News
2007
June 3. Autonomous Lawn Mower Competition team wins third place
Dr. Frank van Graas and his team of students (Dustin Bates, Ananth Vadlamani, Jidong Huang) took Third place at the ION 3rd Annual Autonomous Lawn Mower Competition - 2007, held on the Wright State University Campus, Dayton, OH, Saturday, June 2.
First place was awarded to the team from , and Second place was awarded to .
May 17. AEC Milestone Celebration
The Avionics Engineering Center announced it has achieved more than $100 million in cumulative research funding since its founding in 1963.
The center helps industry leaders and agencies such as NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration design and test technologies for air and space travel.
The university celebrated the center's research accomplishments Thursday night at its annual Awards Dinner, held at the Margaret M. Walter Hall Rotunda.
May 17. AEC Milestone Celebration recognizes award and service recipients
Ohio University’s Avionics Engineering Center, part of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology, recently recognized staff and students for their outstanding contributions.
Janet Blazyk, Software Engineer, and Paul Nilles, It Administrator/, both received the Director's award. They were nominated for their efforts based on their outstanding support of the Loran-C research program.
The Richard H. McFarland Scholarship, established by Avionics founder Richard H. McFarland, was presented to electrical engineering undergraduate student Mark Phillips. The Avionics Engineering Center Award of Excellence was presented to electrical engineering undergraduate student, Seth Howard, and doctoral student, Luyi Chen. Ananth Vadlamani electrical engineering doctoral student, received the Institute of Navigation's Section Sponsored graduate award.
Faculty and staff members also received awards for their years of service. Five-year awards were given to Tony Adami, Tom Arthur and Jim Zhu. Trent Skidmore was recognized for 15 years and Louise Pullins for 20 years.
In addition, Senior Research Engineer Michael DiBenedetto, Program Engineer David Quinet, and Russ Professor Frank van Graas were recognized for their leadership in bringing over half of the center’s $100 million in external research funding since the center’s founding.
Quinet also was awarded the Federal Aviation Administration Navigation Services Superior Performance Award for his many years of outstanding support to the FAA. The award was presented by William McPartland of the FAA.
2006
November - Dr. Michael Braasch selected to serve as interim Director, Avionics Engineering Center
Dr. Michael Braasch, Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Researcher, AEC, was selected to serve as the interim Director for the Avionics Engineering Center. He has been an active researcher in AEC for more than 15 years. Dr. Braasch will share the duties with Dr. Rankin in December and resume full responsibility on Jan. 2, 2007. November - Dr. James Rankin selected to serve as interim Vice President Research
Dr. James Rankin, Director, Avionics Engineering Center was selected to serve as the interim Vice-President Research for Ohio University while a national search is conducted for the position. More details in the OU Outlook press release.
November - Press release on Dr. Andrey Soloviev's ION Early Achievement Award
Dr. Andrey Soloviev was awarded the Institute of Navigation's Early Achievement Award for his early contributions to frequency domain processing of inertial measurements and deeply integrated GPS/ inertial navigation. Read the Ohio University Press Release at the OU Outlook.
October - Faculty and students win Best Paper awards at the 25th AIAA/IEEE Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)
One faculty member and four students were recognized for the quality of their papers at the 25th AIAA/IEEE Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) Award Banquet in Portland OR on October 18, 2006. Congratulations to Indranil Sen and Dr. David Matolak for a 25th DASC Best in Track award for their paper “The Ground-to-Ground Airport Surface Channel: Transmission/ Reception from Airport Field Sites”. Congratulations to Behlul Poonawalla, Sunny Pandya, and Joshua Kephart for a 25th DASC Best Student Paper Award for their paper “Flight Test Evaluation of Synthetic and Peripheral Vision Displays in General Aviation”.
October - New Ohio University Avionics program may have important impact in the future
"Ohio University avionics research engineers have been working on a navigation program involving small radio-controlled aircraft that may bring advantages not only to the university, but also to the nation...." Read the story in the OU Outlook, October 16, 2006 edition
October - Joint University Program (JUP) quarterly meeting to be held at MIT Two AEC students made presentations at the JUP quarterly meeting held at MIT on October 12 & 13, 2006. Behlul Poonawalla presented "Peripheral Vision Display for GA - Flight Test Results" and Chris Engel presented "UAV Navigation in the National Airspace System" .
October - AEC on winning Backup Navigation Team
The first task award ever by the NGATS (Next Generation Air Transportation System) Institute was made to ITT and its team for a Backup (to GPS) Navigation task. OU AEC is a member of the ITT team. The task award announcement may be found at the NGATS website.
Sept - Ohio University Avionics Engineering Center @ ION GNSS 2006
AEC faculty, staff, students, and alumni gather in front of the ION Autonomous Lawnmower booth at the ION GNSS 2006 conference in Ft. Worth TX. Those present are: Back row: Jeff Dickman, Andrey Soloviev, Lukas Marti, Steve Aab, Chris Bartone, Maartin Uijt de Haag, Dustin Bates; Third row: Yangtao Guo, Sanjeev Gunawardena, Ananth Vadlamani, Mike Braasch, Jacob Campbell, Dave Diggle; Second row: Yuji Zhang, Ashita Rastogi, Nirev Parikh, Sai Kalyanaraman, Mahesh Surathu; and First row: Jidong Hwang, Fan Lui, Dean Bruckner, Matt Harris.
Sept - Dr. James Rankin elected as Associate Fellow in AIAA
Dr. James Rankin has been elected to Associate Fellow status in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Information on AIAA may be found at www.aiaa.org .
Sept - Dr. David Diggle appointed to International Loran Association's Board of Directors
Dr. David Diggle has been appointed to serve a 1-year term on the International Loran Association's (ILA) Board of Directors. More information may be found at www.loran.org .
July 13-14. Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research (Tri-U)
The 34th annual meeting of the Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research was held on the Ohio University campus on July 13-14. The meeting with consortium members M.I.T. and Princeton and sponsors FAA and NASA featured research presentations by students from the three universities. More information on the program may be found at http://www.ohio.edu/avionics/research/jointuniversityprogram1.cfm
June 28-29. Retirement Reception for Becky Tippie
Becky Tippie, Administrative Associate, is retiring from Avionics and Ohio University on June 30th. A retirement reception will be held from 2-4pm on June 28th at 108 Stocker. A reception will be held at the airport (McFarland Building) from 2-3 pm on June 29th.
June 6. "Future Flight" article in Ohio University Perspectives magazine features Avionics Engineering Center.
The "Future Flight" story from the spring Perspectives magazine is online at:
http://news.research.ohiou.edu/perspectives/index.php?item=305
June 3. Autonomous Lawn Mower Competition team wins first place
Dr. Frank van Graas and his team of students (Dustin Bates, Nirav Parikh, Jidong Huang) won the ION 3rd Annual Autonomous Lawn Mower Competition - 2006, held on the Wright State University Campus, Dayton, OH, Saturday, June 3.
Second place was awarded to the team from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and Third place was awarded to Wright State University.
June 3. CanSat team takes 2nd place
Team CanSat traveled to the DC area and took home second place in the CanSat competition, losing by one point to team Ryerson from Canada. Team CanSat was top U.S. team, placing higher than all three Michigan teams. Information on the competition may be found at http://www.cansatcompetition.com/
June 1. AEC Director's Banquet recognizes award and service recipients
Ohio University’s Avionics Engineering Center, part of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology, recently recognized staff and students for their outstanding contributions.
Andrey Soloviev, Senior Research Engineer, and Sanjeeve Gunawardena, Research Engineer, both received the Director's award. Both were nominated for their work on deeply integrated GPS/INS plus two patents filed on their research; their effort in getting the GPS Anomalous Event Monitor (GAEM) successfully transferred to the FAA for installation at the Memphis Airport and Atlantic City; and for publications on deep GPS/INS integration and software-defined radio.
The Richard H. McFarland Scholarship, established by Avionics founder Richard H. McFarland, was presented to electrical engineering undergraduate student Seth G. Howard. The Avionics Engineering Center Award of Excellence was presented to electrical engineering undergraduate student, Mark Smearcheck, and doctoral student, Jeff Dickman. Jeff Dickman and another electrical engineering doctoral student, Zhen Zhu, received the Institute of Navigation's Section Sponsored graduate award.
Faculty and staff members also received awards for their years of service. Five-year awards were given to Tracy Crabtree and Frank Alder. Tom Brooks was recognized for 15 years and Jamie Edwards for 20 years.
May 24. Zofia Starzyk named as OU Outstanding Administrator
Zofia Starzyk was recognized as an Ohio University Outstanding Administrator at a ceremony hosted by the Administrative Senate. The award was presented by President Roderick McDavis. Zofia, responsible for the coordination of financial affairs for the Avionics Engineering Center, manages over 50 active grants and contracts, which totaled more than $9.2 million in the 2005 fiscal year. She writes proposals, negotiates contracts and handles the center's accounting and reporting duties. Starzyk has built and maintained strong relationships with sponsors, grant coordinators and colleagues from around campus. Her ability to stay calm under pressure, her positive attitude and her willingness to share the knowledge she's gained from her 18 years of service has made her an invaluable asset to the Russ College of Engineering. Read about Zofia's award at http://www.ohio.edu/outlook/05-06/May/511n-056.cfm .
April - Dr. Andrey Soloviev wins ION Early Achievement Award
Dr. Andrey Soloviev was awarded the Institute of Navigation's Early Achievement Award for his early contributions to frequency domain processing of inertial measurements and deeply integrated GPS/ inertial navigation.
February 8. Ohio University Outlook magazine features research by AEC Student Clint Barker
Read about Clint and advisor Curtis Cohenour's research project at
http://www.ohio.edu/outlook/05-06/February/273f-056.cfm/
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