NASA Looks to University Teams to Advance Aviation Technology – Oklahoma, Delaware, and South Carolina universities selected as 3 of 5 team leaders

Press release excerpt:

NASA has selected five teams led by university faculty and students to examine a range of technical areas in support of the agency’s aeronautics research goals.

Known as the University Leadership Initiative (ULI), the project will provide a total of $32.8 million to the five teams during the next four years.

“Each of these teams is working on important problems that definitely will help break down barriers in ways that will benefit the U.S. aviation industry,” said John Cavolowsky, director of NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program in Washington, D.C.

This is the third time NASA Aeronautics has reached out to the academic community in this way. Five teams were selected in 2017 and three teams announced in 2019.

Unlike other NASA-funded research programs in which the agency specifies the project goals, universities are asked to come up with a compelling investigation, so long as that technical challenge addresses one of the strategic research thrusts of NASA.

Another key goal of ULI is for the student researchers involved to gain experience in leading a multidisciplinary team made up of partners from other universities and industry, especially representing those who traditionally have not applied their skills to aviation problems.

We’ve also sought to emphasize inclusion of universities that serve underrepresented student populations and I think we’ve been successful this year in achieving that goal,” said Koushik Datta, ULI project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.

For the first time, a ULI team will be led by a historically black university, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro. Moreover, team leader Oklahoma State University in Stillwater is known for graduating the most Native American students of any school in the nation.

Read the full press release and research topics here.