NASA Selects Four University Teams to Help Advance Aviation Research

NASA has selected four university teams to help the agency advance the future of aviation, through projects ranging from high-supersonic propulsion systems to low-noise flight routes for small aircraft flying through cities. The awards, made through NASA's University Leadership Initiative, mark the ninth round of the program, which gives student teams the chance to contribute to real-world flight research. The four awards total about $30 million and provide multiyear support for the winning universities to build their teams and conduct research.

"With these four new awards, the University Innovation project is leaning in on NASA's aeronautics mission priorities," said Andrew Provenza, project manager at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. "These teams will research new propulsion concepts for supersonic flight, novel engineering methods that can revolutionize aerospace system design and certification, and learning-enabled avionics for new advanced and urban air mobility flight vehicle platforms, which could enhance air traffic control modernization."

One team, led by Terrence Meyer, will spend four years developing a fuel-flexible propulsion system that uses a traditional jet turbofan during takeoff and subsonic flight before transitioning to a new type of ramjet engine that would cruise at Mach 4, or more than 3,000 mph. A second team led by Somil Bansal will develop an avionics system incorporating machine learning to control an aircraft's communications, navigation and other electronics while continuously reinforcing safety. A third, led by Juan Alonso, will build a high-fidelity simulation framework for low-noise flight paths for small aircraft in cities, integrating models of how sound travels through urban environments.

A fourth team, led by Darshan Sarojini, will work over three years to combine model-based systems engineering, multidisciplinary design and optimization, and high-dimensional uncertainty quantification to make next-generation aircraft design safer, faster and less prone to costly redesigns. Award teams are led by faculty and include graduate and undergraduate students, partnered with other universities, community colleges and industry, with support from experts at NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and other organizations.