A unique new orthopedic knee brace took first-place honors at the second annual Launch Your Venture competition for Embry-Riddle student inventors and entrepreneurs. The Ascend™ knee brace, developed by undergraduate student and GRD Biomechanics CEO Mike Geldart, claimed the $10,000 prize at the competition.

The Office of Undergraduate Research at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University announced the recipients of the sixth annual Discovery Day Awards, held on April 10. Discovery Day, the University’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, was the culmination of hard work and significant achievements for over 300 student researchers representing the four colleges at the Daytona Beach Campus – Engineering, Arts & Sciences, Business and Aviation. 

When tested on their knowledge of 23 types of weather information, from icing forecasts and turbulence reports to radar, 204 general aviation (GA) pilots surveyed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University researchers were stumped by about 42% of the questions. The findings, published in the April 2018 edition of the International Journal of Aerospace Psychology, are worrisome because GA pilots flying smaller planes at lower altitudes, usually with minimal ground-based support, have higher weather-related accident and fatality rates, said Embry-Riddle’s Elizabeth Blickensderfer, a professor in the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology.

With the shared mission to launch and ensure success of emerging enterprises seeking to innovate the future of engineering, aviation, aerospace and beyond, Boeing HorizonX has signed on as a Nexus Partner at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Research Park.

You’re waiting to get your teeth cleaned, half-dozing in a chair with your mouth propped open when a robot appears to do the job. Would you be willing to undergo a dental cleaning performed by a robot? How about a root canal? Autonomous gum surgery, anyone? What if the robotic procedure was offered at half-price?

“I saw a problem and I knew there had to be a solution,” said Kristi Myers, MSN CRNA, of her work as a nurse at a Level 1 trauma center in Memphis, Tenn. She had just finished suctioning secretions from a trauma patient’s mouth when she looked at the medical device in her hand – the ubiquitous Yankauer suction instrument – and she needed a place to stash it, in case she needed to quickly use it again. She was forced to do what most medical providers do with the Yankauer – she shoved it under the patient’s pillow. The Yankauer often winds up on countertops, too, but such placements can spread contaminants and infections.