Research Projects

Bayesian Analysis of Stellar Evolution

PI Theodore von Hippel

Bayesian Analysis of Stellar Evolution is an international collaboration studying stellar evolution with an emphasis on stellar ages. We also develop and support a Bayesian software suite that recovers star cluster and stellar parameters from photometry, currently called BASE-9.

BASE-9 is useful for analyzing single-age, single-metallicity star clusters, binaries, or single stars, and for simulating such systems. BASE9 uses Markov chain Monte Carlo to estimate the posterior probability distribution for the age, metallicity, distance modulus, and line-of-sight absorption for a cluster, and for the mass, binary mass ratio, and cluster membership probability for every cluster member.

Categories: Faculty-Staff

Diagnosing Kinematic Processes Responsible for Precipitation Distributions in Hurricanes

PI Joshua Wadler

This project studies physical processes behind why the spatial distribution of different types of precipitation are related to hurricane intensity change.

Tropical cyclones, also called hurricanes or typhoons, pose a significant threat to coastal communities through high winds, storm surge, and heavy rainfall. Poor predictions of tropical cyclones can lead to underprepared communities, exacerbating the impacts of these powerful storms. This project aims to understand how different types of precipitation, or rainfall, impact tropical cyclone maximum sustained wind speed. Precipitation is divided into four categories based on how fast the air is rising in clouds. Clouds that have faster rising air are called convection, with the tallest clouds called deep convection and the shallower clouds called moderate convection and shallow convection. The lightest precipitation is called stratiform rain and has the least amount of rising air. The type of precipitation can be identified based on its appearance on radar measurements. This project addresses how each type of precipitation influences the maximum sustained wind speed of the storm through their impact on storm structure. Since different types of precipitation can be identified on radar, this project may offer new insights into forecasting of tropical cyclone maximum sustained wind speed. In addition, this project will support undergraduate student research, an undergraduate mentorship program, a scholarship for a high achieving student, and outreach activities that will help communities susceptible to tropical cyclones understand and prepare for their impacts.

Categories: Faculty-Staff

Air-Deployed sUAS and StreamSonde Measurements of Turbulence in the High Wind Tropical Cyclone Surface Layer

PI Joshua Wadler

The primary objective of this proposal is to use uncrewed aircraft technology and atmospheric profilers to measure turbulence in the tropical cyclone (TC) boundary layer and to use those measurements to improve NOAA’s operational models.

Over the past decade, NOAA has deployed low-altitude small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) from the WP-3D (P-3) to improve operational situational awareness for tropical cyclones (TC), enhance parameterization routines in NOAA forecast models for TC structure and intensity change, and NOAA’s operational data assimilation methods. sUAS sample near the air-sea boundary, where energy and momentum are exchanged with the sea and where severe winds at landfall can directly affect the lives and property of millions of Americans every year. Even though this is a critical region of a TC, detailed analyses of atmospheric turbulence below 500-m altitude are limited due to safety concerns and other logistical constraints that make in-situ data collection within the lowest and most dangerous areas of the hurricane prohibitive. Enhanced, reliable, and high-resolution observations in the TC boundary layer are necessary to address this critical data void. This proposal will seek to take measurements of turbulence in the TC boundary layer using sUAS as well as a new, versatile atmospheric profiler called StreamSonde.

Categories: Faculty-Staff

Optimizing Countermeasures for Spaceflight-Induced Deconditioning

PI Christine Walck

This research focuses on understanding space deconditioning and developing comprehensive systems to mitigate the adverse physiological effects of microgravity on astronauts.

Spaceflight-induced deconditioning presents a major challenge to human health during and after long-duration missions, contributing to muscle atrophy, bone loss, cardiovascular dysfunction, and sensorimotor impairment. This research investigates the underlying mechanisms of physiological decline in microgravity and evaluates integrated mitigation strategies using a combination of ground-based analogs (e.g., head-down tilt, LBNP), biomechanical modeling, and real-time physiological monitoring. By developing a modular countermeasure system — featuring tools like the Lower Extremity Force Acquisition System (LEFAS) and personalized exercise protocols — we aim to preserve musculoskeletal and cardiovascular integrity throughout space missions. The findings contribute to NASA’s broader efforts in preparing astronauts for lunar and Mars exploration.

Categories: Faculty-Staff

Small UAS (sUAS) Mid-Air Collision (MAC) Likelihood

PI Ryan Wallace

CO-I Dothang Truong

CO-I Scott Winter

CO-I David Cross

This research focuses on sUAS MAC likelihood analysis with general aviation (GA) and commercial aircraft. Because severity research varies based on where a collision occurred on a manned aircraft, this likelihood research will not only look at the probability of a MAC, but also the likelihood of colliding with different parts of a manned aircraft.

Complete Mid-Air Collision (MAC) risk assessments require estimates of both collision severity and collision likelihood. This research focuses on sUAS MAC likelihood analysis with General Aviation (GA) and commercial aircraft. Because severity research varies based on where a collision occurred on a manned aircraft, this likelihood research will not only look at the probability of MAC but also the likelihood of colliding with different parts of a manned aircraft.

Categories: Faculty-Staff

Best practices in teaching statistics and research methods within an aviation curriculum

PI Robert Walton

Student learning assessment is necessary at most universities, the question is whether or not student learning assessment though the use of tests can be turned into a less anxiety-provoking experience and, most ideally, into a summative learning experience for students. Using a three-test format student assessment this research examined an alternate testing paradigm, aiming directly at anxiety associated with tests and grades.

This research will examine an alternate testing paradigm, aiming directly at anxiety associated with tests and grades. The research question for this study is whether or not student assessment though the use of a traditional testing format could be made less anxiety provoking and, most ideally, be turned into a teaching/learning experience for students. Students in a statistics course will be assessed using a three-test format. Tests will be scored immediately after completion, with the student present and incorrect responses explained. The student can then retake an alternate exam and will receive the highest grade on any version of the test they take. Data will be examined for statistically-significant indicators from version 1, to 2, to 3 of the examinations.

Categories: Faculty-Staff

Air Traffic Controllers’ Occupational Stress and Performance in the Future Air Traffic Management

PI Hui Wang

CO-I Edward Mummert

As demand for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations increases, it is vital to understand its effects on air traffic controllers and the safety of the national airspace system. This study’s primary purpose is to determine how UAVs that operate in controlled airspace would influence air traffic controllers’ occupational stress and performance. In a within-subject experimental research design, 24 participants sampled from a university’s undergraduate Air Traffic Management (ATM) program completed three different air traffic control (ATC) scenarios on an en-route ATC simulation system. The degree of UAV automation and control were varied in each scenario. The participants’ stress levels, performance, and workload were measured with both objective and subjective measurements. Within-subjects ANOVA tests showed significant effects on the participants’ stress level, performance, and workload when automated UAVs were present in the scenario. Participants experienced increased workload, the highest level of stress, and carried out the worst performance when with controllable UAVs in the airspace. These findings can inform UAV integration into controlled airspace and future research into UAV automation and control and ATC management.

Categories: Graduate

Safety Systems, Culture, and Passengers’ Willingness to Fly in Autonomous Air Taxis

PI Kenneth Ward

CO-I Scott Winter

As city populations grow, the transportation industry plans to alleviate traffic congestion by introducing the urban air mobility (UAM) concept, in which small passenger and cargo aircraft augment metropolitan transportation networks. A key component of UAM is that of air taxis, which are on-demand air services for individuals and small groups. In addition, UAM companies are designing the aircraft to operate fully autonomously: The intent is for the vehicles to arrive and transport people from point to point without input from human pilots.

In studies of passengers’ perceptions, researchers found that safety was among the top passenger concerns. The international market complicates the matter, as research indicates people from different nations differ in their willingness to fly in autonomous aircraft. Past research hypothesized that individuals’ cultural orientation, specifically their degree of individualism or communalism, was a factor of the differences in willingness to fly.

A quantitative survey experiment in two studies was conducted to investigate willingness to fly in autonomous air taxis among people from the United States and India. The first study used a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial analysis to test the effects of nationality, automatic airframe parachute availability, and remote pilot system availability on willingness to fly. People from India were more willing to fly than people from the United States, and people in general were more willing to fly in an aircraft equipped with an automatic airframe parachute. The second study replicated the effects of the first and tested whether two aspects of cultural orientation mediated the relationship between safety system availability and willingness to fly. Cultural orientation was not found to significantly mediate the relationship among people from the United States or India.

Categories: Graduate

A Biologically Inspired Architecture Screening Tool to Improve Electric Grid Transient Response Design

PI Bryan Watson

The objective of this research is to develop and validate a new approach to design-for-transient resilience that provides additional insights, is less expensive, and can be used early in the design process.

Electrical distribution needs to protect society by providing reliable power, even under changing conditions. The current approach to design electrical distribution grids often focuses on steady state design requirements or response to a subset of potential faults. Even small and gradual changes in loading, however, can cause voltage transients and lead to major blackouts due to voltage collapse. As electric demand increases and infrastructure operates near its design limits, these events are likely to become more common. While designers can examine slowly changing load transients, this occurs after creating a model of the proposed grid, which can be costly. Thus, this research examines the following gap: A cost-effective approach is needed early in the electrical distribution design process to screen candidate architectures for their expected response to slowly changing operating conditions.

There is an opportunity to examine unexpected voltage collapse through the lens of ecosystem critical transitions. Critical transitions occur when an ecosystem shifts suddenly from one stable configuration (e.g. forest) to another (e.g. grassland) due to slowly changing environmental conditions (e.g. annual rainfall). The mathematical framework established to evaluate and classify critical transitions has been well studied but has not been used to design electrical distribution. The central hypothesis examined in this proposal is If we screen initial electrical distribution architectures with graph theory (Ecological Network Analysis), then the resulting designs will have improved critical transition performance over non-screened architectures. Critical transition performance has two aspects:

1.superior ability to absorb additional loading before voltage collapse (i.e. margin to critical transition), and

2. transition to desirable, stable secondary configurations following voltage collapse, rather than cascading throughout the system and causing a complete blackout (i.e. type of Bifurcation).

The objective of this research is to develop and validate a new approach to design-for-transient resilience that provides additional insights, is less expensive, and can be used early in the design process.

Categories: Faculty-Staff

Creating Connections: Bed bugs to UAV Swarms

PI Bryan Watson

The overarching goal of our research is to advance our understanding of bed bug behavior and use this understanding to improve performance of aerospace swarms.

Modern aerospace systems need a new approach for swarm consensus that is distributed, operates with local knowledge, and uses simple agents. The overarching goal of our research is to advance our understanding of bed bug behavior and use this understanding to improve performance of aerospace swarms. The first step is to understand individual bed bug response to stimuli (CO₂, heat, light) and individual neural characteristics, before considering group dynamics. The objective of this research was to establish a collaboration between biologists and engineers at ERAU to design and implement a test-platform to enable new data collection for bed bug movement. This collaboration begins by examining individual bed bug response to CO₂ concentration. Our central hypothesis is that if we record bed bug response to CO₂ exposure, then we will be able to improve our understanding of collective decision making because the bed bugs coordinate their response to environmental conditions. The research involved five undergraduate students from three campuses.

Categories: Faculty-Staff