SIERRA Project Reflection
Working on the SIERRA Project was one of the most incredible experiences of my college career. As a second year Aerospace Engineering student, I was able to have firsthand contact with professors, graduate students, and upper level undergraduates. I was able to work on a research project aimed at making a difference in society and saving people’s lives. The work we were doing was important, and I was a part of that. I was helping to protect others.
Because I was only a second year student that hadn’t been exposed to much of the Aerospace curriculum, I was more of a floating member of the team. I helped whoever needed assistance. I was always around and ready to do whatever was asked of me. Our project was more geared toward the Systems Engineering aspect rather than the Aerospace Engineering technologies behind the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). We did, however, provide insight to Marcus UAV concerning how to better design the airfoil (wing shape).
While I was working with the SIERRA Team, we conducted a live forest burn test and a field burn test. We were interviewed by news crews locally and nationally. Our efforts to protect wildland forest firefighters were noticed. I spent most of the time during the tests taking pictures and videos of the events. I served as the team’s Media Representative and was in charge of taking pictures and videos of the events and writing public view articles.
The first step I took after joining the team was to go through a course on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technologies. We spent time researching UAVs and identifying the UAV we would use for our system. We then delved into Rob C’s, graduate student and project lead, ideas for the project. Our goal was to create a system that would fly over wildland forest fires and use cameras to collect position and velocity data of the fire. That data would then be transferred into a program that was capable of analyzing terrain, position, and velocity to predict where the fire would travel. With this information, the firefighting team would be able to identify potential hazards and threats and prevent them.
Because I was only a second year student that hadn’t been exposed to much of the Aerospace curriculum, I was more of a floating member of the team. I helped whoever needed assistance. I was always around and ready to do whatever was asked of me. Our project was more geared toward the Systems Engineering aspect rather than the Aerospace Engineering technologies behind the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). We did, however, provide insight to Marcus UAV concerning how to better design the airfoil (wing shape).
While I was working with the SIERRA Team, we conducted a live forest burn test and a field burn test. We were interviewed by news crews locally and nationally. Our efforts to protect wildland forest firefighters were noticed. I spent most of the time during the tests taking pictures and videos of the events. I served as the team’s Media Representative and was in charge of taking pictures and videos of the events and writing public view articles.
The first step I took after joining the team was to go through a course on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technologies. We spent time researching UAVs and identifying the UAV we would use for our system. We then delved into Rob C’s, graduate student and project lead, ideas for the project. Our goal was to create a system that would fly over wildland forest fires and use cameras to collect position and velocity data of the fire. That data would then be transferred into a program that was capable of analyzing terrain, position, and velocity to predict where the fire would travel. With this information, the firefighting team would be able to identify potential hazards and threats and prevent them.
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Throughout the entirety of the project, I was exposed to many processes that I would not have experienced without the project. For instance, we used the Systems Engineering V-model to develop our system. The process goes through developing a system from start to finish. We started with our idea or concept and were able to determine system requirements from there. At that point, we were able to design the entire system. Once we had the design, we could build the system and put everything together. In our case, we purchased multiple systems that had been built by other entities and integrated them. We then tested our product to ensure that the systems functioned well together. Finally, we had to validate that it would work at our test burn with the West Virginia Department of Forestry. After all of this, we had a finalized product that was capable of completing the task we set out to solve.
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Part of the way through our development of our system, we realized that our team needed documentation of our efforts that would assist in writing our finalized reports of the system we were creating. I, being one of few engineers with good writing skills, took the job upon myself. Throughout the development process, I was writing public view articles and taking pictures to keep track of the time and effort that was going in to our project. One such public view article was written to validate the need for our research. A wildland fire broke out in Israel, and prison guards traveling in a bus took the wrong route to evade the fire and were trapped. They were all killed by the fire.
Because of the aforementioned event, we wanted to develop a working system that could be easily and quickly deployed. We wanted a system that would be able to fly over the area and prevent events, such as the one in Israel, from occurring. It is unreasonable to think that all wildland fires will be prevented. Some are naturally occurring, but we wanted to develop a tool that could be used to protect those close to these fires and the people putting their lives on the line trying to protect others. We wanted to protect the protectors.
My job was also to document our progress. I chose to use photography and videography to track our progress. I took several photos at both of the test burns and at some of our preliminary flight tests to prove that we had a working system capable of the tasks we claimed our device could accomplish. Furthermore, I helped each of our other members with their tasks. Almost all of the documents that our team produced were proofread by me and most included pictures I had taken.
Our team had many incredible experiences. Dr. Kelly Cohen, our project advisor, was interviewed with BBC News Radio. Our team was interviewed by the News Record, local news stations, and other media outlets near our test site. The Discovery Channel Canada even came to our second test burn to take video and interview our team. It was quite an incredible experience for only being a quarter into my third year as an Aerospace Engineering student. The link to the video is provided: http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/clip615682#clip615682.
Our team served as a partner integrating engineering technology with the West Virginia Department of Forestry. Marcus UAV designed the UAV utilized by our team. Our fellow researchers took the video data gathered from our UAV system and were able to analyze the GPS data and video of the fire to determine location and velocity. They were then able to plug the data into the fire prediction software. We were able to get all of these teams together, working toward a common goal to accomplish the task we set out to achieve: protecting the lives of those trying to protect others.
We also had the unique experience of meeting with business leaders and intellectual property lawyers. At several points we discussed taking the technology and using it to develop a business. Business leaders came and sold themselves to us, college students, as to why we should include them in our future business plans. It was incredible! The intellectual property lawyers talked with us about the steps to take to protect our technologies and information as we took steps toward developing our research into a business model. Unfortunately, with Rob’s graduation and employment with another company, many of the aspirations to develop our own company have dissipated.
Much of Aerospace Engineering can be related back to Systems Engineering. Many aerospace technologies are complex machines that incorporate many devices and systems. For example, airplanes and satellites use electronic, computer, chemical, and other systems to successfully accomplish their missions. Despite the fact that we did not work directly with the design and building of the aircraft platform, we worked directly with the knowledge and strategy of combining multiple systems to accomplish the task at hand.
This knowledge will allow me to know the process in my future career. I have already utilized many of the Systems Engineering processes during my co-ops. Currently, I work with integrated Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data with GPS data to improve accuracy for GPS. I am now on the lower end of the process, working on the technology that will be incorporated into the system rather than the system itself. It is interesting and frustrating at the same time to know what you are developing but not know exactly what it will be integrated into.
On top of being filmed and interviewed, our team also went to conferences and symposiums to present our findings. We attended the InfoTech (Information Technology) conference, the Dayton-Cincinnati Aerospace Sciences Symposium (DCASS), and presented to several professors on-campus. Our presentations consisted of brief overviews of our system to future potential that fit in with the capabilities of our system to improving FAA regulations on UAV operation in civilian airspace.
Currently, Rob graduated with a Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering. I believe a new graduate student will undertake the project with Dr. Cohen. I look forward to seeing where the project will go, but with my schedule and plans to co-op internationally, I will no longer be able to participate in the project. It was an incredible experience that provided me with knowledge and opportunities I would not have otherwise experienced. I am thankful to have been a part of the team.
Because of the aforementioned event, we wanted to develop a working system that could be easily and quickly deployed. We wanted a system that would be able to fly over the area and prevent events, such as the one in Israel, from occurring. It is unreasonable to think that all wildland fires will be prevented. Some are naturally occurring, but we wanted to develop a tool that could be used to protect those close to these fires and the people putting their lives on the line trying to protect others. We wanted to protect the protectors.
My job was also to document our progress. I chose to use photography and videography to track our progress. I took several photos at both of the test burns and at some of our preliminary flight tests to prove that we had a working system capable of the tasks we claimed our device could accomplish. Furthermore, I helped each of our other members with their tasks. Almost all of the documents that our team produced were proofread by me and most included pictures I had taken.
Our team had many incredible experiences. Dr. Kelly Cohen, our project advisor, was interviewed with BBC News Radio. Our team was interviewed by the News Record, local news stations, and other media outlets near our test site. The Discovery Channel Canada even came to our second test burn to take video and interview our team. It was quite an incredible experience for only being a quarter into my third year as an Aerospace Engineering student. The link to the video is provided: http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/clip615682#clip615682.
Our team served as a partner integrating engineering technology with the West Virginia Department of Forestry. Marcus UAV designed the UAV utilized by our team. Our fellow researchers took the video data gathered from our UAV system and were able to analyze the GPS data and video of the fire to determine location and velocity. They were then able to plug the data into the fire prediction software. We were able to get all of these teams together, working toward a common goal to accomplish the task we set out to achieve: protecting the lives of those trying to protect others.
We also had the unique experience of meeting with business leaders and intellectual property lawyers. At several points we discussed taking the technology and using it to develop a business. Business leaders came and sold themselves to us, college students, as to why we should include them in our future business plans. It was incredible! The intellectual property lawyers talked with us about the steps to take to protect our technologies and information as we took steps toward developing our research into a business model. Unfortunately, with Rob’s graduation and employment with another company, many of the aspirations to develop our own company have dissipated.
Much of Aerospace Engineering can be related back to Systems Engineering. Many aerospace technologies are complex machines that incorporate many devices and systems. For example, airplanes and satellites use electronic, computer, chemical, and other systems to successfully accomplish their missions. Despite the fact that we did not work directly with the design and building of the aircraft platform, we worked directly with the knowledge and strategy of combining multiple systems to accomplish the task at hand.
This knowledge will allow me to know the process in my future career. I have already utilized many of the Systems Engineering processes during my co-ops. Currently, I work with integrated Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data with GPS data to improve accuracy for GPS. I am now on the lower end of the process, working on the technology that will be incorporated into the system rather than the system itself. It is interesting and frustrating at the same time to know what you are developing but not know exactly what it will be integrated into.
On top of being filmed and interviewed, our team also went to conferences and symposiums to present our findings. We attended the InfoTech (Information Technology) conference, the Dayton-Cincinnati Aerospace Sciences Symposium (DCASS), and presented to several professors on-campus. Our presentations consisted of brief overviews of our system to future potential that fit in with the capabilities of our system to improving FAA regulations on UAV operation in civilian airspace.
Currently, Rob graduated with a Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering. I believe a new graduate student will undertake the project with Dr. Cohen. I look forward to seeing where the project will go, but with my schedule and plans to co-op internationally, I will no longer be able to participate in the project. It was an incredible experience that provided me with knowledge and opportunities I would not have otherwise experienced. I am thankful to have been a part of the team.