Award Abstract # 1950207
REU Site: Propulsion, Aerodynamics, Materials and Controls of Aerial Vehicles

NSF Org: EEC
Division of Engineering Education and Centers
Recipient: GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY RESEARCH & SERVICE FOUNDATION INC
Initial Amendment Date: April 7, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: April 7, 2020
Award Number: 1950207
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Patricia Simmons
EEC
 Division of Engineering Education and Centers
ENG
 Directorate for Engineering
Start Date: June 1, 2020
End Date: May 31, 2024 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $404,865.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $404,865.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $404,865.00
History of Investigator:
  • Valentin Soloiu (Principal Investigator)
    vsoloiu@georgiasouthern.edu
  • Mosfequr Rahman (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Georgia Southern University Research and Service Foundation, Inc
261 FOREST DR STE 3000
STATESBORO
GA  US  30458-6724
(912)478-5465
Sponsor Congressional District: 12
Primary Place of Performance: Georgia Southern University
Enigineering Building
Statesboro
GA  US  30458-8005
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
12
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): FL4AUYLFP7E8
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): EWFD-Eng Workforce Development
Primary Program Source: 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
04002021RB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 116E, 7736, 9178, 9250
Program Element Code(s): 136000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.041

ABSTRACT

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 27)
Alba Flores, Akintomide Adebile "RNN Classification of Spectral EEG/EMG Data Associated with Facial Movements for Drone Control" Proceedings from IEEE SouthEastcon , 2023 Citation Details
Ilie, Marcel and Chan, Matthew and Asiatico, Jackson and Rahman, Mosfequr and Soloiu, Valentin "Thermoacoustic instabilities of coaxial jet combustor; computational studies using LES" , v.5 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-1063 Citation Details
Ilie, Marcel and Havenar, John "A fully-coupled computational aeroelasticity model for transonic and supersonic flows" AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum , 2022 https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-3600 Citation Details
Ilie, Marcel and Havenar, John "Dynamic aeroelastic instabilities of fixed-wing aircraft in transonic and supersonic flows using a fully-coupled model" AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum , v.AIAA Sc , 2023 https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-1041 Citation Details
Ilie, Marcel and McAfee, John W and Soloiu, Valentin and Rahman, Mosfequr and O'Brien, Brandon and Gonzalez, Marcello "Swirl number effect on the unsteady characteristics of turbulent combustion in axial-swirl combustor" , 2024 https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-0305 Citation Details
M. Ilie and Geoffrey Sullivan "The effect of flapping frequency on the aerodynamics of NACA0012 wing" AIAA SciTech 2021 Conference , 2021 Citation Details
M. Ilie and J. Havenar "Mach number effect on the aeroelastic phenomenon of fixed wing aircraft" AIAA SciTech Conference , v.2022-93 , 2022 Citation Details
M. Ilie, Jackson Asiatico "Combustion instabilities of swirl combustors, with radial and axial air injection schemes; computational studies using LES and IDDES" IAA Propulsion and Energy 2021 Conference , v.AIAA 20 , 2021 Citation Details
Mosfequr Rahman, J. Chandler "Validation of a finite element method for simulation of components produced by continuous carbon fiber reinforced additive manufacturing" International journal for computational methods in engineering science and mechanics , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1080/15502287.2021.1946620 Citation Details
Mosfequr Rahman, Odari Whyte "Structural and Aerodynamic Characteristics Analysis of a Small V-shaped Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Rotor" International journal of green energy , 2021 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/15435075.2021.1946809 Citation Details
Mylena McCoggle, Shyra Wilson "Biosensors Based Controller for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation" SoutheastCon 2022 , 2022 https://doi.org/48659.2022.9764015 Citation Details
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 27)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Award: 1950207, $405,000; NSF-DoD ASSURE, REU Site: Propulsion, Aerodynamics, Materials and Control of Aerial Vehicles. 

The Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) in Georgia Southern, with 6 research laboratories (Aerospace, Aerodynamics, Subsonic tunnel and Wind Energy, Advanced Sensing and Intelligent Control Lab, Fundamental Combustion, and Chemistry), have hosted the summer-term, interdisciplinary REU Site: “Propulsion, Aerodynamics, Materials and Controls of Aerial Vehicles”. The program addressed pressing societal problems and 21st Century Grand Challenges to spark engineering students' interest in research careers. The high-quality research environment, through hands-on learning, STEM problem-solving, and mentored communication at both the interpersonal and presentation levels, will prepare students to apply interdisciplinary concepts as part of a highly diverse team.

Research problems will be contributed by 7 experienced faculty from 3 departments in GSU. This has been an exceptional interdisciplinary research experience for the REU students with research in: aerospace engineering: propulsion, combustion, emissions, Noise and Vibrations with synthetic and green jet fuels, fixed wing and rotary wing aerodynamics. In addition to their research projects, all REU participants were mentored to develop their scientific knowledge and skills; culture and research methods, including ethics; and technical writing and oral communication. They  participated in industrial visits and cultural activities.

Targeted Student Participants. The project team recruited students from freshman to seniors from HBCUs and minority-serving institutions (MSI), 2-year and community colleges, and 4-year colleges in United States where research opportunities are limited.

For the duration of the REU Site (2021-2023), there were 462 applicants from institutions in 46 different states/territories. The REU Site had 31 participants, with 77% of these participants having at least one minoritized identity, exceeding the program’s target. They were from institutions in 12 different states/territories.

The Intellectual merit

The projects advanced fundamental knowledge on: blade-vortex interaction phenomenon and active flow control with synthetic jets, 2-stage ignition phenomenon of synthetic kerosene and Negative Temperature Coefficient Region, winglet design and orientation to improve the efficiency of airfoils, combustion instabilities influence on noise, vibrations and emissions in jet engines, drone control using face gestures and electroencephalography signals in a three-dimensional physical space.

Student projects made immediate research contributions to topics well suited to undergraduate exploration and focused on the following priorities: NSF - Addressing 21st-Century Grand Challenges through Interdisciplinary Research and Interdisciplinary Research and Education; Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability and Clean Energy; URGENT- Basic Research Needs for Clean and Efficient Combustion of 21st Century Transportation Fuels; the National Robotics Initiative and NSF Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery. REU students developed exciting research projects that requireed them to use engineering-specific tools and analyses and to report their results in peer-reviewed journals, proceedings papers, and poster presentations at scientific venues.

 This award produced a large amount scientific scholarship: The REU team and participants produced 26 journal papers, 60 peer-reviewed conference proceedings, and 72 posters. We were awarded the GSU Averitt Award for Excellence in Research 1st place, CUR/Engineering Division 1st place, Georgia Centers of Innovation 2nd & 3rd place, and Crider Awards 1st & 3rd place. Two REU students applied for a GRFP grant.

Broader Impacts:

in 2023 the REU program had 6 industrial visits while approx. 200 HS students visited the site, In 2022, the REU students had 5 industrial visits, while 121 middle and HS students, teachers, and 8 Special Education students visited the REU site. In 2021, the REU students had 6  industrial visits, 3 were virtual with Q&A sessions, while 182 HS students, parents, and teachers visited the REU site.


Last Modified: 08/23/2024
Modified by: Valentin Soloiu

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