Leadership

As Embry-Riddle President Dr. P Barry Butler welcomed Undersecretary of the Navy Thomas B. Modly as the keynote speaker of the just concluded President’s Forum on Research and Innovation, he noted that the symposium’s focus on aero-cybersecurity was a signature area for Embry-Riddle because of its critical importance to national interests, the industry and public safety.   Modly, chief management and information officer for the U.S. Navy, echoed the importance of the topic in speaking about the unique challenges of preparing the largest naval force in the world for rapid technological advances while rebuilding a maritime force that must be adaptable and trained to anticipate new threats, even as existing threats evolve. He said cyber espionage is of significant concern and everything from ships and aircraft to weapon systems must be protected from ever increasing and ever more sophisticated cyber attacks.

Embry-Riddle’s own Alyssa Crystal and Jaclyn Wiley were among 38 students worldwide to receive 2019 Brooke Owens Fellowships honoring extraordinary undergraduate women in aerospace.

For the fourth consecutive year, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Worldwide Campus has retained the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Online Bachelor’s Programs for Veterans.

The world’s premier aviation and aerospace institution, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, earned the No.1 spot on U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 ranking of the United States’ best online bachelor’s degree programs, affirming the school’s focus on academic excellence, affordability and promising career opportunities for graduates.

As Uber plans to debut small, electric air taxis by 2023 and a host of aircraft manufacturers are working toward reduced-emission propulsion, Embry-Riddle – the world’s premier aviation and aerospace institution – has launched what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind graduate engineering course in hybrid aircraft propulsion and urban air mobility aircraft.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $670,000 grant to Embry-Riddle’s Dr. Alan Liu to install a special radar instrument at the Andes LIDAR Observatory in Cerro Pachón, Chile. The funding is a highly competitive Major Research Instrumentation award. The new instrument, designed to detect meteors in the region, will replace an aging radar now in place, said Liu, professor of Engineering Physics, who played a founding role in establishing the Andes LIDAR Observatory. An upper atmosphere observatory, the mountaintop facility houses several optical remote-sensing instruments. These include one that uses laser pulses, or LIDAR (light detection and ranging), to measure wind and temperature beyond 80 kilometers in altitude as well as special cameras that pick up energetic molecules called “airglow.” Leveraging such instruments to better understand atmospheric perturbations – such as those caused by thunderstorms and mountains – is critical to improving global circulation models, space weather prediction and global satellite navigation systems, Liu noted.

The largest ever fall graduating class at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus participated in a commencement ceremony that saw 540 students from 49 countries receive diplomas, including the largest group of doctorates ever awarded at a graduation.

For the second year in a row, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus is graduating its largest fall class in the school’s history. This commencement will also see the most ever Ph.D. degrees awarded. The ceremony starts at 10 a.m., Monday, Dec. 17, at the Ocean Center, 101 N. Atlantic Ave., Daytona Beach. The ceremony will be streamed live at portal.stretchinternet.com/erauadmin. Based on the latest available numbers, the class of 2018 includes 540 students, representing the Colleges of Aviation, Arts & Sciences, Engineering and the David B. O’Maley College of Business, with 93 students receiving master’s degrees and 15 receiving Ph.Ds. 

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on Nov. 1 became the first academic institution to receive the Trusted Operator Program certification from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).