REU Site: Launching Aerospace's Underrepresented Students into the Next Chapter - Unmanned Aerial Systems (LAUNCH-UAS)

这个本科生研究经验（REU）网站的目标是促进代表性不足的少数民族（URM）学生（例如，非洲裔美国人，西班牙裔和女性）更多地参与无人机系统（UAS）的航空航天工程研究。为了实现这一目标，爱荷华州立大学航空航天工程系提供了REU网站，题为“将航空航天领域未被充分代表的学生推向下一章——无人机系统（LAUNCH-UAS）”。该网站有四个目标：(1)为学生提供最前沿的无人机夏季研究经验；(2)让学生接触航空航天研究项目和工程师；(3)培养学生的研究和专业技能，为他们的研究生课程做准备；(4)为学生提供建立研究生课程导师社区的机会。发射-无人机网站将把URM的学生和航空航天工程界的广泛成员聚集在一起，打破URM学生参与航空航天领域的障碍。该网站对社会的潜在好处包括：培养准备充分，积极进取的URM学生，他们想要攻读航空航天工程研究生课程并进入劳动力市场；培养了解航空航天学术界和工业界机会的航空航天工程师，并最终成为未来几代URM工程师的鼓舞人心的导师；并与更广泛的美国学院和大学分享发射无人机网站的关键组件和经验教训。通过为期10周的夏季无人机发射现场，URM学生将有机会进行长续航无人机的操作和自主方面的研究。学生将参与与无人机相关的多个独立研究项目之一，例如开发机载硬件，持续监控关键的无人机组件，以实现安全和自主操作；对自主无人机低空交通管理系统进行建模和仿真；模拟无人机系统的运作，并研究其伦理、法律、社会和环境影响；发展感应充电能力，以便在无人机运行时为其供电；设计、建造和试验机载无人机喷雾系统，并对喷雾液滴进行表征；开发低功耗防冰/除冰技术，并研究各种防冰涂层，以实现更安全的长期自主无人机飞行；并创建一个教育模块，提高工程师对无人机操作伦理问题的认识。除了对无人机系统进行独立研究外，学生们还将参加一些LAUCH-UAS项目，包括专业发展研讨会、实地考察和实验室参观、研究午餐研讨会和社交活动。还有一系列的作业，旨在让学生有机会准备演讲和文件，这些都是他们作为独立研究人员和研究生需要完成的。该站点由国防部与NSF REU项目合作提供支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site is to promote greater participation of underrepresented minority (URM) students (e.g., African-Americans, Hispanics, and women) in aerospace engineering research on unmanned-aerial systems (UAS). To achieve this goal, the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University offers the REU site, entitled Launching Aerospace's Underrepresented Students into the Next Chapter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (LAUNCH-UAS). There are four objectives for this site: (1) provide students with cutting-edge summer research experience in UAS, (2) expose students to aerospace research projects and engineers, (3) develop students' research and professional skills to prepare them for graduate programs, and (4) provide students with opportunities to build a community of mentors for graduate programs and beyond. The LAUNCH-UAS site will bring together URM students and a broad range of members of the aerospace engineering community to break down barriers for URM students to participate in the aerospace field. Potential benefits to society as a result of this site include: developing well prepared, motivated URM students who want to pursue aerospace engineering graduate programs and enter the workforce; educating aerospace engineers who are knowledgeable about opportunities within aerospace academia and industry and will eventually serve as inspiring mentors to future generations of URM engineers; and sharing key components and lesson learned from the LAUNCH-UAS site to the broader U.S. colleges and universities.Through a 10-week summer LAUNCH-UAS site, URM students will have an opportunity to conduct research on operation and autonomy aspects of long-endurance UAS. Students will participate in one of multiple independent research projects relating to UAS, such as developing onboard hardware that continuously monitors essential UAS components for safe and autonomous operation; model and simulate low-altitude traffic management systems for autonomous UAS; model and simulate the operation of UAS and examine their ethical, legal, societal, and environmental implications; develop an inductive charging capability for supplying power to UAS while in operation; design, build, and experiment with onboard spray systems for UAS and characterize the spray droplets; develop low-power anti-/de-icing techniques and examine various icephobic coatings for safer long-term autonomous UAS flights; and create an educational module that increases engineers' awareness of ethical issues surrounding the operation of UAS. In addition to conducting independent research on UAS, students will participate in a number of LAUCH-UAS site components that include professional development workshops, field trips and lab tours, research luncheon seminars, and social activities. There is also a series of assignments intended to give students opportunities to prepare presentations and documents typical of those that they would be expected to complete as independent researchers and as graduate students.This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.