AEDC and TTU collaborate for innovative applied re-search

  • Published
  • By Dr. Klaus Schug, Chief Architect
  • ATA Information Technology & Systems Department
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  Three Tennessee Technological University (TTU) student teams presented their Collaborative Applied and Innovative Research Capstone Projects at Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) on April 27.

The three projects included development of a digital inclinometer replacement prototype, an instrumentation scanner emulator and a digital pulse counter prototype. All three projects are applied research in innovative implementations needed at AEDC with a goal of procurement and operations and maintenance (O&M) cost reductions, as well as increased flexibility and performance.

The digital fuel flow pulse meter project is currently in progress with a completion date of December 2015.

AEDC and TTU in Cookeville, Tenn., have been engaged in collaborative applied and innovative research since December 2009.

TTU senior undergraduate students form teams of three to five seniors for the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) required senior design projects named Capstone Projects. The projects last two school semesters and AEDC provides project definitions, funding, technical support, test and integration support.

Since December 2009, 12 projects have been completed: Instrumentation Scanner Emu-lator; Digital Inclinometer; Bar Code Location with Mobile Bar Code Reader; Encryption Al-gorithms; Electrical Grid Tracer; Autonomous, Dynamically Reconfigurable Frequency Counter; Lossless Video Compression, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Ultra-Wideband (UWB) through Ultra High Frequency Transmission power efficient encoding; Wireless Encrypted Ethernet Adaptor; Erasure Encoding (data compression for cybersecurity); Operational EMI (electromagnetic interference) Effects Measurement System; and an Optical Sensor Test Facility Alignment system.

These projects are used to perform market surveys, market analysis to determine what's available, define alternate implementation approaches and prototype AEDC selected im-plementation options. The projects have produced a number of software and hardware working prototypes used for lowering the risk of new and innovative approaches and de-signs for increasing capabilities at AEDC while lowering O&M costs. The program has re-sulted in a number of the participating students hiring on at ATA.

Lunch was provided by the ATA Innovation Fund.

The students were accompanied by their TTU advisor, Dr. Ali Alouani. ATA advisors and helpers included Marshall Alexander, Wayne King, Paul Schwer, Jamey Morris, Stephen Powell, Greg Renner, Dr. Klaus Schug and others from the ATA Information Technology and Systems Department (IT&S).

Anyone with proposals for Capstone projects, within the scope of undergraduate students and their resources, is encouraged to submit ideas by calling the IT&S at 454-3357.