Embry-Riddle’s own Alyssa Crystal and Jaclyn Wiley were among 38 students worldwide to receive 2019 Brooke Owens Fellowships honoring extraordinary undergraduate women in aerospace.

The nation’s only undergraduate Aerospace Physiology program, based at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, recently dispatched its first cohort of students to complete clinical rotations, in collaboration with Advent Health (formerly Florida Hospital). Students Haleema Irfan, Jenifer Schuman and Morgan Ackermann have so far observed the diagnosis and treatment of patients in the hospital’s operating room, emergency room, hyperbaric wound center, physical therapy center and other settings. For Irfan, who wants to be a neurosurgeon, clinical rotations have helped her gain valuable interpersonal and communication skills.

A prototype spacecraft capable of “hopping” from one asteroid to another effectively transforms water into steam, Embry-Riddle student-researchers have reported. The spacecraft’s steam-powered propulsion system suggests an endlessly renewable fuel that could be ideal for asteroid mining or “space prospecting,” said Aerospace Engineering Senior Ankit Rukhaiyar. Identifying renewable sources of spacecraft fuel has become increasingly important as NASA prepares to send humans to Mars and Earth’s finite supply of minerals keeps shrinking. Embry-Riddle’s steam-powered propulsion system suggests a way to keep spacecraft flying longer – in theory forever.

An Embry-Riddle undergraduate has tested field research methods that demonstrate a cheaper, more efficient and less invasive way of identifying and assessing wildlife communities. The research, conducted by student Courtney Turner-Rathbone, originated at Embry-Riddle’s campus in Prescott, Ariz. The project involved drawing water samples out of the Verde River in Arizona’s central highlands and analyzing the DNA present in those samples using sophisticated sequencing methods. It represents the first research to come out of a collaboration between Embry-Riddle’s new Forensic Biology and Wildlife Science programs.

Traffic-related fatalities are the leading cause of death among on-duty police, emergency medical services personnel and towing operators, yet scientific research into how to prevent such tragedies is scant or non-existent, Embry-Riddle Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Dr. Scott Parr reported at the 2019 Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting.

For the fourth consecutive year, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Worldwide Campus has retained the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Online Bachelor’s Programs for Veterans.