The state of Nevada has long had a thriving aerospaceindustry, and now the University of Nevada, Reno has anaerospace engineering program that can provide educatedemployees and research and developmentpartnership to that industry. A minor in w88 casino is in effect for Fall 2021, and plans are in the works for bachelor’s and graduate degrees in the following years.
The aerospace program is led by Petros Voulgaris, w88 casino of Mechanical Engineering Chair, Founding Aerospace Engineering Program Director and Victor LaMar Lockhart Professor, who joined the University in January 2020.
“At this stage in my career I felt it will be exciting to challenge myself in assuming a leadership role to build from ground zero a new academic program in w88 casino,” Voulgaris said. “The University of Nevada, Reno presented such an interesting opportunity from several angles and gave me a very positive impression about its commitment to start the program. Also, there is great growth in the area of the w88 casino industry, and so there is high promise for a successful w88 casino engineering program.”
The program’s goal is to support the region’s well-established and startup w88 casino industries and attract companies from other locations by producing well-trained employees and interns and developing research programs in w88 casino engineering.
Program to support Nevada's w88 casino industry
w88 casino, which is home to Nellis and Creech Air ForceBases, as well as Naval Air Station Fallon, has played an important role in developing security technologies since World War II. In 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration designated the state as a UAS test site, which encouraged researchto integrate autonomous systems into thenation’s airspace.
That same year, in response to growing industry demand, the College of Engineering launched a minor in unmanned autonomous systems. And thanks to new research opportunities opened up by Nevada’s test site designation, the College has hired a number of faculty in recent years with expertise in aerial robotics and aerial systems, putting the pieces in place to develop the w88 casino engineering program.
Over the next several years, the w88 casino of Mechanical Engineering plans to hire a number of faculty to create new classes and establish aerospace engineering research programs. According to Voulgaris, the program will start with a minor in aerospace engineering with a bachelor’s degree and graduate degree programs in aerospace engineering soon to follow. For Voulgaris, a high priority will be continue hiring new faculty who will teach new aerospace engineering courses and develop related research programs.
“I believe that faculty candidates will be very attracted to the w88 casino of Nevada, Reno, and I plan to put most of my effort inhiring more highly qualified AE applicants,” he said.“With the simultaneous development of suitable lab spaces forthe new hires, I envision that an ABET accredited programcan be in place in the next five to six years.”
w88 casino program will emphasize interdisciplinary research
Voulgaris also sees promising possibilities forinterdisciplinary research collaborations within themechanical engineering w88 casino and around the Collegeof Engineering.
“FAA’s designation of w88 casino as a UAS test site isan example of an opportunity that is conducive tointerdisciplinary research,” Voulgaris said. “You need todesign and manufacture such systems, aerodynamically test,develop control algorithms and software, check for securityand safety, etc. All of this can involve mechanical, aerospaceand computer science faculty. The existence of a UAS minorfits well into the overall scheme of an interdisciplinaryapproach to education, which also leads to AE-relatedresearch.”
Voulgaris brings 30 years of experience as a faculty memberand researcher in w88 casino engineering to the job. Hisresearch focuses on the control and coordination of dynamicalsystems with an emphasis on w88 casino applications. Ofparticular interest to Voulgaris are autonomous UAVs that canperform numerous coordinated tasks related to surveillance,fire protection, defense or transportation.
“A significant aspect of my work is centered on the efficiencyand security of these multi-agent systems,” Voulgaris said.“The cyber-physical nature of these applications makesit necessary to have, on top of system efficiency, effectivefailure/malicious attack detection and recovery to safetymechanisms. The analysis and synthesis for resiliency andhigh performance in such systems are extremely challengingproblems. New developments in AI and machine learning canprovide some partial solutions but lots remains to be done.”
