors is easy as well. If fact we now see high school
students building successful hoverbikes in their garages.
It has been posed that these vehicles can be scaled up but
that is not the case. The current limitation is that batteries
are not scalable to light weight high energy operations
and xed pitch propellers with electric motors drop off in
thrust to weight ratio with increasing size. Both of these
limitations are being studied at EFRC. The good news
is that battery electric systems can be replaced by hybrid
systems that will work today and xed pitch rotor can
be replaced by rotor systems. With the deployment of
both of these technologies, the UAM vehicle is scalable.
But, these technologies no longer support simple garage
solutions. They are back in the realm of aerospace
professional. While the hoverbike is golf cart, the scaled
UAM aircraft is a Prius: much more complex.
Rotor noise test at the EFRC
Eagle Flight Research Center - Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Cont.
(Dr. Richard Anderson)
PAG E 10
Detailed plans for an eco-friendly hybrid aircraft capable
of switching back and forth between an electric motor
and a traditional internal combustion engine has earned
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University its rst-ever
patent from the European Patent Ofce (EPO).
The invention, a “hybrid aircraft and method for in-ight
operation,” developed by inventors with Embry-Riddle’s
Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC), had previously
received two U.S. patents.
Under European patent number 2-964-524, the EFRC’s
hybrid gasoline-electric propulsion system will be
protected across Germany, France and the United
Kingdom.
The invention encompasses a parallel hybrid aircraft
propulsion system.
“With this design, an internal combustion engine allows
a propeller-driven aircraft to climb to a cruising altitude
before an electric motor takes over,” said Richard
“Pat” Anderson, lead inventor and EFRC Director; and
Professor of Aerospace Engineering. “A hybrid clutch
assembly interconnects the internal combustion engine
propeller ange to the propeller drive shaft, which makes
it possible to transfer power smoothly from one system
to another.”
Inventors named on the patent are Anderson, Embry-
Riddle graduates Lori Costello, Charles N. Eastlake and
Matt Gonitzke, and Associate Professor of Aerospace
Engineering Glenn P. Greiner.
Highly Vented Honeycomb Patent
(Dr. David Sypeck)
Professor David Sypeck was awarded United States Patent US
9,845,600 B2 for Highly Vented Truss Wall Honeycomb Struc-
tures. Fabrication and testing occurred in the Department of
Aerospace Engineering’s Lightweight Materials & Structures and
Materials Testing Labs.
Hybrid Aircraft Earns Embry-Riddle’s First-Ever European Patent
(Dr. Richard Anderson and Associate Professor Glenn Greiner)
PAGE 11
Dr. Alberto Mello is a new Associate
Professor of Aerospace Engineering at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,
Daytona Beach Campus. Dr. Alberto
Mello concluded his Ph.D. studies in
Aerospace at the University of Texas
at Austin. He received his masters and
bachelor degrees in Aeronautics from
Aeronautical Institute of Technology
ITA, Brazil. He worked as Postdoc and
Visiting Professor at Purdue University,
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
from 2014 to 2018. He mentored the
Brazilian Air Force – BAF Structural
Integrity Group, being involved in all
BAF structural integrity and aircraft life
extension programs from 1990 to 2014.
Dr. Alberto Mello was the manager of
the Brazilian Satellite Launcher VLS-1
Project and the head of the Brazilian
Space Projects Branch at Institute of
Aeronautics and Space – IAE, Brazil
(2011-2014). He served as part-time
professor of Fatigue and Fracture
Mechanics at ITA from 2004 to 2014.
Topics of research: physics of fatigue
crack initiation, microscale plastic
strain accumulation, fracture mechanics,
experimental mechanics, mechanics
of adhesion and interfacial fracture,
structural analysis and aeronautical
fatigue, damage tolerance analysis, and
aircraft fatigue life extension.
New Faculty
Faculty Awards
Faculty & Student News
Dr. Troy Henderson received the
2018 Embry-Riddle Aerospace
Engineering graduate teaching
award
Dr. Mark Ricklick received the
2018 Embry-Riddle Aerospace
Engineering undergraduate
teaching award
FACULTY & STUDENT NEWS
Dr. David Sypeck in conjunction
with Assistant Professor Zhu
(ME) received the Lithium Ion
Battery Research Award from SAE
International. The experimental
portion was conducted at the
Lightweight Materials & Structures
and Materials Testing Labs using
state-of-the-art instrumentation
obtained through prior NSF, NASA,
FSGC, and ERAU grants. This
research is part of an ongoing
collaboration with the Impact
and Crashworthiness Lab at MIT
(Wierzbicki), and more recently, Ford
Motor Company.
PAGE 12 PAGE 12
This year the Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach branch of
the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
hopes to grow in numbers and member participation in the
organization. To this end, the branch has started two new
design team projects, in addition to the previously sponsored
Design/Build/Fly team, as well as an additional recruitment
event, in an attempt to reach a larger number of the aerospace
engineering community on campus. The two new projects,
the Lunar Lander and Free Flight design teams, are efforts to
meet the interests of more students in the organization.
The Free Flight design team consists of ten students and
focuses on the design, build, and testing of ultra lightweight,
rubber band powered aircraft. Two members of the team
currently hold national records in different classes of free
ight aircraft. One of these members designed and built an
aircraft that weighs less than a dollar bill and ies for over
25 minutes under its own power. AIAA hopes to design and
compete with an aircraft that can match and surpass this to
claim a national record for the branch’s.
AIAA Team Members preparing for competition
The other new project, the Lunar Lander Design Project, is
the branches rst team to participate in the Undergraduate
Team Space Systems Design Competition sponsored by the
national branch of AIAA. The team aims to develop a design
for a lunar lander in line with competition rules provided by
the national branch. This lander is intended to travel back
and forth between the Moon and proposed Deep Space
Gateway. Within the group, there is a combination of design
and educational work being undertaken. All members are
introduced to different spacecraft subsystems and are given a
functional knowledge of the subsystem while allowing them
the freedom to explore and conduct design work in their
subsystem of interest. In addition, a large emphasis is placed
on systems engineering in this project. This combination of
elements is intended to prepare members for a more holistic
design experience both this year and for years to come.
In addition to the two new design teams, the Daytona Beach
student branch has begun developing the aircraft intended to
compete in this years Design/Build/Fly competition. Design/
Build/Fly is an annual design competition involving the
designing, manufacturing, and ying of a radio controlled
aircraft that best meets the mission parameters described
by that years competition rules. The competition this year
simulates the design of a naval aircraft. The aircraft must
take off in less than ten feet, carry a “Radome” that must spin
under its own power in ight, and must individually deploy a
minimum of four foam darts that simulate a bomb drop. The
2018-2019 competition year marks the branch’s sixth year
participating in the competition. The Embry-Riddle Daytona
Beach aircraft has ranked top ten out of over one hundred
teams for the previous two years (8th in 2017 and 9th in
2018).
To recruit the membership required to sponsor so many
design teams the branch also sponsored a new recruitment
event. The event, called “Meet the Geeks”, is a collection of
booths hosted by many of the professional organizations and
design teams in the College of Engineering. Meet the Geeks
featured booths from AIAA, SWE, IEEE, ASCE, and many
more organizations. This event not only served as a means to
recruit many new students in a professional manner, but also
served as a way for the professional societies to show each
other their most recent projects and plan future collaborative
events or designs. Meet the Geeks was an incredible success,
and the branch plans to continue sponsoring it in future years.
In addition to all the design teams and recruitment events
the branch has started this year, one more involvement
initiative has been started. At each of the branch’s general
meetings there is a unique research opportunity presented
to the members. Previous research opportunities have been
presented by the Formula SAE design team, the Eagle Flight
Research Center, and the Ofce of Undergraduate research.
This initiative aims to provide members with the opportunity
to nd research that best matches their individual interests.
The most exciting challenge that the AIAA student branch
is taking on this year is co-hosting the Region II student
conference with FIT. This is the rst time in many years that
the Daytona Beach student branch has hosted a conference.
The conference has inspired many members to become more
active in their research and participation in branch events as
they prepare for the challenge of hosting a conference.
There is a lot of energy in the Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach
branch of AIAA, and more great things are yet to come.
AIAA News - AIAA Design Team Projects
PAGE 13
Micro-Gravity
As part of the Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design
Teams (Micro-g NExT) challenge, undergraduate students
designed, built and tested various tools that address an
authentic, current space exploration challenge. The space
tools were tested this week at Johnson’s Neutral Buoyancy
Laboratory (NBL), which includes a 6.2-million-gallon indoor
pool used to train NASA astronauts for spacewalks. Micro-g
NExT, which is sponsored by NASA’s Human Exploration
and Operations Mission Directorate, is designed to encourage
research and development in new technologies and engage
students in real-world engineering and problem-solving
concepts that may be needed on future exploration missions.
“NASA Microgravity Project provides a unique out-of-class
learning experience for our students dealing with the aerospace
environment,” said Sathya Gangadharan, Ph.D. professor
of Mechanical Engineering and co-advisor on the project
with Pedro Llanos, Ph.D., assistant professor of Spaceight
Operations and Payload and Integration Lab Supervisor.
Gangadharan said the team had to develop a successful proposal
and design, fabricate, integrate, and test their innovative idea,
while working closely since the fall with a NASA mentor
and Embry-Riddle advisors. In addition to conducting the
experiment, the team had to write a professional report
to NASA with the results of their project, participate in a
successful fund-raising campaign and work closely with K-12
students to raise awareness of STEM education as it applies to
the aerospace industry.
The Embry-Riddle Microgravity Club chose to construct an
Under Ice Sampling Device, which was one of the four design
challenges. NASA is currently working on ways to explore
underneath the ice-covered surface of so-called “Ocean Worlds”
such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus. According to
NASA, these ice-structures may potentially be places where
microbial life could thrive. The challenge required the sampling
device, which has to collect, seal and store at least one core
sample, to interface with a NASA engineered submersible
vehicle to obtain a subsurface ice sample in an underwater
environment.
Constructed on campus, the 3D Printing Club helped with the
inner support structure and the Embry-Riddle Future Space
Explorers and Developers Society constructed the berglass
cylinder, which holds the stainless steel drill bit. “The device
was required to be stored in a 3”x 6” cylinder, not including
the aluminum mounting plate,” said Cory White, Microgravity
Club president and Aerospace Engineering major. “The purpose
of the device is to extend the drill bit 5 inches from its stored
conguration to the surface of the ice and then another 3 inches
into the ice to collect a half inch core sample.” An electrical
short during testing, prevented the Embry-Riddle device
from collecting a core sample. But White said the challenge
was valuable for giving the team a chance to gain real-world
experience by working on an actual challenge faced by NASA.
“The opportunity to use these skills outside of the classroom
is supplemental and incredibly benecial to our learning here
at Embry-Riddle,” White said. The Aerospace Engineering
students who participated in the challenge in addition to White
were Merit Bibawy, Richard Excell, Delaney Hancock, Hunter
Hatchell and Justin Randall.
Undergraduate team members of the Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment
Design Team (Micro-g Next) challenge
PAGE 12
FACULTY & STUDENT NEWS
PAGE 14
Every year the American Astronautical Society (AAS) hosts a number of events and technical conferences throughout the
US focused on the growth of the space community. This past February, ERAU Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. Candidate
Francisco J. Franquiz (advised by Profs. Udrea and Balas) won 1st place in the student paper competition of the 41st Annual
AAS Guidance and Control Conference (February 1st-7th) in Breckenridge, CO.
Each year, the student competition admits a total of 8 student papers selected from over 100 applicants in different elds
related to applied spacecraft dynamics and control. The competition criteria consider the impact and relevance of the work,
the quality and correctness of the written paper, and the quality of the technical presentation at the conference. The papers
are judged by outstanding members of the aerospace industry and academia. This year, Francisco competed against authors
from the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Arizona, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Air Force Research
Laboratory, and others.
Francisco received the 1st prize for his paper on “Optimal Range Observability Trajectory Planning for Proximity Operations
Using Angles-Only Navigation” in which he researched, analyzed, and veried maneuver planning methods which minimize
range uncertainty (loss of depth perception) when using cameras to perform close proximity operations and rendezvous
between satellites. Through his work, Francisco found a solution for a well-known problem affecting current and past
missions and interest has already been expressed to make his method a part of routine mission planning operations. The
research has also direct applications to the elds of space situational awareness, a crucial aspect of maintaining space
superiority, and can be of great benet for satellite formation ying, an area of great interest for upcoming space missions.
Student Innovations
National Society of Black Engineers Attend Convention and Receive
Awards and Job Offers
(Embry-Riddle Newsroom Deborah Circelli /April 11, 2018)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students from the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Daytona Beach
chapter including many Aerospace Engineering majors recently returned from the 44th Annual Convention in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania with good news. Amidst the workshops, visits to the exhibition hall and collegiate competitions, 14 of the 25
Embry-Riddle NSBE members attending the convention secured interviews during the convention with companies such as
Delta Airlines, United Airlines, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, General Electric, Microsoft, Rockwell Collins, the
U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. Seven students received job or internship offers.
Embry-Riddle junior Naia Butler-Craig, who is majoring in Aerospace Engineering, also received the Region III Executive
Board Member of the Year Award.“The NSBE executive board created workshops and events throughout the year that
developed our members academically, socially and professionally, keeping NSBEs missions statement to heart,” said William
Wanyagah, president of the Embry-Riddle NSBE chapter and an aerospace engineering junior. “I am happy overall with the
determination and perseverance of NSBE members who attended the 44th annual conference in Pittsburgh. Naia Butler-
Craig, a NASA Pathways intern for the NASA Glenn Research Center, served as the 2017-2018 Region III Membership
Chair overseeing membership activities for Region III, which includes members in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi, the Caribbean and South America. The award is given to a regional executive board member who
went above and beyond what was required.
Payton Boliek, vice president of the Embry-Riddle chapter,
was promoted at the convention to the board for Region III and
will oversee members of all chapters as the 2018-2019 Region
III Membership Chair, succeeding Butler-Craig. The region
has about 3,000 members, Butler-Craig said. Co-advisors for
the Embry-Riddle chapter, who helped students prepare for
the convention, are assistant professor Dr. Leroy L. Long III
and Kenneth E. Hunt, director of Embry-Riddle’s Ofce of
Diversity and Inclusion.
PAGE 15
The ranks of Embry-Riddle Future Space Explorers and
Developers Society (ERFSEDS) have grown to 140 active
members. Likewise the club’s list of projects has become
longer and more ambitious, from the ongoing high power
certication workshops for new members, to national ight
competitions, to research projects aiming to expand the limits
of rocket engineering.
Project Gryphus focuses on researching and developing
methods to design, build, and test a solid fuel ducted
rocket in order to further study thrust augmentation and
air-augmentation. Students on this project are working to
demonstrate the increase of specic impulse and thrust on
rockets and launch multiple times.
Last year’s rocket used low cost, low impulse commercial
solid motors. Since the project’s start in the Fall of 2017, the
team has been able to nish construction on two test vehicles,
currently manufacturing a third, larger test vehicle. This
project has made incredible progress with data showing 10%
increase of ISP during ascent using a solid propellant motor,
6 ights in a single semester, the rst usage of a “y-away
rail guide” in ERFSEDS, and integration of ush-body air
inlets.
Project Hummingbird started from an idea to make a
helicopter-based recovery system. Funded by Blue Origin,
this project tasks students with the challenges of designing a
rotor-system that can be stored during rocket ight, deploy
from the rocket at apogee, slow rocket descent, manipulate
rotor and blade pitch in order to guide the rocket to a landing
location, and land the rocket booster upright. The team is
currently working on manufacturing a rocket to test the
design that have been developed over the past three years.
Pathnder is our introduction to high powered rocketry.
Pathnder’s mission is to completely design and
manufactured a sounding rocket to reach an altitude of
10,000 ft, only purchasing a few commercial parts. The
Pathnder project gives students the experience of designing,
building, testing, revising, and then launching their own
part or system on the rocket. This project acts as a gateway
to our upper level project Artemis. Both projects plan on
implementing a student researched and developed (SRAD)
motor made by our members in our project Prometheus.
Artemis, a new project this year, has the goal of creating a
two stage 30,000 ft apogee rocket to compete in the 2019
Spaceport America Cup 30k SRAD division this summer.
Similar to Pathnder, Artemis is designed and manufactured
by members in ERFSEDS. The team continues the research
with their work with the club’s lament winder; the team
aims to manufacture the rocket’s entire airframe utilizing the
system. The team hope to lay the ground work to keep this
project continuous in the coming years.
Rocket Club Update
FACULTY & STUDENT NEWS
Project Icarus will make its rst attempt at the von Karmen line – the edge of space –
63 miles – this summer from White Sands Missile Range, NM. Above the rst Icarus
rocket takes ight from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, March 2007. Project Icarus
focuses on the technology challenges of interstellar travel.
PAGE 16
At the 2018 Women of Colour conference, Hemali Virani
(Bachelor of Science Aerospace Engineering ‘12 and Masters
of Human Factors ‘14) was awarded the “Technology Rising
Star” award by her senior leadership and technical lead.
There were a total of 61 women from Lockheed Martin (only
3 from the F-35 Sustainment Line of Business) that received
an award at the conference.
During the conference she had an opportunity to not only
share her story but to also hear from many other women in
the professional eld. As she thought about how thankful she
is to be working at Lockheed Martin and more importantly
the team that she is a part of. It is no surprise to her that she
is one of two women reporting to her manager, and honored
to be working with such a supportive and motivating group of
people.
Hemali further regressed on how she got to where she is
today and decided to write Dr. Maj Mirmirani, College of
Engineering Dean. She wanted to take the opportunity to say
Thank You! For she did not know if she would have had the
drive and the all-in attitude if it weren’t for her education at
ERAU.
Attending the conference was even more empowering
because she got an opportunity to talk to the next generation
of young ladies from high school and universities who
plan to/are pursuing their education in the STEM eld. It
is her ultimate goal in life to be able to encourage the next
generation of men and women to pursue their career in
STEM elds. She left the conference with a few important
thoughts:
1) It’s not an easy task to nd a job with such a supportive
team, a team which not only encourages her but also
motivates her to keep learning and growing.
2) Key to success lies in the ability to be comfortable with
being uncomfortable. She always told herself to never stop
pushing herself to get outside her comfort zone and to never
stop learning. In a way, she got the much needed reassurance
by attending the conference.
PAGE 16
Updates
PhD Program
David Zuehlke was awarded the Florida Space Grant Consortium Masters Fellowship, a one-year, prestigious award
supporting outstanding students completing their thesis in areas relevant to NASA’s needs.
In 2018 six students completed their PhD degree: Michael Borghi (Dec. 18, advisor Engblom), Marco Coderoni
(Aug. 18, advisor Lyrintzis), Petr Kazarin (Dec. 18, advisor Golubev), Kaveh Gharibi (Dec. 18, advisor Tamijani),
Vasileios Papapetrou (Dec. 18, advisor Tamijani), Nirmit Prabhakar (Dec. 18, advisors, Prazenica/Balas)
Alumna Receives Technology Rising Star Award
Florida Space Grant Consortium Masters Fellowship Recipient
PAGE 17
Where Are They Now?
Mike Warzinski (’11, BSAE, DB) and Zack Laser (‘11,
BSAE, DB) met up on a recent ight. “Got to drag my good
buddy and fellow alumnus Zack Laser a couple weeks ago
from his Marine F-35C training to Japan with my AF KC-10,”
said Warzinski.
Nathan Von Minden (’05, BSAE, DB) is working on a lm
about the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. Learn more
about the project at its Facebook page.
Brian Gamage (’95, BSAE, DB) and Fathi Hakam (’95,
BSAE; ’97, MSAE, DB), who are friends from their time
as students at Embry-Riddle, recently met up in California.
Hakum is a senior vice president of engineering at AirMap in
California and Gamage is director of emerging solutions for
Global Strategic Partnerships at IBM in Atlanta, Georgia.
Axel A. Garcia Burgos (’15, BSAE, DB), the founder and
CEO of Pratian, won rst place at the EO Global Student
Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) on April 16, 2018, in Toronto,
based on his research and development of Agrobeads, a
cost-effective, self-contained, hydration and nutrient bead
capable of supporting the growth of an individual plant
for up to a year. EO GSEA is an international competition
open to students who own and operate a business while
attending college or university. Garcia-Burgos is presently
a Ph.D. researcher at MIT. He founded Pratian to create and
commercialize space technologies to solve global issues and
benet society.
Ravi Gondaliya (’13, BSAE; ’16, MSAE, DB) recently gave
a TEDx talk that explores companies that are changing the
world by disrupting established conventions, and shares the
process he’s developed for himself to help him think like a
disruptor. Gondaliya is a materials and processes engineer at
Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation in Savannah. His previous
work experiences include engineering at Spirit Airlines and
Southwest Airlines.
Col. Jim Ryan (’88, BSAE, DB), former commander of
the New Hampshire Air National Guard’s 157th Refueling
Wing, recently retired. Earning his U.S. Air Force pilot wings
in 1989, he was assigned to Royal Air Force Lakenheath
in England. During the 1990s, he ew missions in support
operations during the rst Gulf War and the Balkan conicts.
In 1996, Ryan was assigned to Pease Air National Guard Base
as a mission pilot with the 133rd Air Refueling Squadron and
became commander of the 133rd in 2011. He was promoted
to commander of the 157th Operations Group in 2014. Ryan
became director of operation for the New Hampshire Air
National Guard, then became wing commander of the 157th
Air Refueling Wing in 2016.
Vivek Lall (’91, MSAE, DB), who currently serves as vice
president of strategy and business development at Lockheed
Martin, will join the Department of Transportation’s NextGen
Advisory Committee. An aerospace scientist, Lall has
been appointed for a two-year term on the committee. The
committee advises the government on topics of NextGen
investment priorities, capability deployment timing, equipage
incentives, specic technologies and deployments such as
DataComm, National Airspace System performance metrics
and airspace design initiatives.
David Bhola, DO. (’04 BSAE, DB), who is a primary care
and sleep specialist, joined Rockledge Regional Medical
Center and Steward Medical Group in Brevard County,
Florida. A Daytona Beach Campus graduate, Bhola pursued a
career in aerospace engineering and worked an internship in
the space program, but he’d also been interested in medicine
since childhood and saw a pressing need for healthcare
providers. Bhola has worked as a nocturnist at Wellmont
Medical Associates in Bristol, Tennessee, and has treated
sleep disorders at Larkin Community Hospital in Hialeah,
Florida. During his medical career, he also spent about a
year and a half practicing rural medicine in the Appalachian
regions of Tennessee.
Anthony Vareha (’06) is the SpaceX-15 lead ight director
and one of the ight directors at NASA in charge of
International Space Station (ISS) operations at the Johnson
Space Center’s Mission Control. A Daytona Beach Campus
graduate, he recently led the team conducting the SpaceX-15
cargo resupply mission to the ISS. Several lead ofcers
for the mission were also fellow Eagles. They included:
SpaceX-15 Lead Robotics Ofcer Billy Jones (’06, BSAE,
DB); SpaceX-15 Robotics Analyst Brian Costello (’04, BSAE,
DB); and SpaceX-15 Ground Segment Lead Casey Johnson,
(’11), who are all Daytona Beach graduates. Also on the team
are SpaceX-15 Lead Trajectory Ofcer Victor Rice (’14), who
is a Prescott Campus graduate, and SpaceX-15 Lead Ground
Controller Ronald Moseley (’06), a Worldwide Campus
graduate. SpaceX-15 Robotics Crew Instructor Mike Ferullo,
(’07, BSAE ’18, MSAE, DB) is also on the team and is a
Daytona Beach and Worldwide campus graduate.
Alumni Update
PAGE 16
ALUMNI UPDATE
PAGE 18
ALUMNI UPDATE & FACULTY ROSTER
Faculty Roster
Marwan Al-Haik
Professor & PhD Program Coordinator (Ph.D., Florida State
University)
Richard Anderson
Professor & Director of Eagle Flight Research Center
(Ph.D., University of Central Florida)
Magdy Attia
Professor & Associate Chair (Ph.D., Texas A&M University)
Mark Balas
Visiting Distinguished Professor (Ph.D., University of Denver)
Yechiel Crispin
Professor (Ph.D., Israel Institute of Technology)
John Ekaterinaris
Distinguished Professor
(Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology)
Bill Engblom
Professor, Joint Appointment with Mechanical Engineering
Department (Ph.D., University of Texas)
Habib Eslami
Professor (Ph.D., Old Dominion University)
Ebenezer Gnanamanickam
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Purdue University)
Vladimir Golubev
Professor (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame)
Glenn Greiner
Associate Professor & BSAE, CSAE & MMSE Program
Coordinator (M.S., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
Snorri Gudmundsson
Associate Professor (Ph.D., Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University)
Troy Henderson
Assistant Professor & Honors Program Coordinator
(Ph.D., Texas A&M University)
Dae Won Kim
Associate Professor (Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute
& State University)
Mandar Kulkarni
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute
& State University)
James Ladesic
Professor & Associate Dean of Industry Relations & Outreach
(Ph.D., University of Florida)
J. Gordon Leishman
Distinguished Professor (Ph.D., Glasgow University)
Anastasios Lyrintzis
Distinguished Professor & Chair (Ph.D., Cornell University)
Reda Mankbadi
Distinguished Professor (Ph.D., Brown University)
Alberto Mello
Associate Professor (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin)
Hever Moncayo
Associate Professor (Ph.D., West Virginia University)
Claudia Moreno
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Minnesota)
Sirish Namilae
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Florida State University)
Lakshman Narayanaswami
Professor (Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology)
Morad Nazari
Assistant Professor (Ph.D. New Mexico State University)
Eric Perrell
Professor (Ph.D., North Carolina State University)
Richard Prazenica
Associate Professor (Ph.D., University of Florida)
Frank Radosta
Professor (Ph.D., University of Florida)
Mark Ricklick
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Central Florida)
Bertrand Rollin
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Vermont)
Virginie Rollin
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Vermont)
Dongeun Seo
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Texas)
David Sypeck
Professor (Ph.D., University of Virginia)
Ali Yeilaghi Tamijani
Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University)
Bogdan Udrea
Associate Professor (Ph.D., University of Washington)
Yi Zhao
Professor and Associate Dean (Ph.D., Louisiana State
University)
PAGE 19
FACULTY ROSTER
RESEARCH NEWS
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and select Aerospace Engineering.
Keep your fellow Eagles soaring high!
As we transition to a Ph.D.-granting department, we’ll need your
support to improve the facilities and sponsor worthy students to
maintain our reputation as the leader of Aerospace Engineering
education and research.
Join our dedicated faculty and staff
(100% participation in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018 campaigns)
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