TAKEOFF: Jets line the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Wednesday. The Aerospace and Defense Research Collaboratory will encompass and benefit not only ASU but the surrounding Phoenix area as well. (Photo by Lisa Bartoli)Arizona is fortifying its aerospace and defense sector with a new research group that brings study and research opportunities for students.
The Aerospace and Defense Research Collaboratory is part of Arizona's plan to bridge the gap between education and industry through research, said Werner Dahm, the research group’s co-director.
“The more we can make the university-industry collaboration a successful one here in the state of Arizona, then the more attractive the state becomes for companies to move to,” Dahm said.
The research group currently includes ASU, UA and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. It is housed on ASU's Polytechnic campus in the College of Technology and Innovation, said Mitzi Montoya, co-director of the Collaboratory and executive dean of the College of Technology and Innovation.
NAU is expected to join the initiative later on in the year, she said.
Some of the planned projects include research to advance the technology for aircrafts, rocket engines and satellites, Dahm said.
Students will get a chance to become involved in research opportunities, ranging from undergraduate projects to dissertations and theses, Montoya said.
“We work on projects with corporate sponsors to the extent to which we build relationships with companies that create opportunities for class projects and internships,” she said.
This research initiative should boost the state's economy, as well as attract more big corporations to the state, Dahm said.
“Everything in aerospace and defense is high technology, and it demands a good, working, functional relationship between industry and academia,” he said.
The initiative is funded in part by the Science Foundation of Arizona, a nonprofit organization that invests in research with a potential for commercial use.
“We look forward to an excellent working relationship with ASU and other statewide partners as we begin our efforts to make Arizona a global leader in aerospace and defense,” Gen. R. Thomas Browning, co-director of SFAz’s Aerospace and Defense Initiative, said in a press release.
The other sponsors include corporations that are already utilizing the Aerospace and Defense Research Collaboratory for their own research purposes.
“Collaboration is key to this whole thing,” Montoya said. “Collaboration within ASU across colleges, collaboration across universities in Arizona, and collaborations with industry. If we do it right, there should be a multiplying of benefits that affect all of us.”
Reach the reporter at jlago@asu.edu
