KINGSTON, R.I., August 28, 2018 — Winning first prize at a national aviation competition has become a habit for the students of Bahram Nassersharif, distinguished 溏心vlog免费B站 professor of mechanical engineering.
The Transportation Research Board鈥檚 Airport Cooperative Research Program selected teams of students from 溏心vlog免费B站, the Florida Institute of Technology, and Purdue University for first-place prizes in different technical challenge areas. They were selected as part of the program鈥檚 University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs. First-place winners won $3,000.
This year鈥檚 team of 溏心vlog免费B站 mechanical engineering students, Benjamin Travelyn, Grace Sanita, Scott Liguori and Julian Andriulli finished ahead of 10 other teams with its 鈥淓agle Eye Project,鈥� which investigated the effectiveness of using drones to conduct airport inspections. Travelyn, Sanita and Liguori earned their bachelor鈥檚 degrees in May. Andriulli, who has minors in music, math and Japanese, will earn his last three credits toward his bachelor鈥檚 degree in mechanical engineering when he completes a research project in Japan.
鈥淲e compete against some of the best schools in the country, including those with aviation programs, such as Purdue University, and graduate students from Florida International University,鈥� Nassersharif said. 鈥淭his makes me even more proud of what our undergraduate students are able to accomplish.
鈥淥ne of the officials who reviews project proposals for the Transportation Research Board talked to me in Washington, D.C., right after one of our students presented on the project and said he was very interested in following up,鈥� the professor said. 鈥淚 am sure I will be talking with him about using drone technology for this purpose in the future.鈥�
Travelyn, the student team leader, who now works at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Middletown, presented the results of the group鈥檚 work in Washington in late July.
鈥淭eamwork was a big thing,鈥� said the Cranston resident. 鈥淚 operated the drone for the whole project, and I also learned about airport operations, the inspection process and protocols for us to be able to fly the drones in the airport.鈥�
鈥淚 did a lot of work, but I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to do this without the help of everyone,鈥� 聽he said.
In 2016, another team of 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering students captured 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 third first-place prize in the competition with its project, 鈥淲ingman 360,鈥� a device that can protect planes from colliding while on the ground.
As in other years, 鈥淓agle Eye鈥� was the result of a year-long senior capstone project in Nassersharif鈥檚 class. Each year, the professor selects one or two projects to be entered in competitions.
This year, he selected Travelyn, Sanita, Liguori and Andriulli, and 鈥淓agle Eye.鈥�
The Airport Cooperative Research Program provides broad guidelines that address how to make airports better and safer using technology.
In the capstone class, the students spent the first semester researching and defining the problem, and conceiving solutions.
鈥淚 require every individual to generate 30 viable concepts, so for this team, there were 120 viable ideas,鈥� Nassersharif said. 鈥淭hey sorted through each one, conducted engineering analyses and then selected a final idea.鈥�
The students were allowed to test the drones at Newport and Westerly airports by James Warcup, chief aeronautics inspector with the Rhode Island Airport Corp.
The team also had to understand the inspection process and then replace a human inspector in a truck with a drone to examine such things as lighting, fencing and access.
Nassersharif said the inspections had to be completed in about 20 minutes because that鈥檚 about the life of a drone battery.
The students also had to program the drone to follow a specific flight path without the need for a human operator.
鈥淭hey programmed the drone to fly to specific points at the airports,鈥� Nassersharif said. 鈥淏ut initially, the students had to fly it manually to set altitude and orientation. Their goal was to demonstrate that the technology was transferable from one airport to another.
鈥淎t Westerly, the team discovered deer through the drone鈥檚 camera, which is something you couldn鈥檛 see from a truck at ground level. They also found turkey vultures eating a dead deer near the airport, which could pose a flight risk.鈥�
As a result of their observations with the drone, the team attached noise generators to the drone to scare away the deer and turkey vultures.
Team member Grace Sanita, of Wrentham, Mass., who now works in the engineering and planning department for a company that designs animal shelters, said the research and teamwork were the big pluses for her.
鈥淚 worked on most of the industrial timing and planning,鈥� Sanita said. 鈥淲e had to show that we would be able to cut the time needed to perform traditional inspections. We had to be self-motivated to get our individual pieces of the project done.鈥�
She said it was cool to be on airport runways, but that the work was demanding. 鈥淭here were definitely times when we wanted to take a break, but when my teammates said they needed something, I got to work because I didn鈥檛 want to hold them up.鈥�
叠补谤谤颈苍驳迟辞苍鈥檚 Julian Andriulli said he focused on systems engineering with the 鈥淓agle Eye鈥� project.
鈥淔or me, this was very useful because I was able to focus on organizational problem-solving,鈥� Andriulli said. 鈥淚 like dealing with organizational structure and microscopic and macroscopic properties. I don鈥檛 think you get this with a typical mechanical engineering project.鈥�
Andriulli said he found it was difficult at first for the team to come together.
鈥淲e are very different people, with different skills and mindsets and getting everyone to work together was tough at first,鈥� Andriulli said. 鈥淏ut those differences helped us create a well rounded project. 聽If you can鈥檛 work collectively or efficiently as a group, no matter how great each individual is, you are not going to make a great product.鈥�
Westerly resident Scott Liguori, a team member who now works at Electric Boat, in Groton, Conn., said one of the challenges of the project was paring down all of the ideas to a manageable project that would result in an outcome and/or product.
鈥淭he goal of our project was to cut down on the number of inspectors needed and to speed up the process so airports will be able to open runways more quickly to more aircraft,鈥� Liguori said. 鈥淎t the Newport airport, there is a swampy area that inspectors can鈥檛 observe. With the drone, we were better able to inspect the fences in that area.鈥�
Like his teammates, he learned a great deal from his team, Nassersharif and Warcup.
鈥淚 learned a lot from working with James Warcup about airports, their security and the problem-solving and engineering problems in general. These are things I can apply at work.鈥�