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51-60 of 238 results

  • Cost Optimization Modeling for Airport Capacity Expansion Problems in Metropolitan Areas

    PI Woo Jin Choi

    CO-I Dothang Truong

    The purpose of this research was to develop a cost optimization model to identify an optimal solution to expand airport capacity in metropolitan areas in consideration of demand uncertainties. The study first analyzed four airport capacity expansion cases from different regions of the world to identify possible solutions to expand airport capacity and key cost functions which are highly related to airport capacity problems. Using mixedinteger nonlinear programming (MINLP), a deterministic optimization model was developed with the inclusion of six cost functions: capital cost, operation cost, delay cost, noise cost, operation readiness, and airport transfer (ORAT) cost, and passenger access cost. These six cost functions can be used to consider a possible trade-off between airport capacity and congestion and address multiple stakeholders’ cost concerns.



    This deterministic model was validated using an example case of the Sydney metropolitan area in Australia, which presented an optimal solution of a dual airport system along with scalable outcomes for a 50-year timeline. The study also tested alternative input values to the discount rate, operation cost, and passenger access costs to review the reliability of the deterministic model. Six additional experimental models were tested, and all models successfully yielded optimal solutions. The moderating effects of financial discount rate, airport operation cost, and passenger access costs on the optimal solution were quantitatively the same in presence of a deterministic demand profile.

    This deterministic model was then transformed into a stochastic optimization model to address concerns with the uncertainty of future traffic demand, which was further reviewed with three what-if demand scenarios of the Sydney Model: random and positive growth of traffic demand, normal distribution of traffic demand changes based on the historical traffic record of the Sydney region, and reflection of the current COVID- 19 pandemic situation. This study used a Monte Carlo simulation to address the uncertainty of future traffic demand as an uncontrollable input. The Sydney Model and three What-if Models successfully presented objective model outcomes and identified the optimal solutions to expand airport capacity while minimizing overall costs. The results of this work indicated that the moderating effect of traffic uncertainties can make a difference with an optimal solution. Therefore, airport decision-makers and airport planners should carefully consider the uncertainty factors that would influence the airport capacity expansion solution.

    This research demonstrated the effectiveness of combining MINLP and the Monte Carlo simulation to support a long-term strategic decision for airport capacity problems in metropolitan areas at the early stages of the planning process while addressing future traffic demand uncertainty. Other uncertainty factors, such as political events, new technologies, alternative modes of transport, financial crisis, technological innovation, and demographic changes might also be treated as uncontrollable variables to augment this optimization model.

    Categories: Graduate

  • Project Global Officer

    PI Aaron Clevenger

    Project GO provide's overseas language instruction consisting of a minimum of 8 weeks and/or 150 contact hours (per grant program) to ROTC students nationwide with the goal of helping student to reach an ILR 1 proficiency level in a critical language: Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, and Arabic in Jordan. All students should reach the objective of successfully applying the target language and cultural knowledge in actual communication with native speakers.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Project Haiti

    PI Marc Compere

    The goals of Project Haiti are to provide Haitians with clean drinking water, to expose our college students to another culture, and to give them a hands-on experience using their engineering skills to directly help people.



    Many Haitians living in the tent cities after the earthquake deal with chronic intestinal sickness from contaminated water. Our solar water purifier is designed to provide clean drinking water for 500 adults per day.The Summer 2014 purifier will be installed at the Dayspring Missions orphanage in Croix des Bouquets area, a suburb east of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. It will provide up to 6000 gallons of water a day with the water being used by the orphans, distributed to three local church communities, as well as being sold to the community to generate income and filter replacement costs.

    This project is an ideal intersection of humanitarian aid and engineering. Our students designed and built Embry-Riddle's solar powered water purifier for delivery to a Haitian tent camp. They learned how to use solar panels, batteries, pumps, and filters to construct a purifier that runs entirely from the sun. Now that it is completed, our students have become better engineers and they have learned a global perspective and the satisfaction of helping people in a developing country.

    More on Project Haiti

    Past Efforts

    Summer 2010

    In Summer 2010 Embry-Riddle students delivered a 1 gallon-per-minute (gpm) water purifier powered entirely from the sun. The 2010 trip report presentation is available here. It was a valuable success for over 150 college student volunteers who traveled to Haiti that summer to help the disaster relief effort. The Nehemiah Vision Ministries camp upgraded to a 10gpm unit for greater capacity.

    Summer 2011

    In Summer 2011, our team of students designed and installed a 4gpm unit powered entirely from the sun. We installed it at the Anne Clemande Children's Foundation in Chambellan, Haiti. They operate a children's home and school with approximately 600 children and staff. They had no access to clean drinking water. The 2011 trip report is downloadable here.

    Summer 2012

    In Summer 2012, our team of Embry-Riddle students delivered a community water system providing 14gpm of clean, safe water to an Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp named Onaville The purifier is in daily operation delivering roughly 15,000 gallons per day. Onaville was the largest tent city in Haiti during post-earthquake Haiti. This is our most successful trip from a partnership standpoint, a purifier standpoint, and also an academic standpoint. Students received credit during a summer course titled ME595 Practicum in Water Purification. The 2012 trip report is here.

    Summer 2013

    The Summer 2013 unit was installed in Michaud, Haiti, at the Ryan Epps Home for Children. Michaud is a suburb of Port-Au-Prince. This is a 14gpm unit powered entirely by the sun which means nearly zero recurring cost to operate the unit. This is ideal for starting a sustainable micro-business. This system combined with the micro-business provides clean, safe drinking water and also create jobs, generate recurring income, and improve community health. The 2013 trip report is available for download here.

    Academic Integration

    • Our 2012 EPA P3 Entry was a Portable Solar Water Purification Backpack for Disaster Releief. It won the $90k EPA Phase II award, the US Army's NetZero Water Award, and the Student's Choice Award at the 2012 National Sustainable Design Expo
    • Dr. Compere teaches two water courses:
      • ME595J, Practicum in Water Purification is a lab based, hands-on course that provides students with practical experience in testing for water-borne pathogens, water purification methods, and solar power systems
      • HON350, Emerging Trends in Global Water Supply and Demand is a humanities survey course raising awareness of water as the new high-value commodity. This course highlights the major issues in the water-energy nexus, water-food nexus, and water-climate nexus.
    • An American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) SouthEast Regional conference paper on the 2012 unit and trip is available here.

    Contact

    Donate

    Gifts at any level make a direct impact: Donate to Project Haiti.

    Categories: Undergraduate

  • Virtual Communities of Practice: Scaling, Belonging, and Effective Feedback

    PI Cristina Cottom

    CO-I Angela Atwell

    CO-I Lisa Martino

    CO-I Sara Ombres

    The purpose of this research study is to extend CTLE-W's previous research on virtual faculty learning communities (VCoP) by testing a new VCoP for scalability with an expanded participation pool. This study also seeks to increase the sense of belonging among non-collocated faculty participants and to use the VCoP to provide continuing education on effective feedback practices.This VCoP and the research study will last for 8 weeks during the fall and spring. As part of the participation in the VCoP faculty will complete several online asynchronous activities using VoiceThread to discuss effective feedback practices, as well as a survey at the beginning and end of their VCoP experience. 



    This research study is an extension and expansion of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence’s existing VCoP. In 2016, our research team was awarded a grant from the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network to create a VCoP tailored specifically to online adjunct faculty, which yielded positive findings. In this current study, we were awarded additional grant funds from POD to build upon this success by designing a VCoP that recruits from our entire faculty pool in order to measure how it affects their sense of belonging and to test the framework we created for scalability. In addition, this collaborative experience will not focus on teaching in a single modality, but will instead address a shared practice that is relevant to all instructors. Regardless of modality, all instructors can improve effective feedback practices. Therefore, in this extended and expanded VCoP all faculty will have an opportunity to explore practices around effective feedback. This research will contribute to the existing literature by studying the scalability of VCoPs in faculty development settings and test how participation in VCoPs promotes belonging among dispersed faculty members teaching in multiple modalities. In addition, this study will also result in the production of documents that will facilitate future VCoP development and will generate valuable co-created knowledge on effective feedback. This study will employ a mixed-methods design that will use both quantitative and qualitative data to analyze the results of the survey. In addition, data will be collected from VoiceThread, facilitator reflections, observation notes, and artifact analysis. 

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Maritime RobotX Challenge

    PI Eric Coyle

    CO-I Patrick Currier

    CO-I Charles Reinholtz

    CO-I Brian Butka

    The Maritime RobotX Challenge entails the development and demonstration of an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV). Embry-Riddle is one of three U.S. schools selected to compete in the challenge, which is co-sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Foundation.



    ​The 2014 ERAU platform, named Minion, is a 16-foot fully-autonomous Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel (WAM-V) platform and is registered as an autonomous boat in the state of Florida. Minion's development currently focuses on autonomous tasks of buoy channel navigation, debris avoidance, docking, target identification and sonar localization. To accomplishing these tasks, the team has developed as set of system software nodes including state estimation, object classification, mapping and trajectory planning. These nodes run in parallel across a set of networked computers for distributed processing. Minion's propulsion system is centered around a set rim-driven hubless motors attached to articulated motor pods. This design reduces the risk of entanglement, and provides consistent thrust by maintaining motor depth in rough seas.

    The group is currently developing the 2016 platform for the competition

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Exploring vulnerabilities, threats, and exploits in small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS)

    PI John Craiger

    Small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), also known as drones, have been called flying computers given the overlap in their technologies. The purpose of this research is to conduct cybersecurity vulnerability assessments of several sUAS to identify vulnerabilities, threats, and associated exploits to the sUAS. Cyber vulnerabilities could theoretically allow a bad actor to take control of the sUAS, cause it to malfunction while in flight, and more. 



    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts that purchases of hobbyist small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) will grow from 1.9 million in 2016 to 4.3 million by 2020, and commercial sUAS to increase from 600,000 in 2016 to 2.7 million by 2020. sUAS, often referred to as ‘drones,’ are comprised of aeronautical hardware, a CPU, RAM, onboard storage, radio frequency communications, sensors, a camera, and a controller used by the pilot-in-command.  Some have argued that a sUAS is essentially a flying computer.  As such, sUAS may be susceptible to many of the types of attacks that are often used on personal computers attached to a computer network.  Potential attacks on sUAS include de-authentication (i.e., ‘terminating’ the sUAS from the network); GPS spoofing (e.g., modifying or faking GPS coordinates); unauthorized access to the computer flight systems and onboard storage; jamming the communications channel (resulting in the possible loss of the sUAS); and contaminating the sUAS geofencing mechanism (allowing the sUAS to fly in a ‘no-fly-zone’). The result of these types of attacks include theft of the sUAS; flying the sUAS into sensitive/off- limits areas; purposefully crashing the sUAS to cause damage to persons or equipment (including airplanes, crowds, etc.); and theft or adulteration of sensitive data (e.g., law enforcement surveillance data).

    The purpose of this research is to identify potential threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits for a subset of consumer/hobby sUAS that were included in the 2016 ERAU sUAS Consumer Guide. The research will apply a threat modeling approach to identify cyber-based vulnerabilities; potential attack vectors; commercial-off-the-shelf and “home-built” equipment required to effectuate attacks; cyber and kinetic ramifications of attacks; and mitigating strategies for protecting sUAS from cyber-attacks.  Vulnerability assessments are to be conducted via network scanning tools to identify open network ports, vulnerability scanners that identify system vulnerabilities, and tools used for the associated exploitation of these vulnerabilities.  The exploitation (i.e., attack) architecture will use an attack proxy consisting of a Raspberry PI running Kali Linux OS, and specifically outfitted with multiple network interface cards, allowing the proxy to capture and manipulate network traffic in either managed or monitor (i.e., active vs. passive) mode.  Given that most personal computers are known to suffer from various cyber vulnerabilities, and many of the components and software are the same as used in personal computers, we expect to observe the same for the sUAS. 

    Identifying threats and vulnerabilities has two purposes, one defensive, and one offensive.  From the defensive side, manufacturers, and even users, should be aware of potential threats.  Manufacturers should be aware that the design and component decisions can effect the cybersecurity of the sUAS.  From the offensive side, sUAS pilots are known to fly them for nefarious purposes, including flying into no-fly zones, violating the privacy of individuals using attached high-definition cameras, etc.  Indeed, a new and growing industry involves developing anti-drone techniques to protect against rogue sUAS and their pilots.  

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Active Emissions Reduction for a Hybrid Car

    PI Patrick Currier

    CO-I Maxwell Pellerin

    The objective of this project is to reduce the emissions on the EcoCAR 3 hybrid Camaro 

    Currently, in year 2 of the competition, the team is working to create a basic functioning vehicle. Year 3 of EcoCAR 3 is intended for improvement of the vehicle that was constructed during year 2. The competition heavily focuses on reducing emissions and helping to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles. With that in mind our plan is to explore the possibility of pre-heating the engine block using the coolant from the electric motors within our vehicle architecture. Since the vehicle will be able to run approximately 36 miles using only battery power, the gas motor will have time to cool below the optimal running temperature. The goal is to improve the efficiency of the engine by never letting it drop below optimum running temperature while running on the battery. Other options would include pre-heating the fuel or exhaust. The project aims to produce a measureable emissions reduction on the Camaro and research that may be publishable in an academic conference. 

    Categories: Undergraduate

  • Using Virtual Reality to Identify Cybersecurity Threats for Navy Midshipmen

    PI Andrew Dattel

    CO-I Omar Ochoa

    CO-I Daniel Friedenzohn

    CO-I Trevor Goodwin

    CO-I Harry Brodeen

    This research is investigating the training of U.S. Navy Midshipman enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to identify cyber and security threats in a simulated bridge of a Navy vessel. Midshipmen will receive classroom instruction, as well as training in a virtual reality bridge simulator. The knowledge and skills training the midshipmen received is intended to transfer to the applications of midshipmen’s future positions and careers.



    Cyber and security threats are burgeoning tactics being used in wartime affairs. The first line of defense of a vulnerable vessel is for the crew to distinguish misinformation from factual information. To increase the preparedness of cybersecurity threat awareness, the Office of Naval Research is interested in innovative training initiatives at colleges and universities that support Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs. Twenty Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) enrolled in Navy ROTC will be recruited to participate in an 8-week long training program. These 20 midshipmen will participate in traditional classroom instruction, practice on a bridge (i.e., ship control room) virtual reality (VR) simulator, and participate in a specifically designed VR bridge application. This VR application is being designed by the XR Lab in the College of Aviation.

    In the classroom setting, midshipmen will receive instruction in theoretical and practical applications to identify cyber and electronic warfare threats. This instruction will go beyond any cybersecurity training that may have been received in previous courses offered by the Naval Sciences curriculum. Group discussion and activities to encourage inquiry-based learning will fulfill some of the classroom requirements and when participating in the VR bridge application.

    Midshipmen will also receive a few hours of practice in the Conning Officer Virtual Environment (COVE) simulator. The Cove simulator is designed to allow students to practice navigating ship maneuvering without the risk and expense of operations at sea. However, the COVE simulator does not permit the injection of misinformation experienced in a cyber-intrusion situation.

    A VR application will replicate the bridge of a Navy vessel and immerse the operators in a VR environment. This application will permit subtle cyber threats to be introduced during the scenario. The first phase of the application will include three primary resources of the bridge: the Automatic Identification System (AIS), the Voyage Management System (VMS), and Radar. The AIS is based on a transponder system and functions as a broadcast messaging system. The VMS functions as the navigation charting display and is partially based on the Global Positioning System (GPS). Threats such as misinformed broadcast information, erroneous navigation position (e.g., showing own vessel traveling in an untrue heading), and radar misinformation (e.g., showing a friendly ship as an enemy ship) are potentially vulnerable by hacking and other nefarious actions.

    Midshipmen in the Trainee position will spend several hours in the VR simulator identifying these cyber threats. Midshipmen will also spend time in the Instructor position to execute command functions that introduce the misinformation. This role of Instructor will show the midshipmen when a threat is introduced and how the Trainee responds. There will be three to four midshipmen observers during any given scenario. After each scenario, the Trainee, Instructor, and Observers will discuss hits and misses that occurred during the scenario. In addition to cohort discussion periods, performance feedback will be given by the instructors.

    Research Design

    This research will utilize a 2 x 2 mixed quantitative design. Twenty midshipmen (the experimental group) will complete a pretest before starting the curriculum and a posttest after completing all aspects of the curriculum (traditional classroom instruction, participation in the COVE simulator, and participation in the specifically designed VR simulation). A control group that will receive the pretest and posttest will be compared to the experimental group. Evaluation metrics will include accuracy and response time to threats in the VR simulations and measurements of the skills developed in the COVE simulator and knowledge acquired in classroom instruction and the specifically designed VR simulation. At the end of the study, participants will complete a survey consisting of forced-choice and open-ended questions about their experience, self-efficacy, and opinions about the 8-week long study.

    This study intends to train midshipmen to be better prepared to identify cybersecurity threats in their future positions and career following graduation from the program. The specific VR application is being designed to be sustainable to be further utilized for the future Naval curriculum and other applications.

    Categories: Faculty-Staff

  • Development of Parking Space App

    PI Ilteris Demirkiran

    CO-I Diego Rincon

    The main purpose of this project is to reduce the wait and search time for an individual who is looking to park his or her vehicle at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach campus. This project is to help in reducing fuel consumption as well as making campus roads safer. An additional benefit is the ability to continuously monitor all parking lots on campus increasing overall campus safety.



    ​Many schools in the United States deal daily with complications associated with parking on campus. Commuters, students and faculty members, travel back and forth causing major traffic within the campus and in some cases, a logistic nightmare. For a university to accommodate all of the vehicles takes countless hours of planning and management. Schools have solved some of these problems by assigning specific parking lots to specific groups of individuals such as on-campus students, commuter students, and faculty. This research proposes a secondary solution to a growing problem. The main goal of this research effort is to reduce the wait and search time spent while looking for an available parking spot on campus. This solution will utilize cameras and advanced image processing algorithms to inform users of an available parking spot in the most efficient way.

    Categories: Undergraduate

  • A Comparison Of Safety Management Systems Training Methods At A Collegiate Flight Training Institution

    PI Mackenzie Dickson

    The purpose of this thesis was to compare how two different types of Safety Management Systems (SMS) training affect SMS knowledge in instructors and students in a university flight program. Additionally, the research sought to determine whether a correlation exists between safety knowledge and safety culture perception. An experimental research design was used to study two independent variables, training method and person type, and their effect of SMS knowledge. A non-experimental design was used to study the correlation between safety knowledge and safety culture perception. Research has shown that a safety-training program’s engagement level has an effect on the safety knowledge retained by trainees. This study sought to determine if higher-engagement, live- presentation training is a better approach to SMS training than a computer-based training module currently in use by the university studied. The results of this study can provide the university with useful guidance in constructing its SMS training program, an essential element to an effective SMS. Additionally, this study can demonstrate the importance of safety training in establishing positive perceptions of the university’s safety culture among students and instructors. 



    This study employed an experimental method, using quantitative data, to answer whether different training methods differ in SMS knowledge retained by students and instructors at a collegiate flight school. Additionally, a non-experimental design was used to find a correlation between SMS knowledge and safety culture perception at the same flight school.

    Categories: Graduate

51-60 of 238 results