Gazing into a computer-generated cityscape, a Cal State Long Beach student pilots a course to the future of transportation while flying through a virtual world that exists within a high-tech campus lab.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn no other world am I making a flight simulator,\u201d said Kieran Whitney, a third-year computer science student.<\/p>\n
Whitney often pilots the simulator, a key asset for the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) project. The work brings the colleges of Engineering<\/a> and Liberal Arts<\/a> together to research how urban air mobility vehicles <\/a>(UAMs) \u2014 essentially electric-powered \u201cflying cars\u201d \u2014 can be integrated into the nation\u2019s air transportation system.<\/p>\n \u201cI really want to get into software development,\u201d Whitney said. \u201cThis is a great opportunity for me to get trained in a semi-professional environment.\u201d<\/p>\n The work blends studies of technology and psychology. Computer science students hone coding skills while ensuring the simulator at BeachCAVE<\/a>, an engineering lab kitted out with an advanced projection system, functions as needed. They work alongside graduate students working in the Center for Human Factors in Advanced Aeronautics Technologies<\/a>, focused on how aviation technologies and protocols can be designed to be easily understood by the people who use them, making air travel safer for all involved.<\/p>\n Since \u201cthe flying cars are coming,\u201d Kim-Phuong Vu, professor of human factors psychology, said it is time to be ready for them.<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies are already in the process of producing UAM vehicles and are seeking certification for their operations,\u201d Vu said. \u201cWe may see them in operation by the 2028 Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside the CAVE<\/p>\n BeachCAVE\u2019s virtual reality system places the operator inside the action, like watching television from inside the screen. Whoever is in the pilot\u2019s seat controls a joystick while viewing images projected to three walls and the floor, creating a panoramic view.<\/p>\n The scenery can be shown in two or three dimensions, with a stereoscopic headset. The technology, obtained via a National Science Foundation grant, lets observers see the virtual cockpit and environment during simulated flights.<\/p>\n Faculty and students working on the Urban Air Mobility project fly within a simulated San Francisco, selected since the UAM project is a joint effort between The Beach\u2019s Psychology<\/a> and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering<\/a> departments and, from the Bay Area, from NASA Ames Research Center and San Jose State University Research \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThink of it like an air taxi,\u201d said Panadda (Nim) Marayong, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. \u201cYou pick up a passenger downtown and you drop them off.\u201d<\/p>\n The team\u2019s design shows the flight path as an orange map overlay, like a navigation app telling a driver which roads to take. Other displays let pilots see if they are on a safe landing path or if the UAM has power. If these elements seem familiar, that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n \u201cWe based it off what felt the most intuitive to us, based on years of using technology,\u201d said Eden Doss-Fillmore \u201825, contributing to the project after completing a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science.<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoy working in virtual reality particularly, and I don\u2019t think I realized that until I started working here,\u201d Doss-Fillmore said.<\/p>\n Blue skies<\/p>\n The UAM project prepares students to solve problems involving coordination and communication. Engineering students keep different hardware and software programs in sync for the simulation, while human factors students focus on user-friendly technology.<\/p>\n \u201cAny time we throw a problem at them, they come back and solve it,\u201d said Praveen Shankar, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.<\/p>\n Everyone is part of a team with a shared goal.<\/p>\n \u201cI had the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines, which gave me a stronger understanding of the different perspectives and priorities, as well as what is technologically feasible during the development phase,\u201d said Vannessa Nguyen, a second-year graduate student in human factors.<\/p>\n Nguyen wants to work in a field, like aviation or medical device design, where safety is paramount.<\/p>\n The UAM team\u2019s approach to safety includes testing how to help pilots stay alert without overwhelming them. Is it better for air traffic controllers to communicate by voice, or by sending test messages on a heads-up display? Does it help if pilots wear small vibrating devices that send tactile alerts if they veer off course?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we do is minimize the work that the pilots have,\u201d said Andrew Alfaro \u201823, who earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology and is now in his second year of a Master\u2019s in Human Factors program. \u00a0<\/p>\n Shelby Trainor, a first-year human factors graduate student, said the UAM project inspired her to pursue a pilot\u2019s license and an internship enabling her to work on cockpit instruments.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore joining CAVE, the aviation field felt intimidating, but as I began immersing myself in the UAM project, my passion for aviation grew,\u201d she said. \u201cThis experience has had a profound influence on my human factors career, and I am very grateful to be a part of such a fantastic team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gazing into a computer-generated cityscape, a Cal State Long Beach student pilots a course to the future of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1818,1820,7,1815,1823,1821,1822,1819,131,133,132,1817,1816],"class_list":["post-121287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-49ers","tag-cal-state","tag-california","tag-college","tag-conoley","tag-csu","tag-csulb","tag-dirtbags","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-long-beach-state","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}