Ella Atkins

Last updated

Ella Marie Atkins is an American aerospace engineer whose research involves flight planning and the coordination of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles. She is a head of the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech, [1] where she holds the Fred D. Durham Chair in Engineering, [2] and is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Aerospace Information Systems . [1] [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Atkins is originally from Summers County, West Virginia, [4] where her father, Mason Atkins, worked as a farmer, farm equipment salesman, and local politician. [5] She went to Hinton High School. As a young student she participated in the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, learning mathematics under the mentorship of a Johns Hopkins University graduate student. [4] Later, as a high school senior, she was the winner of the 1984 West Virginia Junior Miss competition, [6] [7] and won the scholastic achievement category in the national competition. [6] [8]

She became an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in MIT's program in Aeronautics & Astronautics in 1988 and 1990, respectively. Continuing her graduate study in the program in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Michigan, she earned a second master's degree in 1995, and completed her Ph.D. in 1999. [9] Her dissertation, Plan Generation and Hard Real-time Execution with Application to Safe, Autonomous Flight, was jointly supervised by Kang G. Shin and Edmund H. Durfee. [6] [10]

Academic career

She became an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park from 1999 to 2006, before returning to the University of Michigan as an associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in 2006. [6] At Michigan, she became a professor, the director of the Autonomous Aerospace Systems Laboratory, and the associate director of the University of Michigan Robotics Institute. [9] In 2022, she moved again, to Virginia Tech, as head of the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering [1] and Fred D. Durham Chair in Engineering. [2]

She is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Aerospace Information Systems , published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. [1] [3]

Recognition

Atkins was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2019. [11] She was the 2022 recipient of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Award. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics</span> Professional society for the field of aerospace engineering

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences. In 2015, it had more than 30,000 members among aerospace professionals worldwide.

Mary Louise "Missy" Cummings is an American academic who is a professor at Duke University and director of Duke's Humans and Autonomy Laboratory. She was one of the United States Navy's first female fighter pilots. In November 2021, Dr. Cummings joined the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Jan Roskam was a Dutch-born American aircraft designer. He was the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kansas. He was also the author of eleven books on airplane design and flight dynamics and over 160 papers on the topics of aircraft aerodynamics, performance, design and flight controls. He founded the company DARcorporation with Willem Anemaat.

Dr. Imraan Faruque is an American who is most known as a designer and author in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) field. He is the designer responsible for a variety of UAVs, including several currently operational in Iraq, the most well-known being the R-series UAVs which are based on commercial airframes, along with work on Insitu's ScanEagle. These vehicles are normally deployed as a part of reconnaissance missions as they are unarmed but carry either a significant camera or FLIR unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aerospace engineering</span> Branch of engineering

Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is similar, but deals with the electronics side of aerospace engineering.

John L. Junkins is an American academic and a distinguished professor of aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University specializing in spacecraft navigation, guidance, dynamics, and control. He holds the Royce E. Wisenbaker Endowed Chair at Texas A&M University and also serves as the Founding Director of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, since its founding in December 2010. On November 24, 2020, Junkins was announced as the interim President of Texas A&M University starting January 2021. He was the interim president until May 31, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaine Oran</span> American aerospace engineer, computer scientist, physicist

Elaine Surick Oran is an American physical scientist and is considered a world authority on numerical methods for large-scale simulation of physical systems. She has pioneered computational technology to solve complex reactive flow problems, unifying concepts from science, mathematics, engineering, and computer science in a new methodology. An incredibly diverse range of phenomena can be modeled and better understood using her techniques for numerical simulation of fluid flows, ranging from the tightly grouped movements of fish in Earth's oceans to the explosions of far-flung supernovae in space. Her work has contributed significantly to the advancement of the engineering profession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naira Hovakimyan</span> Armenian control theorist

Naira Hovakimyan is an Armenian control theorist who holds the W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins professorship of the Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the director of AVIATE Center of flying cars at UIUC, funded through a NASA University Leadership Initiative. She was the inaugural director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory during 2015–2017, associated with the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aisha Bowe</span> Bahamian-American aerospace engineer

Aisha Bowe is a Bahamian-American aerospace engineer, founder, STEM advocate, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of CEO of STEMBoard, a technology company, and LINGO, an educational tech company.

Daniel J. Inman is an American mechanical engineer, Kelly Johnson Collegiate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swati Mohan</span> American aerospace engineer

Swati Mohan is an Indian-American aerospace engineer and was the Guidance and Controls Operations Lead on the NASA Mars 2020 mission.

Victoria Chibuogu Nneji is a Nigerian-born American computer scientist, design and innovation strategist, and a lecturing fellow, known for her research on robotics, automation, human-centered design, and autonomous transportation.

Marilyn J. Smith is an American aerospace engineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balakumar Balachandran</span> Indian-American applied mathematician

Balakumar "Bala" Balachandran is an Indian-American mechanician and applied mathematician recognized for his contributions to the fields of nonlinear dynamics, experimental methodologies, and data-driven approaches. He is a Minta Martin Professor and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he serves as Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Christina Lynne Bloebaum is an American systems engineer focusing on multidisciplinary design optimization. She is the dean of the College of Aeronautics and Engineering at Kent State University.

Lana Murphy Couch (1941–2007) was an American aeronautical engineer who headed the National Aero-Space Plane program at the Langley Research Center of NASA.

Victoria Lynn Coverstone is a retired American aerospace engineer, the former chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Miami, and a professor emerita at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include spacecraft attitude control and trajectory optimization.

Kristi A. Morgansen Hill is an American control theorist specializing in nonlinear control and its applications in biologically inspired sensing and motion, including the motion of robot fish. She is Boeing-Egtvedt Endowed Professor and chair of the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington.

Amy Ruth Pritchett is an American aerospace engineer whose research concerns human–machine interaction in aeronautical and flight control applications. She is a professor at Pennsylvania State University, where she heads the Department of Aerospace Engineering.

Suzanne Weaver Smith is an American mechanical and aerospace engineer whose research involves the structural analysis of large flexible truss structures, damage detection in intelligent structures, and the use of drones to direct emergency responses. She is a professor of mechanical engineering, the former Donald and Gertrude Lester Professor in Mechanical Engineering and director of the Unmanned Systems Consortium at the University of Kentucky.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Green, Jama (May 13, 2022), "Ella Atkins appointed head of the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering", News, Virginia Tech, retrieved 2023-08-09
  2. 1 2 "Ella Atkins named Fred. D. Durham Chair in Engineering", News, Virginia Tech, June 24, 2022, retrieved 2023-08-09
  3. 1 2 About the Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, AIAA, retrieved 2023-08-09
  4. 1 2 Langnau, Leslie (October 2021), "Engineering a career in robotics and flight", Women in Engineering, Design World, retrieved 2023-08-09– via Issuu
  5. ↑ Mason O. Atkins 1921–2015, Groves Funeral Home, retrieved 2023-08-09
  6. 1 2 3 4 Curriculum vitae (PDF), University of Michigan, retrieved 2023-08-09
  7. ↑ "New Junior Miss and Her Court", Bluefield Daily Telegraph, p. 2, February 27, 1984, retrieved 2023-08-09
  8. ↑ "Minnesota teen Ager chosen Junior Miss", Winchester Star, p. 11, June 21, 1984, retrieved 2023-08-09
  9. 1 2 "Prof. Ella Atkins", Autonomous Aerospace Systems Laboratory, University of Michigan, June 16, 2016, retrieved 2023-08-09
  10. ↑ Ella Atkins at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  11. ↑ AIAA Announces Its Class of 2019 Fellows and Honorary Fellows, AIAA, February 4, 2019, retrieved 2023-08-09
  12. ↑ "Ella Atkins wins 2022 AIAA Intelligent Systems Award: Atkins is honored for her two decades of interdisciplinary systems research", Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, January 7, 2022, retrieved 2023-08-09
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.