Aerospace

George �鶹��Ƶ is launching a Space Forward Frontiers Seminar with Northrop Grumman

Domonique Hopkins — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:45:36 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ is launching a Space Forward Frontiers Seminar with Northrop Grumman Domonique Hopkins Mon, 01/26/2026 - 10:45

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�鶹��Ƶ’s College of Science is launching the Space Forward Frontiers Seminar Series in spring 2026, in partnership with Northrop Grumman and George �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing.

The one-credit, in-person seminar (PHYS 391/590, cross-listed as ME 500) is open to undergraduate and graduate students of all majors interested in the space industry.

Limited to 50 students, the Thursday afternoon seminar features weekly lectures from George �鶹��Ƶ faculty and industry professionals, offering practical and academic perspectives on today’s space sector. Topics include the space industry’s foundations, enabling technologies, policy considerations, and future directions, with the inaugural offering focusing on crowding and events in the space environment.

With no prerequisites or textbooks, the course is highly accessible and connects students to such emerging opportunities as NASA’s Landolt Mission, led by George �鶹��Ƶ faculty. The seminar also supports the university’s Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI), advancing both 21st-century education and pioneering space exploration through industry collaboration.

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A calibration from campus to the cosmos

Nathan Kahl — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 14:48:15 +0000

A calibration from campus to the cosmos  Nathan Kahl Fri, 08/15/2025 - 10:48

�鶹��Ƶ is the home of the $20 million Landolt NASA Space Mission, placing a satellite that will serve as an artificial “star” in orbit around the Earth…and College of Engineering and Computing students are instrumental in the payload’s construction. It’s experience that not only significantly bolsters a resume, but also allows students to work on a project of their dreams.  

Fatima Bahzad, a computer science graduate student said, “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in school.”  

Bahzad said that working on the mission is the most fun she's had at George �鶹��Ƶ. Photo provided.

Bahzad explained her role: “The satellite, which is about the size of a bread box, is comprised of layers and each layer has a chip and the chips need to talk to each other. There’s also a primary chip that sends commands to all of them. I’m working on the communication between the chips.”

Getting an opportunity to turn theory into practice is incredibly gratifying, she said. “Learning theoretical stuff is one thing, but applying it is another. This is one of the first opportunities I’ve had to work on something ‘real.’” 

The payload is being built in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), with whom the teams checks in frequently. The artificial star will allow scientists to calibrate telescopes and more accurately measure the brightness of stars ranging from those nearby to the distant explosions of supernova in far-off galaxies. By establishing absolute flux calibration, the mission will address several open challenges in astrophysics, including the speed and acceleration of the universe expansion. 

On the engineering side, the project is led by Piotr Pachowicz, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. Pachowicz brought PhD student Jay Deorukhkar, one of his advisees, onto the project.  

Deorukhkar said he’s been working on testing the individual payload modules. These will later integrate with the satellite bus, which is the core structure and support system that is separate from the specific payload. Reliability of small satellite buses against radiation effects is also the subject of his dissertation, making this work particularly relevant.  

Deorukhkar is working on his second project that will send an object into space. Photo provided.

“My role as an engineer is to help design, prototype, and test specific payload components. We’re early in the design stage, working towards the preliminary design review of our payload.” He added, “The great thing about this project is really the end-to-end experience, from the inception of the mission  to the actual launch and operation of the science payload.”  

Deorukhkar has some experience with that, having worked on the ThinSat project in 2021, which sent a small satellite into low earth orbit. He knows about the anxiety as the launch date nears. “It's a bone-chilling moment when the rocket starts and you know your device is on there and it’s out of your hands at that point. You can only pray and trust that everything you've learned and you've done just works.”  

Bahzad is still trying to keep her feet planted on the ground, so to speak, at times overwhelmed to be part of something so significant. “We met recently with some people from NASA and I was just sitting in the corner and couldn’t believe it. I was just thinking, ‘This is so cool!’”   

Housed in the George �鶹��Ƶ College of Science, the mission launches in 2029, when the artificial star will orbit earth 22,236 miles up, far enough away to look like a star to telescopes back on Earth. This orbit also allows it to move at the same speed of the Earth’s rotation, keeping it in place over the United States during its first  year in space. 

�鶹��Ƶ faculty and students will work together with nine other organizations beyond NASA and NIST on this first-of-its-kind project for a university in the Washington, D.C., area. 

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Peter Pachowicz

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International Space Station experiment may improve climate science predictions

Teresa Donnellan — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 20:33:24 +0000

International Space Station experiment may improve climate science predictions Teresa Donnellan Wed, 03/05/2025 - 15:33

The earth’s atmosphere is full of aerosols, both from natural events such as volcanic eruptions and human activity such as burning fossil fuels. The Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Jeffrey Moran is planning an experiment on the International Space Station (ISS) to better understand what factors drive aerosols from place to place, which could enable climate scientists to predict the overall effect of aerosols on climate with less uncertainty.

“Aerosols can exacerbate or alleviate climate change, depending on what they’re made of,” said Moran. “For example, carbon soot aerosols can intensify warming by absorbing sunlight that would otherwise be reflected back into space. Other aerosols, such as sulfates, can reduce warming by increasing solar reflection.”

Aerosols’ location also matters—for example, many aerosols can act as nuclei for clouds to form, and this can exert an overall warming or cooling effect in different locations. “The overall effect aerosols will have on the climate is hard to predict, partly because we don’t have a full understanding of what factors cause them to migrate from one place to another,” said Moran.

Jeff Moran. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

The experiment is specifically examining whether and how temperature gradients influence the movement of certain aerosols through the atmosphere. Moran’s team, along with his collaborator, David Warsinger of Purdue University, and a team of undergraduate students there, are designing an apparatus inside of which aerosols of a certain size can be observed across a temperature gradient. They recently completed a fit check to confirm that the apparatus both fits in the ISS microscope’s enclosure and that the aerosol container, or cuvette, is transparent enough for observation.

Moran said the experiment could help climate researchers understand how temperature differences, which are common in the atmosphere, cause particles to move through the air.

“If the effect of the temperature gradient is significant, it could give us a clearer indication of how aerosols will affect the climate in the future. It could also inform geoengineering proposals, which would seek to mitigate climate change by intentionally injecting aerosols into the atmosphere, since we would have a better sense of where they will go, and thus what their overall effect will be,” said Moran. “It could also offer a way to control aerosols on the ground, for example, by using thermophoresis to collect virus-laden aerosols from the HVAC systems of hospitals.”

The team’s apparatus includes a 3D-printed stage with hot and cold fixtures on either end. A prototype cuvette is mounted between them in the enclosure of the microscope. Crucially, the apparatus fits snugly inside the microscope enclosure, which is necessary for the experiment to be carried out in microgravity.

Crystals of the NaCl sample (see Figure 2), imaged using the 2x objective on the Keyence BZ-X810 microscope (nearly identical to the one on the ISS).

“The capstone team did a wonderful job,” Moran added.

The team tested the cuvette’s transparency by placing sodium chloride, table salt, inside it and taking images with the microscope. To verify airtightness, the team placed the salt-filled cuvette in a beaker of water and observed that the salt (which is soluble in water) remained in its solid form, indicating no water had leaked into the cuvette.

“We obviously don’t want to pose an inhalation hazard to the ISS crew, so it’s important that the particle samples be packaged on the ground in containers that are as close to airtight as possible,” said Moran.

“These images are a promising first step, as they demonstrate that aerosols in the range of sizes we are considering (10-100 µm) can be clearly imaged through the prototype cuvettes using a microscope nearly identical to the one currently on the ISS,” said Moran.

From here, Moran, Warsinger, and a new team of students will work to improve the cuvette fabrication and polishing procedures. They will also test alternative cuvette materials such as quartz, which may be thinner and more transparent, thereby allowing them to take clearer images at a higher magnification. This would enable them to examine even smaller aerosol particles. The team is also refining the design of the cuvettes to improve optical transparency and minimize the thickness of the windows.

“We want to make the cuvettes smaller, bringing the hot and cold surfaces as close together as we can get them, because it's not really clear how steep of a temperature gradient we're going to need to induce motion,” Moran explained.

In addition, the team is finalizing their choice of aerosol materials to send to the ISS. They are currently set on using carbon soot, sodium chloride, and silica due to their relevance in atmospheric aerosols and climate science.

“Carbon soot is one of the most important materials in terms of climate, because it is known to intensify warming,” Moran said, adding that sodium chloride enters the atmosphere as sea spray and can drift to faraway locations, such as the North Pole, intensifying the warming that is already happening at a rapid pace there. Silica is a common ingredient in sand and thus a common material in the atmosphere as well. Overall, the team aims to strike a balance between having materials that can be studied safely on the ISS while also yielding insights into aerosol dynamics in the atmosphere.

The College of Engineering and Computing will cover Moran’s progress leading up to the experiment in space, scheduled for fall 2025 or spring 2026.

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Jeffrey Moran

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Space experiment could teach us how aerosols move in the atmosphere

Teresa Donnellan — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 19:45:22 +0000

Space experiment could teach us how aerosols move in the atmosphere Teresa Donnellan Mon, 08/05/2024 - 15:45

As a child, Jeffrey Moran was fascinated by outer space. Now, he is designing an experiment to be carried out on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025.

"I was obsessed with space as a kid,” said the mechanical engineering assistant professor. “The house I grew up in is still filled with drawings of Space Shuttles. Airplanes and spacecraft were a major reason I chose engineering when I got to college."

Jeffrey Moran. Photo by Office of University Branding

When the National Science Foundation issued a call for proposals to conduct research projects on the ISS to benefit life on earth, Moran jumped at the chance and wrote a proposal that was successfully funded. His grant-winning experiment will examine the extent to which aerosols (small particles suspended in air) move through air in response to a temperature difference (meaning the air on one side is hotter than on the other). This phenomenon—migration of particles in response to temperature gradients—is known as thermophoresis.

“It all started with a brainstorming session I had with a collaborator,” said Moran, describing the conversation he had with Purdue University colleague David Warsinger, who is a co-investigator on the NSF-funded project. “In contrast to most of my projects, which consider particles that move through liquids, we considered a simple question: what mechanisms could we use propel small particles through air?”

“My lab focuses on developing self-propelled particles for applications like water treatment or drug delivery," said Moran. "It’s a new and exciting field, but it’s so far been restricted entirely to water environments. No one has tried to develop a swimmer that moves in air. That ties into climate change, because aerosols are everywhere in the atmosphere—both because of human activity, like burning fossil fuels, and because of natural events like volcanic eruptions—and we don’t have a solid understanding of the net effect aerosols will have on the climate.”

Thermophoresis occurs in both liquids and gases, but it’s difficult to study in gases on earth because of the influence of gravity. Another challenge with studying particle migration in temperature gradients on earth is that the heated air tends to rise (for the same reason that hot air balloons rise), making it difficult to know exactly why the particles are moving. Doing the experiment in space allows scientists to run their tests with a minimal influence of gravity, to purely examine the effect of temperature on aerosols without creating air currents, which inevitably form when one tries to create a temperature difference in air because hot air tends to rise (which is the reason hot air balloons rise).

“We’re going to send various aerosol samples into space, each in a specially designed cuvette, for the astronauts to test,” Moran explained. “There’s a microscope on the ISS, and the astronauts will place our cuvettes into an apparatus we’ve designed that applies heat and cold to opposite walls of the cuvette. The astronauts will then use the microscope to determine how fast the particles move towards hot or towards cold. We expect that aerosols made from different materials will respond differently to the temperature gradient, but nobody knows how. That’s what’s exciting about this experiment – no one has made these types of measurements before.”

“For the last part of the project, we’re going to see whether some particles with asymmetric properties might generate the propulsive temperature difference on their own,” Moran continued. “These particles will have half of their surface coated in a metal. The other side is an insulating material,” Moran explained. “When we shine a light on them, the metal side efficiently absorbs the light and heats up relative to the insulating side. The hot hemisphere heats the air near it, and that creates a temperature difference in the surrounding air. This could help us understand whether odd-shaped aerosols in the atmosphere move on their own, without the need for a temperature difference.”

Before the experiment can be carried out, Moran and his team need to determine the experiment’s parameters as well as the materials required.

“This is very much a work in progress,” said Moran. “We're figuring out exactly which particles we want to send to the space station [based on] which materials matter the most to climate scientists [and] what the biggest question marks are.”

He mentioned, among other examples, the possibility of experimenting with carbon soot.

“Carbon soot is produced by burning fossil fuels, and it’s known to be harmful to the environment because it absorbs sunlight efficiently,” he said. “Another source of carbon soot, increasingly common in this era, is from rocket launches.”

“It’s pretty well established that carbon soot overall intensifies warming,” he said. “It's black, so it tends to absorb sunlight efficiently. This leads to a net warming effect on the atmosphere, but it's not clear how much it moves in thermophoresis (how much it moves in temperature differences).”

Moran looks forward to working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to refine the plan. An early step in this project will be for Moran and his team to travel to Texas to examine a replica of the equipment available to scientists on the International Space Station.

The College of Engineering and Computing will cover Moran’s progress as the project moves forward.

In This Story

Jeffrey Moran

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Partners weigh in on the magnitude and opportunity with the critical Landolt Mission

ckearney — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 16:12:10 +0000

Partners weigh in on the magnitude and opportunity with the critical Landolt Mission ckearney Mon, 06/10/2024 - 12:12

�鶹��Ƶ will be the home of the $19.5 million recently approved Landolt NASA Space Mission that will put an artificial “star” in orbit around the Earth. George �鶹��Ƶ faculty and students will work together with the NASA and NIST and nine other organizations for a first-of-its-kind project for a university in the Washington, D.C., area.

With mission control based at George �鶹��Ƶ on its Fairfax Campus, the team also includes Blue Canyon Technologies; California Institute of Technology; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Mississippi State University; Montreal Planetarium and iREx/University of Montreal; the University of Florida; the University of Hawaiʻi; the University of Minnesota, Duluth; and the University of Victoria.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scientists S. Deustua, J. Rice, and B. Alberding will apply their expertise to the calibration of Landolt-emitted light. This will be critical, as precise calibration enables astronomers to better answer pressing questions like: “Are there other Earths? What is the history of the universe?"

"Major new telescopes—like NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory—intend to measure the expansion history of the universe using the brightnesses of supernovae. However, errors in brightness calibration across wavelengths could lead to incorrect measurements. Landolt will solve this problem by providing telescopes with light of known brightness," said Greg Aldering of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Physics Division, who will serve on the Landolt science team to ensure that it is designed and performs as needed for precision cosmology measurements.

Once the Landolt satellite is in orbit, Aldering and his team plan to observe the calibrated light from Landolt with ground-based instruments, including the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) in Hawaii, built in part by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, equipped with a 3.2 billion pixel camera built by DOE.

“Being a part of this space mission along with brilliant experts by contributing to target selection and data analysis is an exciting prospect,” said Canada’s Jonathan Gagné, scientific advisor at the Planétarium | Montréal Space for Life, adjunct professor at Université de Montréal, and member of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iRex). “The impact that the Landolt mission will have in different areas of astrophysics, notably in exoplanet characterization and in measuring the accelerating expansion of the universe, will be particularly important,” Gagné explained.

"The measurements by Landolt will enable tremendous progress for a wide range of ground-based astronomical observations,” said Daniel Huber, associate professor at the University of Hawaiʻiʻs Institute for Astronomy. The University of Hawaiʻi will provide access to the UH88 telescope located atop of Maunakea, Hawaiʻi, one of the ground stations that will observe Landolt during its mission. Maunakea is one of the best sites for ground-based astronomy in the world.

“The University of Victoria is excited to be an institutional collaborator on the NASA Landolt mission. We will leverage what we've learned from the CSA-funded, UVic-led ORCASat CubeSat satellite mission and are greatly looking forward to contributing to the success of this new mission,” said Justin Albert, professor of physics and astronomy at University of Victoria.

“This project is tackling a truly fundamental problem in astronomy in a very novel way,” said Dan Stevens, PhD, an assistant professor of Astronomy at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “By creating an "artificial star,” measuring its brightness in the lab, and launching it into space, our team will then be able to take lab-calibrated measurements of real stars' actual, absolute brightnesses. This level of accuracy wasn’t possible before, and it will allow us to overcome decades-long sources of uncertainty in how well we measure the fundamental properties of stars and the planets they host.”

“Landolt is an exciting opportunity to enable absolute calibration in astronomy at an unprecedented level,” said David Ciardi, Chief Scientist for NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) at Caltech/IPAC. “For as long as people have looked up at the night sky, a fundamental question has always been: ‘What is the true brightness of that star?’ Landolt has the opportunity to change astronomy for the relatively minimal cost of a NASA Astrophysics Pioneer program,” Ciardi explained.

NExScI, responsible for the Landolt data archiving and contributing to the ground support through Palomar Observatory suggests, “Even with today’s modern instruments, true brightness calibration has only been good to a few percent, and Landolt will enable an improvement by more than a factor of 10. Understanding the true brightness of stars allows to understand the stars better—and, perhaps more importantly, understand the planets that orbit the stars better.

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New College of Engineering and Computing professor Missy Cummings seeks to address challenges in artificial intelligence

Tama Moni — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 19:27:32 +0000

New College of Engineering and Computing professor Missy Cummings seeks to address challenges in artificial intelligence Tama Moni Tue, 01/03/2023 - 14:27

As one of the U.S. Navy’s first female fighter pilots and an engineer, Mary “Missy” Cummings is accustomed to breaking barriers and solving problems. So, when the opportunity to develop a new interdisciplinary program in artificial intelligence (AI) at �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Engineering and Computing emerged, she didn’t hesitate.

Cummings wants to increase the public and workforce's understanding of AI and its limits.

Missy Cummings, Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

For example, self-driving cars have proven to be much more difficult to launch safely than originally believed. Before coming to �鶹��Ƶ, Cummings served as the senior safety advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. She said that experience sparked her interest in a new program in the design and deployment of AI.

“I believe we have a national security crisis across the Department of Transportation, the Department of Defense, and many other government agencies,” Cummings said. “We have a genuine technical illiteracy problem. It's not that people can't understand AI. It's that people are just not being educated in how AI is constructed or in its limitations.”

Cummings encountered tech illiteracy problems earlier in her career while serving on the Defense Innovation Board.

“I saw the problem then, and now that I've been in the Department of Transportation, it's doubly reinforced my concern about people's limited understanding of AI,” she said.

Cummings wants industry and government employees to know how to ask the right questions about performance weaknesses and understand where to invest tax dollars.

She said she’s concerned the U.S. doesn’t have an effective workforce when it comes to understanding, managing, acquiring, evaluating, and testing AI. She wants people to learn about the right way for humans and AI to work together as well as to learn what is truly attainable and what is merely hype.

“I think traditional academia has a hard time accepting new areas, like a degree program in the design and deployment of AI. Older schools with more ingrained traditions struggle to embrace newer thinking,” she said. “I don't think �鶹��Ƶ is like that. Dean Ken Ball and others at the College of Engineering and Computing as well as �鶹��Ƶ’s president Gregory Washington have embraced these ideas.”

“Missy’s knowledge and experience surrounding AI are going to be a phenomenal asset to �鶹��Ƶ,” Ball said. “Her ability to make connections between computer science, electrical, and mechanical engineering fields and leverage the strengths of each to improve our understanding of AI will be a game changer. We are thrilled she has decided to work with us.”

Cummings is proposing a new degree program in AI that will target engineering students as well as those in policy, law, and public health. “To navigate the world of AI students also need softer skills in policy, and maybe even ethics,” Cummings said.

"I find that �鶹��Ƶ is far more flexible and more open to new ideas than older more entrenched schools. At �鶹��Ƶ, people are willing to come together from the different colleges and schools to solve real complex sociotechnical problems," she said. "There's not one societal problem we have today that belongs to a sole discipline."

Her faculty appointment spans three departments—Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. She will also be the First American Bank Endowed Chair and Director of the Center for Robotics, Autonomous Systems, and Translational AI. Cummings' scholarly work will include opportunities to work with Fuse at �鶹��Ƶ Square faculty and partners. Fuse will launch in 2024.

Learn more about Fuse at �鶹��Ƶ Square

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Missy Cummings

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George �鶹��Ƶ Readies Reclaimed Satellite Dish

Tama Moni — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:37:25 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ Readies Reclaimed Satellite Dish Tama Moni Thu, 10/27/2022 - 12:37

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Peter Pachowicz

For �鶹��Ƶ's Peter Pachowicz, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, things are looking up—up to space, specifically. Pachowicz is eager to finally make what will be the largest satellite dish in the Washington, D.C., area, which was nearly discarded a few years ago, available to undergraduate students.

Satellite dish at �鶹��Ƶ

As previously reported in 2020, the university was planning to toss the 27-year-old, 30-foot satellite dish on its Fairfax Campus. Said Pachowicz at the time, “If we didn’t take it, it was headed to the scrap yard,” adding that a new dish the same size would cost more than $1 million.

CACI, a longtime corporate partner of the Volgenau School of Engineering, stepped in to help, providing funds to make the dish, which was donated and financially supported by a subsidiary of the �鶹��Ƶ Instructional Foundation, available to students. CACI provides expertise and technology—including satellite engineering and space operations—in support of national security.

CACI Chief Technology Officer Glenn Kurowski said, “The dish is a compelling asset that we helped salvage for a new mission. Our industry needs innovative young talent in satellite communications, digital signal processing, and RF. There’s no better way to learn this than by combining academic instruction with experiential learning on real-world equipment.”

The first big project for the dish, dubbed Space Communications Ground Station, or SpaceCom, is for a senior design team to work on the dish guidance system, including dish motion control and feedback from position sensors.

The dish will be available to engineering students, as well as those in other �鶹��Ƶ schools and colleges, allowing for multidisciplinary, hands-on experience. Pachowicz notes that when he tells students about the opportunity to do projects with SpaceCom, “[they] jump at the chance and ask when they can work on it.”

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�鶹��Ƶat50

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Senior national judo champ has aerospace aspirations

Tama Moni — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 19:58:16 +0000

Senior national judo champ has aerospace aspirations Tama Moni Tue, 10/04/2022 - 15:58

Reigning senior national judo champion and George �鶹��Ƶ senior Yasmin Alamin is eager to launch her career in mechanical engineering in 2023. A career in engineering, Alamin says frankly, appeals to her for the potential to earn a good income. She adds she is lucky to enjoy working in her chosen field:

“To go through a fixed process like the design process, to create something out of an abstract idea that's realistic, that you can use to solve a problem.” She says, “Seeing that kind of magic development...is really, really cool.”

Alamin credits her work in judo for instilling humility and resilience in her work as an engineering student. She says a common misconception held about judo is that the main objective is to compete.

“The philosophy around judo is to make you a better citizen or make you a better human being.” She says, “The best part of judo is the better person that it's made me, to be more humble, to be a better teacher, and to be more confident.” She jokes, “I didn't think I had an ego before, but [there’s] nothing like getting thrown a lot to make you more humble.”

She adds judo has helped her build resilience. She explains, "Having to repetitively get up and keep working on things, having that head-to-head type of competition against sometimes-scary people, has helped me build a special resilience that has helped [me] in mechanical engineering [to] deal with some of the pressure and some of the stress and some of the presentations and the critiques from the professors on designs.”

Associate professor of mechanical engineering Colin Reagle writes of Alamin, “Yasmin was a joy to have in the classroom...Her process and approach to learning is equally impressive. She was prepared for every opportunity and equally reflective after the class ended or the assignment [was] submitted. Her ‘won’t quit’ attitude is going to take her far in life after she leaves �鶹��Ƶ.”

Ultimately, Alamin aspires to own her own aerospace company.

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Retro �鶹��Ƶ: Ansari in Space 2006

ckearney — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 20:41:48 +0000

Retro �鶹��Ƶ: Ansari in Space 2006 ckearney Fri, 09/30/2022 - 16:41

See More Retro �鶹��Ƶ

In 2006, �鶹��Ƶ alum Anousheh Ansari, BS Computer and Electrical Engineering ’88, captured headlines around the world when she embarked upon an 11-day space expedition to the International Space Station, accomplishing her childhood dream of flying to space. As a result of her mission, she became the first female private space explorer, first astronaut of Iranian descent, first Muslim woman in space, and fourth private explorer to visit space.

She shared her experiences on campus during National Engineers Week 2007 and was �鶹��Ƶ’s Winter Graduation speaker in 2012, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Ansari is currently the CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, the world’s leader in designing and operating large incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges. Ansari and her family sponsored the organization’s first competition, the Ansari XPRIZE, a $10 million competition that ignited a new era for commercial spaceflight. Since then, she has served on XPRIZE’s Board of Directors.

Ansari received her honorary Doctor of Science at Winter Graduation in 2012 from then �鶹��Ƶ president Ángel Cabrera. Photo by Craig Bisacre/Creative Services

Prior to being named CEO of XPRIZE, Ansari cofounded and served as the CEO of Prodea Systems, a leading Internet of Things (IoT) technology firm.

Ansari serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council and has received numerous honors, including the WEF Young Global Leader, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and STEM Leadership Hall of Fame, among others. She is a UNESCO Good Will Ambassador and serves on the board of Jabil and Peace First, as well as several other not-for-profit organizations focused on STEM education, youth empowerment and social entrepreneurship.

She published a memoir, “My Dream of Stars,” to share her life story as inspiration for young women around the world.

Photo courtesy of Ansari

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Trailblazers

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�鶹��Ƶ hosts workshop for researchers addressing global warming from aircraft clouds

Tama Moni — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:13:49 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ hosts workshop for researchers addressing global warming from aircraft clouds Tama Moni Fri, 09/23/2022 - 16:13

In This Story

Lance Sherry

John Shortle

More than 220 researchers from three continents participated in a virtual workshop hosted by �鶹��Ƶ and NASA Langley Research Center on Wednesday September 7, 2022.

The workshop was the first time that airlines, air traffic controllers, climate scientists, aircraft and jet engine engineers, and policymakers gathered to share the science and understand the practical operational constraints for contrail mitigation. �鶹��Ƶ was the natural host of the meeting given its previous work and its reputation in the field.

The workshop aimed to foster information exchange and discuss opportunities to address the global warming from clouds generated by aircraft. Lance Sherry, associate professor of system engineering, leads an inter-disciplinary team of researchers and students at George �鶹��Ƶ who conduct pioneering research in this area.

“Contrails are the thin white clouds you see trailing behind aircraft,” explains �鶹��Ƶ PhD student Amy Tal Rose. “Water and soot emitted from jet engines form ice crystals at high altitudes that lead to the formation of high clouds. These ice-clouds are like a blanket that traps ‘thermal radiation’ emitted by the Earth and leads to global heating.”

“The thing that surprised me most about the global heating effect of contrails,” says Brian Romero Lopez a system engineering student working on the research team, “is that contrails account for two percent of the total human made global heating. Green-house gases account for 98 percent of global warming, and contrails make up the remaining two percent. No one talks about this.”

“Mitigating the effects of contrails is considered a Wicked Problem,” explained co-host of the workshop, Chief Technologist for Future Airspace Operations at NASA Andy Lacher. “There are multiple stakeholders with complex interactions that require delicate tradeoffs. The science and practical operational constraints must be fully understood before any mitigation steps can be taken.”

“The time to act is now!” said Ulrich Schumann, from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the German Aerospace Center at the workshop. A sentiment echoed by other participants in attendance.

“Wicked Problems are the bailiwick of System Engineering,” adds System Engineering Department Chair John Shortle. “The complex climate related opportunities cannot be solved by politicians or economists alone. It requires system engineers to fully understand the science and the needs of all the stakeholders involved. Sherry and the team have been applying the latest sophisticated System Engineering methods and techniques to these climate opportunities.”

Sherry and Lacher are optimistic that the workshop will be the first of a series of workshops that will lead to a roadmap of evidence-based activities to take this opportunity to contribute to reduce global warming.

“The time to act is now!” said Ulrich Schumann, from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the German Aerospace Center at the workshop. A sentiment echoed by others who attended the conference.

For more information on System Engineering and climate adaptation research contact John Shortle, chair of the Systems Engineering & Operations Research Department.

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