REU Site: Propulsion, Aerodynamics, Materials and Controls of Aerial Vehicles

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The Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) at Georgia Southern University will host a three year 10 week summer-term, interdisciplinary REU Site. The project team will recruit ten students per year from freshman to seniors from HBCUs and minority-serving institutions (MSI), 2-year and community colleges, and 4-year colleges where research opportunities are limited. The program addresses pressing societal problems and 21st Century Grand Challenges and will promote the progress of science and advancing the national prosperity, while strengthening the national defense. The high-quality research environment and exposure to hands-on learning, STEM problem-solving, and mentoring, will prepare students to apply interdisciplinary concepts in solving complex challenges. The projects proposed for this REU will challenge students, advance knowledge and produce valuable scholarship. In addition to their research projects, all REU participants will be mentored to develop their scientific knowledge and skills; research methods, including workplace ethics; and technical writing and oral communication. They will participate in industrial visits and cultural activities. The REU site will prepare a new generation of scientific leaders from diverse populations by establishing novel collaborations between Georgia Southern, HBCUs, minority-serving institutions and community colleges; promote exciting undergraduate research that will advance the fundamental body of knowledge in “Propulsion, Aerodynamics, Materials and Controls of Aerial Vehicles” and respond to 21st-Century Challenges while the research results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals. Answering the need for full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and minorities in STEM, the REU Site will develop, implement, and coordinate a series of field experiences for underrepresented high school students. The outreach focus will be the high-need rural counties that are home to high populations of underrepresented minorities, very disadvantaged economically and special needs students.This three-year new REU site will host ten students per year. Students will work on a variety of research projects across the research laboratories (Aerospace, Aerodynamics, Subsonic tunnel and Wind Energy, Advanced Sensing, Intelligent Control, Fundamental Combustion, Ballistic Impacts) in the CEC at Georgia Southern University. The state of the art multidisciplinary research program will advance fundamental knowledge on rotorcraft aerodynamics performance and stability by bringing new knowledge through an original computational approach employing synthetic jets for flow control in rotorcraft applications. The wing’s aerodynamics research will advance knowledge on flow transitions from laminar to turbulent regimes for increased safety and efficiency of civilian and military aircraft. The combustion team will identify the timing of appearance of cool flames, Negative Temperature Coefficient Region behavior, and the transition to High Temperature Heat Release for synthetic kerosene used in jet engines. It will make advances into the elucidation of the mechanisms of thermo-acoustic instabilities of synthetic jet fuels combustion that can inform a significant reduction in NVH and pollution. Research on UAV will use face gestures and electroencephalography signals in a three-dimensional physical space with new feature extraction techniques that include cross-correlation and the logistic regression method for UAV telematics control, while, the waves’ propagation at high speed impact in anisotropic aerospace materials will bring a contribution to capturing the damage and failure modes during aircraft ballistic impact events. The multiple research thrusts respond to both civilian and defense research questions.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.