Nine Embry-Riddle Faculty Earn 2025 ERAU Research and Innovation Awards

Nine Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University faculty members have been recognized for outstanding research and innovation through the university’s Research Awards Program. The 2025 honorees are: Dr. Eduardo Rojas, Dr. Yizhou Jiang, Dr. Sergey Drakunov, Dr. Noel Richardson, Dr. Omar Ochoa, Dr. Matthew Zettergren, Dr. Aroh Barjatya, Dr. Ryan Wallace and Daniel Diessner.

The awards represent five categories of research successes achieved over the previous fiscal year. These include making intellectual property disclosures or applying for and receiving patents, securing research funding from industry, mentoring undergraduates, supporting doctoral research, and receiving funding for and implementing more than $1 million in research programs.

“Embry-Riddle is proud to recognize the boundary-breaking innovation and real-world impact of these trailblazing faculty members and research scientists,” said Embry-Riddle President P. Barry Butler, Ph.D. “Through their dedication, creativity and hard work, Embry-Riddle has become more inventive, secured significant research funding, built strong industry partnerships and inspired students to pursue high-level research. My congratulations to all nine of our awardees receiving these well-deserved accolades."

Dr. Jeremy Ernst, vice president for research and doctoral programs, said that the ERAU Research Awards Program is designed to honor faculty who demonstrate the highest achievements in research and innovation as outlined in Embry-Riddle’s 2023-2028 Strategic Plan.

“These recognitions are in direct alignment with the research and innovation goals set by the university,” Ernst said.

Innovation Award

For the second year in a row, Dr.Rojas, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has received the Innovation Award, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional innovation and commercialization of research. As the director of the Wireless Devices and Electromagnetics Laboratory, Rojas disclosed three new inventions and had two patent applications filed in the 2025 fiscal year.

Rojas’ recent inventions involve antennas and sensors for aerospace applications and wireless hardware security. Specifically, the technologies enable wireless communications for space missions as well as the detection of hardware trojans in electronics.

Dr. Jiang, assistant professor of Aerospace Engineering, has also been honored with the Innovation Award. Specializing in manufacturing processes and advanced composite materials, Jiang disclosed four new inventions and filed one patent application in fiscal year 2025.

His innovations included a manufacturing strategy using lunar and Martian regolith (rocky material) for in-space construction and a new design concept for wearable energy storage devices with high energy density to power electronics, health-monitoring sensors or communication equipment for continuous portable use.

Industry Catalyst Award

Dr. Drakunov, professor in the Department of Physical Sciences, has won the Industry Catalyst Award for fostering partnerships with industry and securing the highest amount of external funding from industry during FY 2025. He leads the Intelligent Control System project, which received nearly $135,000 in funding from Louisiana Steam Equipment. The research aims to advance control systems, aligning academic expertise with industry needs.

Drakunov has been the principal investigator on a number of National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA grants, as well as international research projects.

Research Mentorship Award

Dr. Richardson, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been recognized with the Research Engagement Award. He supervised 16 undergraduate research projects, co-authored five undergraduate papers in peer-reviewed journals and shepherded eight undergraduate presentations at professional conferences, as well as a number of student-led grants.

In 2023, Richardson became Embry-Riddle’s first recipient of the $100,000 Cottrell Scholar Award, which recognizes research and teaching excellence. He was one of only 25 outstanding teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy to receive the honor that year. Cottrell Scholars are chosen through a peer-review process of applications from research universities throughout the United States and Canada.

Research Engagement Award

Dr. Ochoa has earned the Research Engagement Award, which goes to faculty or research scientists who have “effectively engaged doctoral students in research and supported their development as scholars.” An associate professor and program coordinator for the master’s in Computer Science and the master’s in Software Engineering, Ochoa provided the highest number of doctoral opportunities for students, with an externally sponsored doctoral student expenditure of $222,000.

One of Ochoa’s mentees is the first Electrical Engineering and Computer Science student at Embry-Riddle to be selected for a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program award, earning three years of financial support to pursue a Ph.D. focused on research in software engineering, machine learning and aviation. Three of his previous doctoral students graduated and joined industry.

Eagle Research Award

Five faculty members have earned the Eagle Research Award distinction, which is granted to faculty members or research scientists who have secured and implemented $1 million or more in research projects. The awardees represent a range of institutional commitments, including space science, atmospheric modeling, cybersecurity research and uncrewed aircraft systems.

Dr. Zettergren — a professor in the Department of Physical Science and a faculty member of the Center for Space and Atmospheric Research, one of Embry-Riddle’s Centers of Excellence — logged more than $1.85 million in research spending on projects such as AtmoSense/AIRWaveS, which investigates atmosphere-ionosphere interactions.

In addition to working on ionospheric research, Zettergren has also focused on high-resolution modeling of auroral processes in which solar photons and particles interact with various layers of the atmosphere to produce a wide variety of effects, including auroras, nightglow and atmospheric heating or cooling. Detailed observations of the light emitted by the atmosphere, combined with theoretical models, provide insights into how the sun and its activity impact Earth's atmosphere.

Dr. Ochoa, who also received a Research Engagement Award, showed the second-highest research spending with $1.13 million, which mostly came from training and development projects aimed at expanding the number of cybersecurity professionals and increasing the STEM workforce in the United States, both funded by the NSF.

Ochoa is a principal investigator on the Scholarships to Accelerate Graduates in Engineering for STEM program, which aims to strengthen the engineering workforce by supporting students through mentoring, academic advising, learning communities, professional development and opportunities for internships and research. This project has provided scholarship support for 25 Embry-Riddle students to date.

For the second year in a row, Dr. Barjatya earned the Eagle Research Award for having implemented over $1 million worth of research expenditures, with contributions from his sounding rocket and instrument development projects. These include the Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics sounding rocket mission, which investigated cloud-like layers in the ionosphere that can disrupt communications, and a NASA-funded project to develop novel instrumentation that can detect micrometeoroid debris. 

Barjatya is a professor in the Department of Physical Sciences and the associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. He leads research in the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab and is the interim executive director of the Center for Space and Atmospheric Research. He has written or co-written more than a dozen successful proposals over the last 15 years to various federal funding agencies and has overseen 11 space flight projects from proposal to launch and commissioning. He is currently part of three additional missions, including ESCAPADE, a NASA mission to Mars.

Dr. Wallace, professor of Aeronautical Science, also won an Eagle Research Award for securing and applying just over $1 million in research dollars over the past fiscal year. His research is focused on drone traffic safety and airspace integration.

Wallace is the principal investigator on a number of federal grants and has facilitated professional training seminars for federal agencies in the areas of uncrewed aircraft systems safety and operations. He recently gave expert testimony on malicious drone use before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime and Government Surveillance.

Diessner, the executive director of the Center for Aerospace Resilient Systems, one of Embry-Riddle’s Centers of Excellence, was awarded the Eagle Research Award for overseeing aviation cybersecurity grants and contracts totaling more than $1.5 million.

Diessner’s focus is on the cybersecurity and cyber resilience of the aerospace ecosystem, both domestically and abroad. Through the investigation of new technology and product development for both commercial and military transport aircraft, he has worked to advance innovation in airplane systems, product cybersecurity, network systems and mission communications and data systems.