Engineers receive NASA award for aviation safety research

ATHENS, Ohio – A team of engineers led by Ohio University's Avionics Engineering Center has received a national award from NASA for its aviation safety research.

The NASA Synthetic Vision Systems team, which includes 10 Ohio University engineers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, was selected as one of 14 recipients of the 2001 NASA Turning Goals into Reality (TGIR) award. The program recognizes research projects that have made exceptional progress in reaching NASA's top aerospace technology goals.

"It's outstanding to be involved with a project that is recognized by NASA as a leader in their technologies and accomplishments," said Jim Rankin, a member of the research team and director of the center, part of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology.

The team was honored for its work on the Runway Incursion Prevention System, which aims to reduce accidents and traffic problems on airport runways. A runway incursion is any incident involving an aircraft, vehicle, person or object on the ground that prevents aircraft from taking off or landing or causes a collision.

Runway incidents have risen from 321 in 1999 to 431 in 2000, possibly due to increased air travel or more accurate tracking of the problem, Rankin said. The National Transportation Safety Board has made reduction of runway incursion a top priority.

At night or under low visibility, detecting other aircraft or vehicles on the runway can be difficult for pilots, Rankin explained. At a test site at the Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, the third largest airport in the world, the Ohio University team installed communications data links and the Local Area Augmentation System, which uses Global Positioning System satellite technology to give traffic controllers and pilots more accurate information about their proximity to other aircraft and stationary objects.

"In the future, every airplane on the ground will have Global Positioning System technology and they will broadcast their positions," Rankin said. "This is technology that will be put into airports in the next five to 15 years."

Ohio University's part of the project is funded by the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and is being led by Rankin, senior research engineer Mike DiBenedetto and their Ohio University colleagues.

The Ohio University Avionics Engineering Center, the only facility of its kind in the United States, specializes in the research, development and evaluation of electronic navigational, communication and surveillance systems. Established in 1963, the center has been awarded contracts totaling more than $60 million from such sponsors as the FAA, NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as from state and foreign governments and private industrial organizations. More information about the center can be found at http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/avn.

Written by Andrea Gibson.