Avion Issue 12 (Spring 2019) by The Avion

theavion.com | (386) 226-6049

Issue 12 | Volume 151 |April 23, 2019

A Campus B Industry & Technolgy

Sarah Fairchild Chief Copy Editor The world was stunned speechless Monday afternoon when reports rolled in that the Notre Dame Cathedral had caught fire. The historic place of worship had been under renovations at the time the conflagration began; and although there has been nothing conclusive, Paris police believe that the spark that set the building aflame may have been unintentionally caused by an electrical short-circuit. Regardless of how it started, videos and pictures of the towering spire of Notre Dame spewing flames from its peak was awe-inspiring, pulling on the heartstrings of all who watched. The fire damaged large portions of the 850-year-old building before

Photo Courtesy: iStock and CNN

it was finally extinguished after a raging nine hour battle. Putting out the inferno was one of the most complex operations the Paris fire service had ever undertaken, and at one point, it was feared that the entire structure might be lost. Thankfully, this was not the case; as scores of priceless artifacts were rescued from the Notre Dame and taken to the Louvre museum for safekeeping. Along with the breathtakingly beautiful trio of stained glass Rose windows, the Crown of Thorns, the Tunic of Saint Louis, and a large painting known as the “Mays de Notre Dame” were saved from the fire’s kiss. Even the great pipe organwhile damaged- was retrieved from the wreckage. Sadly, the 300 foot spire was not as fortunate, the famous belfry crashing on top of

the cathedral’s wooden roof in a shower of embers. For many, the cathedral was the heart of Paris. The gothic structure among the most visited tourist attraction in Western Europe. Now all that remains is the twin bell towers and the outer frame of the historic building. But from the ashes, hope rises anew; as donations poured in from all around the world in the days following the disaster. When all was said and done, individuals, companies, and institutions had donated or pledged 845 million euros ($950 million) to rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was a spectacle to see some of the countries wealthiest families try to one-up each other by donating the most to the cause. And the aid didn’t stop there. Ubisoft, a game company most

famous for their Assassins Creed series, chipped in another 500,000 euros to the rebuilding efforts, along with something even more valuable- the 3D map of the cathedral as it was. The Notre Dame is a prominent feature in Assasins Creed: Unity, and the game developers were allowed exclusive access to map the ageold cathedral for the game. Ubisoft also made the game free to play so that users could experience the virtual landmark as it was before the fire. President Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild the Notre Dame within five years’ time, and is already making preparations for an international architecture competition to design a new spire. The soul of France may have been burned, but - like the spirit of its people - it has not broken.

Composite by: Sarah Fairchild, Rajan Khanna, K’Andrew France-Beckford

THE AVION

A2 Campus

Executive Board

Editor-in-Chief Jaclyn Wiley Managing Editor K’Andrew France-Beckford News Editor Nick Hernandez Business Manager Alex Lee Photo Editor Vipul Telang

Page Editors Cover Editor K’Andrew France-Beckford Campus Editors Alex Lee Rajan Khanna Vipul Telang Chirag Mehrotra Industry Editors Jaclyn Wiley Sarah Fairchild Jorja Gwaltney Jack Rachek Michael Shekari Andrew Bronshetyn Denise Smith Comics Editor Alex Lee Copy Editors Jordyn Taylor Sarah Fairchild

Contributors

Reporters Photographers

David Keck Christina Frederick Michael Shekari Michael Pierce Jaclyn Wiley Michael Weinhoffer

Rajan Khanna Sarah Fairchild Vipul Telang Chirag Mehrotra

Staff Advisor Ronnie Mack Asst. Director, Media & Marketing

Contact Information Main Phone: (386) 226-6049 Business Manager: (386) 226-7697 Editor-In-Chief: editor@theavion.com Managing Editor: managing@theavion.com News Editor: news@theavion.com Business Manager: business@theavion.com Photo Editor: photo@theavion.com

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The Avion is produced weekly during the fall and spring term, and bi-weekly during summer terms. The Avion is produced by a volunteer student staff. Student editors make all content, business and editorial decisions. The editorial opinions expressed in The Avion are solely the opinion of the undersigned writer(s), and not those of EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University, the Student Government Association, The Avion, or the student body. Letters appearing in The Avion are those of the writer, identified at the end of the letter. Opinions expressed in the “Student Government” and “Student Life” sections are those of the identified writer. Letters may be submitted to The Avion for publication, provided they are not lewd, obscene or libelous. Letter writers must confine themselves to less than 800 words. Letters may be edited for brevity and formatted to newspaper guidelines. All letters must be signed. Names may be withheld at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. The Avion is an open forum for student expression. The Avion is a division of the Student Government Association. The Avion is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press. The costs of this publication are paid by the Student Government Association and through advertising fees. The Avion distributes one free copy per person. Additional copies are $0.75. Theft of newspapers is a crime, and is subject to prosecution and Embry-Riddle judicial action. This newspaper and its contents are protected by United States copyright law. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, in print or electronically, without the expressed written consent of The Avion. Correspondence may be addressed to: The Avion Newspaper, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, Florida 32114. Physical office: Student Union, Room 219.

relationship advice

weekly

Reverend David Keck & Dr. Christina Frederick

Dear HumanE Factors, My girlfriend was very close to her grandmother. Her grandmother was pretty much her caregiver, role model, and parent figure. She was a pretty special older person. Unfortunately, she just passed away and my girlfriend is devastated. She took it really hard and is very sad. I feel so bad for my girlfriend, but I have no idea what the right thing to do or say might be. How can I help her through this?

Dr. Frederick’s Reply:

However, you may be surprised or a little fearful when this happens. You may feel overwhelmed or want to run away. I’m here to tell you to breathe, accept the sorrow you may take in and then let it go. You can even visualize on your exhale that as you’ve taken in the sorrow, you are now releasing peace back out into the world. Unless you understand yourself and your reactions to the situation, you may not be as effective in helping your girlfriend. Ok, now let’s turn to how you directly help your girlfriend. More than anything, I’d say be present with her. Maybe she’ll want to talk, or maybe she’ll just want to be quiet. Rather than pressing her to talk it out or asking a hundred times if she’s ok, I’d recommend telling her (which I’m guessing you’ve already done) that you are there for her, and whether she’s sad or grumpy or crying, you aren’t going anywhere. Then you can ask her ‘how can I help you?’ She may not have an answer right away, and that’s ok. The good news is that you don’t

have to be anyone but yourself for her and you don’t have to tiptoe around like you’re on eggshells. You don’t have to be strong and silent if that isn’t you. You don’t have to give up your sense of humor or your own personality. Just be yourself and be present. It’s ok to do something nice for her, like bring her food if she’s not eating, help her with laundry, or do the dishes for her. If you are open, she’ll talk when she’s ready. What you can do is be ready to listen. In this immediate time right after losing someone, it’s common to feel like life won’t ever be the same again. The wonderful thing about humans though is that even in the middle of our sadness, most of us begin to realize we will survive the loss and we want to get back to a routine that feels more normal. It may take your girlfriend a week, or a month to begin the healing process, but the more we have people who care about us holding our hand as we get back to our regular lives, the better we tend to be.

Chaplain Keck’s Reply:

midst of disruption, simple, stable continuity is powerful. Metaphors of anchor and rock come to mind. Dr. Frederick encourages you to practice self-awareness. That’s absolutely essential. If you are nervous, uncomfortable, etc. about how she is feeling, what she says (or doesn’t say), that will only make it harder for her. She will pick up on that, and she may start responding to your needs (or feeling guilty about causing you pain), which is not what you want. Practice what Dr. Frederick recommends to pray for help, if you are a person of prayer. In any time of stress, if we can be comfortable, others can relax. Sometimes chaplains talk about being a non-anxious presence – we can reduce tensions simply by remaining calm and focused. Speaking of chaplains and other “professionals,” Linda Bloom, the Director of our Counseling Center and I agree that the most important people in caring for those who are grieving are the friends. We are always available, and it might be the case that your girlfriend would benefit from sorting out something with us, but what she needs most now are those who already provide stability, order, meaning, and joy in their lives. The disruption of grief is awful, but it is also perfectly normal (it is a consequence, after all, of being human and loving). Sometimes we pathologize what’s simply natural because we are afraid of its intensity and effects. By being your best, thoughtful, calm self, she can see that what she is going through is not abnormal or a threat to you or your rela-

tionship. Many years ago, when my mother died, a friend of mine who had never met my mother simply said, “Tell me about your mom.” This was an invitation I’ve never forgotten. In the midst of my grief, she signaled to me that she was ready to be there with and for me, that she was willing to share my sorrow, and that she wanted to know about someone who meant so much to me, thereby showing me that I mattered to her. Sometimes, we are looking for the right words to say, but so often, it is a matter of listening. Spider Robinson wrote a great series of short stories about a bar called Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon. The essential point of these narratives is to bring out the truth of the fact that “shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased.” Invite your girlfriend to tell you about her grandma and what she meant to her. You cannot change the reality of her grandmother’s death, but you can change the experience, lessening the pain and sharing the joy of all the good her grandmother did. There will be times when you feel like you are not doing enough and you would like to do more. We never really know what difference we are making – the person we care for may not even be aware of it – so sometimes we simply need to trust that somehow being there and listening is enough. The process of patching the wall, resetting the dinner table, and establishing a new normal takes time, but with your steady, nonanxious help, she will do it.

First, let me say, I think I might nominate you for “Boyfriend of the Year” because it’s obvious you care very much for your girlfriend and have a great deal of empathy for what she’s going through. You see she’s hurting, and you want to help. At the same time, it’s never easy to decide what a person who is grieving may want or need. In her pain, your girlfriend may not be thinking clearly or acting like herself and while in normal times, you may understand her every whim, right now you feel out of your element. You may also worry that if you do or say the wrong thing, she may push you away or reject you. I’m going to fall back on my Buddhist perspective for some advice today. First, make sure that you are thinking clearly, present and breathing deeply when you are interacting with your girlfriend. Realize that as an empathetic and compassionate person, you may also feel her pain and take it in. That is normal and shows your depth of care.

You indicate that your girlfriend is taking her grandmother’s death really hard and is very sad. Such responses are what happens when you love someone. To love is to risk sorrow. When a close family member dies, it is like sitting together at the dinner table when a wrecking ball smashes a huge hole in one wall. What had been stable becomes chaotic – dust and debris are all over, winds come in and whip everything around, and everyone is trying to figure out what to do. Just getting a board over the hole to make the room livable takes a colossal amount of effort, and then there will be the need to patch it properly, paint it, clean everything up, and make the room part of a home again. Death is often this disruptive, and it helps to begin by acknowledging the depth of the problem. The simple answer to your question about what to say and do is to be yourself. Be the genuine, honest, human presence Dr. Frederick already sees in you. Please don’t try to be anyone other than the person your girlfriend already cares for. If you can be yourself, that frees her to be herself and to do whatever she needs to do – cry, sit silently, share stories, go on a cleaning binge. Your girlfriend may be feeling pressures to be strong, or she may be worried about how the family will fall apart, come to blows, or open old wounds. She may or may not be aware of what all the winds are doing in her heart as they blow in through the hole in the wall. In the

Constantly Changing Michael Shekari Staff Reporter If there is anything that ever remains constant at Embry-Riddle, it is change. Since the fall of 2014, only five academic years ago, the Daytona Beach campus and university at large has changed radically, in everything from enrollment to the physical facilities on campus, to financial performance and university leadership. In the fall of 2014, total undergraduate enrollment was 4,967, whereas in the fall of this academic year total undergraduate enrollment reached 5,984 according to data from the university’s institutional research department. However, not only has the size of the undergraduate population changed, but so has its make-up. In the fall of 2014 women accounted for only 19 percent of the undergraduate population, by the fall of this academic year that number increased to 23 percent. The change shows significant progress in favor of gender diversity on the Daytona Beach

campus. However, the ethnic diversity of the campus has remained relatively flat in the same period. There are also many buildings on campus that existed in 2014 that are no longer around, such as the old Hunt Library, Propellers restaurant, McKay Hall, which was replaced by the New Residence Hall buildings, and the John Paul Riddle Student Center, which for now is the university’s newest greenspace. However, there have also been several completely new additions to the Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach community, including the MicaPlex research building and an upcoming development to give the Eagle Flight Research Center a new facility. These changes have been generally good for the Embry-Riddle community, improving the quality of life and research prowess of the campus. However, there have also been several changes over the last five years that could be viewed in a less favorable light, such as the discontinuation of the biannual Wings and Waves air show in 2016 and requiring all newly admitted tradi-

tional students to live on university-owned property for their first two years. However, what is most alarming from a student’s perspective is that the gap between the university’s revenues and expenses are growing at an exponential rate. In the 2014 through 2015 fiscal year, the university generated $10 million more in total revenue than in total expenses, which is an understandable amount considering the university needs funds in excess of operating expenses to continue to grow. However, the most recent financial data available from institutional research shows that in the 2016 through 2017 fiscal year, the university generated $31 million more than operating expenses, with the largest source of revenue growth being from tuition. Meanwhile, the cost of tuition at the university has risen by 15.3 percent since the fall of 2014, and wage growth in the workforce remains sluggish, making the return on investment for academic degrees less favorable for students. It is also important to note that the

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Campus A3

university came under new leadership in 2017, with Dr. P. Barry Butler being appointed the sixth president of Embry-Riddle by the board of trustees after the retirement of Dr. John P. Johnson, who served as Embry-Riddle president for 12 years, in 2016. Regardless of what the future holds, change at the university is inevitable. Much like the change that every single student undergoes to grow during their journey at Embry-Riddle, including that of this student reporter. With this being my final reporting as an undergraduate student at Embry-Riddle, I would like to thank all of our readers and my fellow staff at The Avion Newspaper over the last five years for giving me the opportunity to report on campus, industry, national, world, and human-interest topics as I grew in my student-journalist journey. I look forward to returning to campus in the fall as a graduate student and continuing to serve the student body by bringing the news and information you need and want to know.

Vipul Telang/The Avion Newspaper

The Society of Women’s Engineers (SWE) was presented with one of many awards that they won during the Student Involvement Awards on Thursday evening.

Vipul Telang/The Avion Newspaper

Deb Padgett, Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, presents Charlie Brock of Phi Gamma Delta the Fraternity Member of the Year.

Vipul Telang/The Avion Newspaper

Ronnie Mack, Chair of the Taste Development Committee, personally presented the Student Veterans Organization with the Food-Related Achievement for their weekly Thursday BBQ.

THE AVION

A4 Peach Belt Championship MEN

Track and Field

WOMEN

Michael Pierce ERAU Athletics

The Embry-Riddle men’s track & field team repeated as Peach Belt Conference Champions on Saturday, winning the conference meet by more than 100 points over runner-up North Carolina – Pembroke. The Eagles racked up a total of 271.5 points, besting UNC – Pembroke (169 Points), Nova Southeastern (135), Augusta (119.5), and Columbus State (77). ERAU also received a pair individual honor, as Brodie Lubelski was named the PBC Men’s Field Athlete of the Year and Head Coach Mike Rosolino was named the PBC Men’s Track & Field Coach of the Year. The Blue and Gold got the day off to a dominating start, collecting 37 of the 39 points in the hammer. Terrence Bobet won the event (46.60m), followed by Zackary Carpenter (46.40m), Michael Haynes (45.26m), Lubelski (42.31m), Kenny Onubogu (40.84m), and Carlos Guillermo (38.87m), as ERAU swept the top six spots. Ronald Tom also finished eighth with a mark of 37.11m. ERAU added 11.5 points in the high jump thanks to Lonnie Marts’ top mark of 1.92m and Steva Wijayasinha’s tie for seventh at 1.80m. Embry-Riddle capped the field events with another dominant performance, this time in the shot put. Lubelski won the event by almost seven feet, finishing with a mark of 16.24m, while Carpenter took second (14.17m). Marts was fourth (13.24m), followed by Bobet (12.99m), Onubogu (12.70m), Luis Rivera (12.16m), and Haynes (11.54m), giving the Blue and Gold 33 of the 39 points in the event. For the meet, ERAU won 140 of the 156 points available in the throwing events. On the track, Shaun Bullock scored two points with a seventh-place time of 15:31.74 in the 5000m. The Eagles then got seven points from the 110m hurdles with Connor Guinnfinishing fifth (15.16), just ahead of Jahi Deloatch (15.18), who was sixth. Josiah Soto scored eight points with a second-place finish in the 400m (48.10), just two-hundredths of a second ahead of Henri Delauze, who added six points for finishing third (18.12). Lonnie Marts tacked on four points in the 100m with a fifthplace time of 10.72, and the Eagles got 14 points in the 800m thanks to Calahan Warren (1:53.63, 2nd) and Drew Hart(1:54.89, 3rd). Marts also scored five points for finishing fourth in the 200m (22.72), with Delauze scoring six points in the same event with a third-place time of 22.66. In the 400m hurdles, Marcus Pryor earned five points with a fourth-place time of 56.40, while Deloatch added two points for finishing seventh (58.89). The final individual event of the meet was the 1500m, where Warren was the individual champion (4:02.24), while Hart (4:09.60, 7th) and Austin Epstein (4:10.74) also finished in the points. The Eagles closed out the meet with a sixth-place finish in the 4x400m relay, as the team of Ryan Bethell, Will Rice, Bryce Walker, and Andrew Mappes posted a time of 3:22.34 to score the final three points of the day for ERAU. The Eagles will now have a month to prepare for the NCAA II Outdoor National Championships, which are slated for May 23-25 in Kingsville, Texas.

The Embry-Riddle women’s track & field team took home its second straight Peach Belt Conference Championship on Saturday, finishing ahead of North Carolina - Pembroke and Nova Southeastern. The Eagles tallied a total of 207.5 points, with UNC – Pembroke second with 174.5 points and NSU third with 96 points. Clayton State (94) and North Georgia (90.5) rounded out the top five. The Eagles also took home a handful of individual awards. Ukeyvia Beckwith was named the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year, while Sophia Gustely took home the Women’s Field Athlete of the Year and Women’s Freshman Field Athlete of the Year honors. Christina Isenard opened the day as the individual champion in the shot put, scoring 10 points for the team with her winning distance of 12.68m. Paige Bussard followed up with an individual win in the hammer (44.82m), adding 10 more points to the team total. Isenard took seventh in the event (40.36m) to score two points as well. ERAU made it a clean sweep of the field events on Saturday when Beckwith won the high jump with a mark of 1.71m, giving the Eagles another 10 points. Beckwith’s height also broke the school record in the high jump and was good for a provisional standard. On the track, Josie Gray scored five points by finishing fourth in the 5000m (18:53.40), just ahead of Sarah Edens (19:10.12), who collected three points for finishing sixth in the only morning running event. Kamri Roan kicked off the afternoon with a fifth-place finish in the 100m hurdles with a time of 15.66 to add four points to the team total. Beckwith then scored 10 points with another individual title as she won the 400m in 56.14. In the 800m, Beckwith took second in 2:19.27, while Kristen Metcalfe won the race in 2:14.60, giving ERAU 18 points in the event. Tamara Chambers added five points to the team tally with her fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles, posting a time of 1:06.20. Breona Butts followed that with a sixth-place effort in the 200m, scoring three points with a time of 26.86. Metcalfe picked up her second individual title of the day in the 1500m, winning with a time of 4:50.22, nearly five seconds faster than her nearest competitor. Nicole Kvitkauskaus was third in the event (4:55.56), with Beckwith placing fourth (4:58.35). The final event of the meet was the 4x400m relay, where the team of Metcalfe, Beckwith, Butts, and Daisha Brown clocked a 4:04.25 to place fifth, scoring the final four points of the day. For the day, Beckwith totaled 37 points in the span of less than two hours, winning the high jump and 400m, placing second in the 800m, fourth in the 1500m, and fifth in the 4x400m relay. Rosolino referred to her performance on Saturday as “nothing short of heroic.”

Chirag Mehrotra/The Avion Newspaper

The 2018-2019 ERAU Women’s Track & Field team took home their second straight Peach Belt Championship on Saturday with a total of 207.5 points.

Rajan Khanna/The Avion Newspaper

Paige Bussard receives her first-place medal after placing first in the hammer. Her throw of 147’0” just edged out her competition by half a foot. She also placed second in the discus.

Rajan Khanna/The Avion Newspaper

Ukeyvia Beckwith was named the Women’s Track Athlete of the Year for the Peach Belt Conference. She earned 37 points on Saturday, including victories in the 400m and high jump.

Next Meet Rajan Khanna/The Avion Newspaper

The 2018-2019 ERAU Men’s Track & Field team poses after winning the Peach Belt Championship. The Eagles came out victorious after the three-day meet in Daytona Beach, Florida.

NCAA II Outdoor Championships

Kingsville, Texas· May 23 - May 25

Photos: Rajan Khanna/The Avion Newspaper

Composite: Jaclyn Wiley/The Avion Newspaper

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B2 Technology SWE’s Soaring Success

Brooke Linendoll SWE President This year was an exciting year for the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Collegiate Section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The first major event of the year was when ERAU SWE participated in the annual Society of Women Engineers National Conference from October 18 through 20 in Minneapolis. 42 female engineering students attended this conference with Faculty Co-Advisor Claudia Ehringer Lucas, with over 75% of the students attending for the first time. This provided an early introduction to the industry for a number of these students, as 25% of the attendees from ERAU were freshmen. The conference was full of relevant and interesting presentations on a wide variety of diverse topics, from Lean Six Sigma Certifications to Resume Preparation. Many of the participants were particularly interested in seeing that there is no limit to the success of female engineers at the presentation on Powerful Women at NASA and the information session with the CEO of Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson. Equally as important to those that attended, the career fair associated with the conference was a major success for the attendees, with nearly 66% of the attendees being interviewed by companies on-site at the conference. This led to numerous

internship opportunities at a variety of major engineering companies for ERAU students, allowing these students to gain a critical entry into the realm of professional engineering. Each year SWE at ERAU hosts the Introduce a Girl to Engineering Workshop (IGEW) on campus to promote the growth of women in the STEM field. This event focuses on inviting local 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade female students, especially from Title I schools, and providing them with an educational and fun day filled with five different interactive STEM experiments. This event is organized and run by SWE members with the help of other volunteers. Dr. Kelsey Rodgers, SWE Faculty Co-Advisor, stated “Women bring an instrumental, diverse perspective to engineering that is critical for our success in striving to address engineering grand challenges. Although diversity is of fundamental importance, women continue to be underrepresented in the engineering workforce. IGEW hosted here at ERAU by the invested SWE student members is an incredible initiative to help introduce hundreds of elementary students (targeting young girls, but not exclusive to) that may not ever have the opportunity to learn about engineering or more importantly be told they too can be an engineer. I believe all the students who attend this event will find a role model that inspires them and will leave fascinated by opportunities in STEM fields. Programs like this one

IGEW volunteers and participating students

are of extreme importance in changing the future face of engineering.” On March 2, 2019, SWE proudly hosted over 200 young girls and had 64 volunteers! This year the theme of each module was “a day in the life of a ____ engineer”, where the girls were able to explore aspects of civil, aerospace, marine, chemical, and mechanical engineering. The experiments included floam, a sensory slime highlighting chemical reactions, yacht party, a clay boat activity to teach the girls about buoyancy, cargo carriers, a competitive paper airplane contest featuring the addition of carrying green army men and a discussion of the aerodynamics of an airplane, marble roller coaster, a thrilling activity to explore kinetic and potential energy by designing a roller coaster out of pipe insulation and undergoing testing with a marble, and lastly concrete legos, a fun experiment with mixing concrete

Photo Courtesy: Society for Women Engineers

and discussing the material as well as its difference to cement. The objective of these experiments is to help strengthen the girl’s teamwork skills as well as provide them with an educational background to each topic in a fun way. In addition to these modules, each girl was provided a lunch, event t-shirt, signed certificate of completion, and a goodie bag. Many parents reached out to the organization after the event to discuss how much their children enjoyed IGEW. According to a participant’s grandfather, Neil Nugent, “My granddaughter Anna attended this program in 2018 & 2019. The Embry-Riddle students were professional and wonderful role models for the girls. We could not have been more impressed with this exciting and fun-filled rare opportunity. We look forward to returning with her younger sister Elena."

Continued on B7

A “Plug” for Smart Devices

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UX Corner B3

Chris and Kelly are students in the Research in User eXperience (RUX) Lab in the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology. RUX investigates the usability and user experience of technology in our everyday world. This is a regular column that explores different technologies typically used by Embry-Riddle students. Christopher Rarick Graduate Researcher Kelly Harris Undergraduate Researcher Smart homes are no longer a thing of science fiction. With products like Google Home and Amazon Echo, controlling aspects of your home is easier and more affordable than ever. Smart home devices simplify everyday life by allowing users to perform a variety of tasks from one gadget. You can play music, set reminders, take calls, ask questions, read the news, dim the lights, adjust the thermostat, and more by interacting with your smart home device through voice commands and companion apps. Another way that you can control devices in your home that don’t necessarily have smart capabilities is by connecting a Google Home Mini or Amazon Echo Dot to a smart plug. These smart plug devices allow a smart home assistant such as the Google Home Mini or Amazon Echo Dot to turn them on and off with either voice commands or by setting a schedule. When this happens, the device that is plugged into the smart plug will turn on or off. We used dscout, a mobile application in which participants filled out surveys and recorded videos of themselves using the smart home device and smart plug. The advantage of using dscout was that participants could interact with the smart device, plug in their own home and do it all on their own time. A limitation of dscout was that it did not provide all of the video feedback from participants, which is an issue that could strongly affect data collection. How Does It Work? We have five participants either an Amazon Echo Dot or a Google Home Mini and asked them to connect it with a smart plug given to them. All tasks were completed in the participants own home. Be-

fore the participants began the process they were asked questions related to their familiarity with the devices. All participants knew of the smart plug concept and had some idea of what it can do. When participants were asked what feature or function they most look forward to, the popular response was turning on or off appliances using voice commands and not having to do it physically. One participant was looking forward to being able to turn on and off their lights when they are not at home. Lastly, participants were asked how they hope the smart plug will improve the way they currently use devices. One participant said, “It will give me the ability to understand how different devices work and patience with new technology that can benefit my everyday life.” What Did They Do? The first task that participants were given was to connect the smart plug to either the Google Home Mini or the Amazon Echo Dot. The purpose of this task was to see if the process for setting up the smart plug device differed between smart home devices. The participants who used the Google Home Mini had a difficult time connecting the smart home device with the smart plug, while the participants with the Amazon Echo Dot had no problems. One participant explains that the Echo, “does everything for you; it takes cares of all the setup process and the sinking between the two devices.” The difficulty for the Google Home Mini stems from its menu in the Google Home App, where it is difficult to locate the third party smart plug that was made for both the Google Home and Amazon Echo. One participant was frustrated with connecting the Google Home to the Smart plug because “the labels aren’t clear in the Google Home app.” The Amazon Echo Dot was able to pair very quickly with its smart plug since the

Image Courtesy/Lifewire

smart plug used with the Echo was made to be used solely with the Echo. The devices that the participants used the most to plug into the smart plug were lamps or string lights. The difficulty of the smart plug when used with a lamp was rated very easy. Participants also found that connecting their fan to the smart plug was very easy. One participant puts her fan on the ground for her dog to stay cool and has set up a routine so that every morning when she leaves for school the fan turns on for her dog. This participant explains that, “setting up a routine for the smart plug is fairly easy on the Google Home app.” A participant who connected their coffee machine to the smart plug and used Alexa to turn it on, also found it to be easy saying, “you can turn it on from any room as long as the smart home device hears your voice.” Another participant attempted to connect their PlayStation with the smart plug, hoping that they would be able to start up their device or shut it down but instead they were unsuccessful due to the PlayStation system’s built-in safeguards. Assessing the User Experience After participants unboxed and set up both the smart home device and the smart plug, they were given the User Experience Questionnaire Short or UEQ Short. This questionnaire is a rating of the pragmatic or practical and hedonic (pleasantness) of the device. The UEQ Short was given both after setup of the devices during their initial impressions and at the end of the study before creating their experience roadmap. The difference between the UEQ results before the tasks were given to after the tasks were completed is that the user perceptions change from what they know about the device to interacting with it and using it. By looking at the graphs, we can see that perceived pragmatic qualities

dropped significantly while perceived hedonic qualities increased very slightly. RUX Lab Recommendation If you read our previous article on smart home devices, you know that the Google Home Mini and the Amazon Echo Dot each have their pros and cons. The Google Home Mini is slightly more capable of understanding human speech and creating complicated routines. The Amazon Echo Dot is more practical when trying to make purchases and using the app was a little easier. This study took a look at more of a practical approach: If you wanted to make your “dumb” devices smarter, do you use the Amazon Echo Dot or the Google Home Mini? By using a smart plug and configuring when a device receives power, people can make devices that are innately not very complicated and make them follow a schedule and turn on or off very easily. We found that more complicated devices, such as a PlayStation 4 and TVs do not respond well to the smart plug. These devices have electronic on/ off switches and are intended to be continuously powered. One participant even remarked that her Playstation 4 “got mad at her,” for turning it on and off with the plug. On the other hand, participants that used the smart plug with simple devices such as a cheap coffee maker, a toaster oven, lights, and fans were able to create routines and turn the devices on or off with ease. Imagine waking up in the morning to the smell of freshly brewed coffee from your $10 coffee maker; with a smart plug and a smart home device, you could make that possible! The overall experience that participants had with the smart home device and smart plug was positive. However, some participants felt that they “needed more time to play around with it” or “not everything worked as they wanted it to.”

Image Courtesy/CNBC

The Crew Dragon Anomaly was a Disaster. But It Could Have Been Much Worse.

On Apr. 20, SpaceX experienced an anomaly with its Crew Dragon capsule at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. The anomaly occurred during an engine test, and the extent of the damage to the capsule has not been confirmed. Until the cause of the anomaly is known and understood, the potential impact to the Crew Dragon system cannot be properly determined, though it will likely be major. The Crew Dragon capsule is being developed by SpaceX as part of the NASA Commercial Crew Program. While it will majorly impact the Commercial Crew Program, the SpaceX Crew Dragon anomaly is not a deathblow for the program. The goal of NASA's Commercial Crew Program is to return human spaceflight capability to the United States by engaging commercial companies to develop human spaceflight systems in Public-Private Partnerships. When designing the Commercial Crew Program, NASA had two main objectives in mind: safety and redundancy. When designing the Commercial Crew Program, NASA ensured that its primary responsibility was to ensure the safety of the astronauts that will eventually ride on either Partner’s capsule. Safety requirements were given to the Partners from the beginning, around which they had to design their systems. These safety requirements were partially performance-based, rather than prescriptive requirements. This means that the Partners were able to creatively design their systems to meet the requirements, rather than build to the exact design NASA provided.

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This is why we test.

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Since the requirements were performance-based, NASA has to test the performance of the Partner systems to ensure that those safety requirements were being met. The testing was at every level, from the smallest subsystem to the completed and fully integrated capsule. It was during one of these tests that the Crew Dragon capsule suffered its anomaly. In a tweet released on Saturday, NASA Administrator James Bridenstine stated, “This is why we test. We will learn, make the necessary adjustments, and safely more forward with our Commercial Crew Program.” Not only does the testing help to prove the safety of the systems, but also identify hidden areas of weakness while the can

Fast Facts

still be fixed. An error caught early enough can be fixed, even if it delays the program. That is far more superior than an error caught too late. The anomaly likely dealt major damage to the Crew Dragon capsule, which was flown to the International Space Station earlier this year as part of the uncrewed Demo-1 mission. The smoke from the anomaly, which occurred at the SpaceX test stand near Landing Zone 1, could be seen for miles. The capsule involved in the anomaly was also scheduled to be used in the in-flight pad abort test later this year. It is unlikely that the capsule will be able to be used for this test, meaning that SpaceX may need to utilize the capsule designated for the crewed test flight for the in-flight abort test.

Anomaly Q&A Q: What was the purpose of this test? A: After recovering the capsule, the SpaceX team was conducting test to determine flight worthiness for an upcoming mission. Q: How will this affect the crewed launch timeline? A: It is unconfirmed, however, delays are expected to push the launch date into 2020. Q: Is SpaceX the only company making a capsule like this?

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A: No, Boeing is also developing a crew capsule with NASA, the CST100 Starliner.

The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.

Q: What is the Commercial Crew Program?

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Jaclyn Wiley Editor-in-Chief

A: The Commercial Crew Program, created in 2010, is a NASA development program that is partnering with the commercial companies SpaceX and Boeing to create new human transport spacecraft.

The massive delay potentially caused by the SpaceX anomaly might have stymied the entire Commercial Crew Program, but NASA also included a focus on redundancy. Redundancy, in this case, does not refer to something that is unnecessary or obsolete. Instead, there are two Commercial Partners; if one falters, the other is still there and can keep moving forward. Redundancy provides flexibility in the face of anomalies, like the April 20 incident. Both Partners are engaged in the final stages of designing and testing systems that will carry humans to the International Space Station. Even though the SpaceX system may be delayed majorly, Boeing is unimpacted and can continue to progress. Though the SpaceX anomaly was unfortunate for the Commercial Crew Program, it could have been much more impactful. The anomaly occurred during a scheduled test, rather than a test flight or crewed mission, and the authorities have confirmed that no one was harmed. NASA planned for the worst when designing the Commercial Crew Program, and now that the worst has happened, and can move forward, battered but not broken. *Disclosure: the author of this article was previously an intern with both the Commercial Crew Program and the NASA Commercial Spaceflight Development Division, which oversees the Commercial Crew Program*

Development Timeline: 2015:

SpaceX and Boeing are selected to build commercial crew capsules for NASA.

2015:

SpaceX completes first pad abort test of Crew Dragon.

2016: Crew Dragon propulsive

landing system is tested for the first time.

2018:

SpaceX finalizes Falcon 9 rocket design for Crew Dragon.

2018:

First Crew Dragon capsule arrives at Cape Canaveral.

2018:

SpaceX crew access arm installed at LC-39A.

2018:

Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon roll out to the pad for fit checks and static fire.

2019:

Successful launch of Crew Dragon.

2019:

Successful docking of Crew Dragon with the International Space Station (ISS).

2019:

Crew Dragon undocks with the ISS and successfully splash lands in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX successfully recovers the capsule. Rajan Khanna/The Avion Newspaper

2019:

Anomaly confirmed during engine test of Dragon.

THE AVION

Space B5 Opinion: CCP Anomaly

THE AVION

B6 Space

Opinion: Tonight in the Night Sky: Billboards? Michael Weinhoffer Senior Reporter A Russian startup called StartRocket recently gained attention when the Russian subsidiary of Pepsi announced that they would utilize the company’s “orbital billboards” to advertise an energy drink. Pepsi later announced that the company was only exploring the possibility of working with StartRocket, and had no firm plans with the startup. StartRocket plans to use small satellites with a combination of reflective material and LEDs to display advertisements in space that can be seen around the world after sunset. Imagine gazing up at the night sky and seeing a giant ad for a company like Apple or Pepsi float across your field of view. While such a constellation of satellites would generate a large amount of revenue for public corporations, there are both legal and scientific implications of the startup’s plan that must be scrutinized.

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Advertising in space seems to be simply a wasteful and expensive way of ruining the view of the night sky.

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StartRocket’s satellites, if they are indeed designed to serve as an orbital advertisement, would be legally prohibited from launching on a U.S. rocket. Under U.S. law, such a payload would be considered an “obtrusive space advertisement,” since it does not provide any scientific value and would likely interfere with astronomical observations around the world. The FAA, which regulates U.S. commercial space transportation along with commercial aviation, would not let such a payload fly. However, StartRocket should be able to launch their satellites on a non-U.S.-rocket without dif-

ficulty, and there is nothing anyone can do to prevent that. The Outer Space Treaty, which is an international treaty that governs national and private space activities, makes no mention of orbital advertising, similar to its lack of mention of space mining or space tourism. However, an orbital advertisement that somehow interferes with another nation’s space activities would not be in the spirit of cooperation among nations in outer space. StartRocket has assured the public that the advertisements will only be seen for no more than six minutes from one location and will only be visible at night. Nonetheless, the satellite constellation would certainly be a talking piece. Astronomers from around the world have shared their views on StartRocket’s plans. Robert Massey, deputy executive director of England’s Royal Astronomical Society, said, “Advertising in space seems to be simply a wasteful and expensive way of ruining the view of the night sky. Light pollution on the ground makes it difficult enough already to see the sky - the stars and the Milky Way - from many locations, and advertising in space is a way of destroying that beautiful vista from the remaining unsullied sites.” Patrick Seitzer, an astronomer at the University of Michigan, stated, “Launching projects like this with no commercial, scientific, or national security value seems

Image Courtesy/StartRocket

unwise. Space is getting increasingly crowded. There are over 20,000 objects with orbits in the official public catalog maintained by the U.S. Air Force. Less than 10 percent of those objects are active satellites—the rest are dead satellites, old rocket bodies and parts of spacecraft.” Rocket Lab, the New Zealand-based launch provider for small satellites, launched a reflective ball called the “Humanity Star” on their rocket’s second flight in 2018. Even though it did not stay in orbit for long, it generated talk about launching objects into orbit that only have

visual, and not scientific, value. Ironically, Vlad Sitnikov, founder of StartRocket, thought of his space billboard idea after learning about the Humanity Star. Sitnikov and others at StartRocket have pushed back against critics, arguing that the orbital billboards would only be illuminated over large cities, and that the system could be used to display important messages during a natural disaster. An orbital billboard could provide a large amount of revenue to major public corporations, and it is a technologically feasible concept. Such a project would be a new innovation, but besides that, it does not provide any scientific benefits to us on Earth. Scientific exploration has been and should continue to be the underlying goal of space research and exploration. Is this idea a gateway to more artistic ventures in outer space and is therefore worthy of endorsement, or is it just a well-intentioned but poorly designed way for corporations to attract more customers? We won't know the answer for at least a few years, but it is certainly a fun topic to debate for all stakeholders involved.

Sarah Fairchild Chief Copy Editor Before the birds even began singing the morning of Tuesday, April 16, a handful of students were already hard at work in the Q Hangar, hooking up external and hydraulic power to a Lear jet. A few more preparations needed completion, and as the sun began to rise on Daytona Beach, the students of Professor Geraci's AMS 365 class were finally ready. It was the day of a major project for the students, testing the Lear's landing gear system. The classes were split up into four teams: one stationed at each of the gears, and one manning the plumb bob (a simple device that indicates when the plane is straight and level). At the student’s direction, Professor Geraci called for the jacking of the various gears, relying completely on the judgment of the class to lift the aircraft from the ground. “[The students] have to learn to work as a team without [teacher] input," Geraci commented. The gear swing project is not only a test of the system but also an evaluation of the class' ability to communicate and coordinate. Once the wheels were off the ground, the real test began. Sending students in groups of two into the Lear cockpit, Geraci instructed them to raise and lower the landing gear while their classmates gathered around the main struts

Society of Women Engineers Continued from B2

In addition to working with the children, the parents were invited to attend the "Parent Module," a presentation by SWE's advisors and member Daniella Rios Romero on the importance of keeping young girls involved in STEM. This presentation is important to positively expose the girls to STEM by encouraging parents to support their child to pursue it as a career.

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At the 2018/2019 Student Involvement Awards, SWE was honored to receive two organization awards and Gold Wing status

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During this presentation, Claudia Ehringer Lucas emphasized "As a mother of a young daughter, my hope is for her to grow up in a world where her intelligence and creativeness are fully nurtured, where parents and society teach girls from a young age that they, too, can achieve their full potential. Programs such as IGEW are instrumental in us reaching this goal, as they help to foster the innate and assumed diversity that this – and all professions – require." Parents

to get an up-close view of the hydraulic mechanisms. During the cycling of the gear, the professor altered the amount of hydraulic pressure to show how the landing gear would operate under various conditions, even going so far as to demonstrate what would occur should the hydraulic system fail. This required performing an emergency blow-down of the wheels via pneumatic pressure. "This is the best project ever," said one student. "Not only do you learn about the mechanics behind the system in class, but now you can actually see them in action. You don’t get to do that in many other classes.” As the four-hour long class drew to a close, the students performed a pre-flight inspection of the old bird, noting areas of corrosion, holes in the radome, cracks in door seals, and more. They wrote down their discovered discrepancies and discussed how that might affect the airworthiness of the Lear jet. Having reported their findings to the professor, it was time to bring the aircraft back down to earth and button up all of the removed access panels. The Lear jet will soon be removed from its temporary home in the hangar, left to wait outside until the next group of young technicians comes to swing the gear. As far as hands-on learning goes, the gear swing project is one that continues to hit it out of the park. had the opportunity to ask questions, ranging from the event itself to possible future outreach opportunities. This event would not have been made possible without the generous help of our donors including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Exxon Mobil, the Dean of Students office, and other local sponsors. The members of the IGEW committee spent over 140 hours in planning the event alone. At the 2018/2019 Student Involvement Awards, SWE was honored to receive two organization awards and Gold Wing status, the highest status given for organizations that promote the University’s ideals and are highly active in the community and campus environments. In recognition of STEM Fair, SWE’s collaborative event with eleven ERAU organizations (including the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Women’s Baja SAE Team, RAER, STEM Outreach, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Association for Women in Mathematics, National Society of Black Engineers, Embry-Riddle Future Space Explorers and Developers Society, American Society Of Civil Engineers, Institute of Transportation Engineers, and TechEagles) SWE received the Outstanding Co-Sponsored Award and the Collaborative Eagles Award. This event helped high school students explore STEM in a fun way through the interactive experiences prepared by each of these ERAU clubs, such as concrete bowling, guitar hero versus a robot, creating an app, and many more

THE AVION

Student Life B7 Swing and a Hit

Sarah Fairchild/The Avion Newspaper

The Lear jet with its nose removed.

Sarah Fairchild/The Avion Newspaper

AMS Students watch on as Diaz Gonzalez prepares to swing the Lear jet gear.

exciting activities. The Outstanding Co-Sponsored Award honors an outstanding program that was co-sponsored with another student organization or department and must make a significant impact on students, the student organization(s) involved, the campus, and/or the greater Daytona Beach community. The Collaborative Eagles Award honors an organization that most embodied the elements of teamwork and collaboration through programming or activities designed to reach out and develop positive relationships with other student organizations and departments on campus. SWE is very thankful to be recognized as the recipient of these awards and will continue to serve the ERAU

campus and the Volusia County community in the future. Yana Tatgenhorst, the section secretary and president-elect, also received the Outstanding Service Award for her vast contributions to the Volusia Country area through her numerous hours of planning and participating in SWE's outreach events. Overall, it was a busy, exciting, and profoundly successful year for the ERAU SWE organization that offers many social, professional development, and outreach events. If you are interested in joining the Society of Women Engineers at ERAU, please check out SWE at ERAU on Facebook, and head over to the official website of the national organization at http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/

Comics and Games

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4/21/2019

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Puzzle No. 57210, 5X5, hard

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