Mobile Application Wins Top 'OneSky' Prize for Embry-Riddle’s Tim Christovich

For Christovich – a computer science major whose studies include an additional area of concentration in cybersecurity engineering – development of the Everyair app seemed to be all in a day’s work: “I built out the application using Javascript, HTML and CSS using a framework called Ionic 2,” he said. “That allowed me to package my web development experience into a mobile application.”

Christovich, organizer of the upcoming HackRiddle hackathon event that will take place on Nov. 11, took the top prize in the 2017 OneSky Code Competition, called “<br> the Sky!”

As grand prize winner, Christovich received $1,000, said Michael Campobasso, an Embry-Riddle alumnus who is now Innovation Center manager for OneSky, a portfolio of flying companies under Directional Aviation that earlier this year joined Embry Riddle’s Research Park as a Tenant Partner at the John Mica Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex (MicaPlex).

In addition, Campobasso announced, Christovich as well as coding competitors Lawrence Acchione and Tucker Hawkinson have been offered interviews for  OneSky Innovation Center’s fall internships.

For the coding competition, students “were challenged with creating a private aviation-charter quoting application,” Campobasso explained. “This application was to be designed such that a customer or broker could enter travel details and immediately obtain an estimate of the private travel cost.”

How much would it cost to transport four passengers from Daytona Beach, Fla., to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport aboard a private Phenom 300 jet? Christovich’s Everyair app put the price-tag at $6,789.55.

“I prefer the in-flight entertainment on a commercial jet,” Christovich joked. “I don’t see myself flying a private charter anytime soon.”

A Jacksonville, Fla., native who said he is passionate about web-based software applications, mobile applications and the “Internet of things,” Christovich recently won another significant prize, too. With colleagues Jeremiah Lantzer and Kyle Cochran, Christovich took home top global honors in the prestigious Thales Arduino competition, after the trio designed a drone landing and charging station.

“My goal once I graduate from Embry-Riddle is to continue to make a difference in the Central Florida technology community and help it grow with regard to the different industries that are becoming more prominent in the area every day,” he said.

Research Park Promotes Job Growth

Tapping into the Embry-Riddle talent pool to speed the development of private aviation technologies was a primary motivation for OneSky’s participation in the Research Park, Campobasso noted.

In fact, Campobasso was hired by OneSky after he and a colleague, Shane Stebler, co-founded MicaPlex incubator company Embedded Control Designs LLC, which focuses on building mechanical swarm agents, rigged with communication architecture and control algorithms, to help farmers more efficiently monitor their crops.

In addition to the internships being offered by OneSky this fall, MicaPlex incubator tenant Weintraus Inc., a precision orbital placement service, has already brought on seven intern positions, said Stephanie Miller, Ph.D., the University’s director of technology transfer and Research Park initiatives. The firm has also recently hired a Chief Technology Officer, founder Scott Weintraub added. Once Weintraus Inc. is up and running, it will pick up satellites and haul them wherever they need to go in space. As it grows, the company will also offer space-based satellite servicing and debris collection in space.

Later this year, Seamax, an award-winning light sport aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Brazil, is expected to bring a significant portion of its operations – and an estimated 80 new jobs over the next four years – to Volusia County, Fla. The company, part of the Embry-Riddle Research Park, is gearing up to have avionics and engines installed into its aircraft in hangars located in Daytona Beach, said Shalom Confessor, executive director of Seamax in the United States.

As previously reported, Seamax now has a presence in the MicaPlex, the cornerstone facility of Embry-Riddle’s Research Park.