UND awarded coveted spot as part of federal UAS initiative (University Newsletter 05/12/15)
The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences will be an integral part of a national research system whose goal is to safely integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the National Airspace.
The Odegard School established an early lead in the UAS sector, with the world’s first degree program in UAS operations and a state-endorsed UND Center of Excellence in UAS Training, Research, and Education.
The FAA selected the ASSURE team, led by UND Aerospace and Mississippi State University, as the Center of Excellence (COE) for researching that UAS integration. ASSURE (Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence) comprises more than a dozen of the world’s leading research universities with an increasing number of leading UAS industry partners.
The Senate Appropriations Committee, on which Sen. John Hoeven serves, approved $5 million in the Fiscal Year 2015 budget to launch this competitive program.
ASSURE is a mirror image of the Odegard School’s past FAA COE for General Aviation Research (CGAR) which provided research funding across several colleges at UND for 13 years from 2000 to 2013. Paul Lindseth, associate dean of the Odegard School, will serve as the Principal Investigator for ASSURE. The academic research lead at the Odegard School is Aviation faculty member Jim Higgins.
“We’re extremely proud that UND and our team, which has been selected for this important operations,” Hoeven said in a release following the FAA’s announcement.
Like CGAR, ASSURE will also provide opportunities for UAS collaborative research across the entire campus. Al Palmer, UND UAS COE director, has built a steering committee made up of representatives from each college at UND and EERC to assist in facilitating this collaboration. The UAS COE at the Odegard School has already generated supporting research for the colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Business and Nursing at UND.
The applications of UAS in research settings are virtually endless,” said Odegard School Dean, Bruce Smith. “Over the coming years UASs wil become the airborne platform of choice for everything except passenger and general aviation flights. This is a tremendous opportunity to receive research funding for the entire University of North Dakota.”
UND assumed early on a global leadership role in UAS development, research and training, with a state-approved Center of Excellence in Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research, Education, and Training. UND also is a key player in FAA-mandated safety initiatives, such as the development of an aviation safety management system that will be used by college-level flight schools around the country.
“This decision underscores our leadership in the UAS arena—and it signals a new era in the research we’ve been leading in unmanned aircraft systems and in aviation safety in general,” said UND President Robert Kelley. “It also will greatly enhance the opportunities that we offer UND faculty and students in this exciting new field of global aviation.”
The ASSURE team and the COE will focus on research, education and training in areas critical to safe and successful integration of UAS into the nation’s airspace.
“This world-class, public-private partnership will help us focus on the challenges and opportunities of this cutting-edge technology,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in the FAA’s release about the announcement. “We expect this team will help us to educate and train a cadre of unmanned aircraft professionals well into the future.”
The FAA expects the COE will be able to begin research by September 2015 and be fully operational and engaged in a robust research agenda by January 2016.
