December 2019
Featured Article
Host University Spotlight: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
By: Timothy Wilson, Professor and Chair, ECE
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is proud to be among the host universities for the 2020 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo. Located just an hour away from the Orlando conference site, Embry-Riddle is the world leader in aviation and aerospace education. The university, which is comprised of three campuses, is headquartered at the Daytona Beach Campus, where about 7,000 students are enrolled across the College of Engineering, College of Aviation, College of Arts and Sciences, and the David B. O’Maley College of Business.
The College of Engineering is committed to advancing the frontier of knowledge and the incorporation of discovery into teaching and practice for its 2,640 Daytona Beach students. Engineering departments include Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering; Electrical, Computer, Software, and Systems Engineering (ECSSE); and Engineering Fundamentals, which is responsible for instruction in the first year and engineering education research.
Within ECSSE, 17 faculty members deliver bachelor’s programs in Computer Engineering (56 students), Computer Science (67), Electrical Engineering (77), and Software Engineering (65). Master’s programs are composed of Cybersecurity Engineering (21), Electrical & Computer Engineering (24), Software Engineering (15), and Systems Engineering (8). The department’s new Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science currently enrolls 21 students. It also manages the college’s cross-disciplinary Master of Science in Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Engineering with nine students.
As an established leader in aviation and aerospace education, Embry-Riddle is emerging as one of the industry’s most innovative and active research hubs. The ECSSE Department is uniquely equipped to contribute to each of the university’s four strategic areas of research: autonomy, cybersecurity, data analytics, and simulation for training.
The department was recently selected for an NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments award for its project “Using Scrum to Develop an Agile Department” with its goal of modeling agile engineering practice for growing agile engineers. The department is also pleased to report its most recent award, announced in December 2019. Dr. Eduardo Rojas received the NSF CAREER award to support his work investigating additive manufacturing of waveguides, antennas, and electronic circuits.
Central to the college’s research is the university’s John Mica Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex. The cornerstone building of the Embry-Riddle Research Park features nine new research labs, including 4,600 square feet for ECSSE-focused work in radar and sensor development. The facilities also include an anechoic chamber, laser circuit mill, and 20 GHz radio-frequency lab. An 8,000-square-foot finished roof overlooks the airspace of the Daytona Beach International Airport, providing the opportunity to measure aircraft in all phases of flight, earth stations for communications with student-designed cubesats and a myriad of other instruments from ADS-B receivers to a small radio telescope.
Founded in 1926, the Embry-Riddle Company has evolved from a flight training organization to the aviation and aerospace higher education leader it is today. The university enrolls 33,400 students through its Daytona Beach, FL, Prescott, AZ, and Worldwide (online) campuses in more than 100 degrees. Programs are delivered at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. level, in the following areas: aviation; applied science; business; computers and technology; engineering; security, intelligence, and safety; and space.