Jan 25, 2022 -- NASA has recently selected 4 teams of university faculty and students to participate in the agency’s University Leadership Initiative (ULI) with a research focus on sustainable aviation. The teams will spend up to five years on the proposed project, exploring novel ideas, including elimination of emissions and autonomy research in support of advanced air mobility. The full announcement is available as the NASA ULI Release 21-176.
ULI gives the academic community an opportunity to contribute to NASA’s aeronautical research and provide students with valuable experience in solving real-world technical challenges. “Aviation of the future has to be climate friendly to keep the world flying, and a great way to do that is to allow tomorrow’s top minds to begin making contributions to these goals while still in school,” said Koushik Datta, ULI project manager.
Four large multi-disciplinary teams have been selected nationwide. The one including the University of Kentucky (UK) is led by Florida State University and comprises Florida A&M University, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Georgia Tech. The industrial partners include Raytheon, Boeing, and Advanced Magnet Lab. The UK project will be led by PI Dr. JiangBiao He, and Co-PI Dr. Dan M. Ionel, both with UK ECE and PEIK, to develop high-performance electric propulsion motor-drive systems.
AMPERE Lab has been intensively working on aircraft electrifications over the past years, with more than 20 technical articles published on this topic in prestigious journals and conferences. The lab has been developing different critical aircraft power components and systems, including power converters, motor drives, DC circuit breakers, and propulsion drivetrain optimization.
