2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

NSF REU Site: Swarms of Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Age of AI/Machine Learning

Presented at Curricular Innovations in Computing - 1

Drone swarms, the ability of drones to autonomously make decisions based on shared information, create new opportunities with major societal implications. However, future drone swarm applications and services pose new networking challenges. A resurgence of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) research presents a tremendous opportunity for addressing these networking challenges. This REU site focuses on networking research for drone swarms in the age of AI. The first cohort of seven undergraduate students were recruited to participate in a ten-week summer program to perform networking research for drone swarms under the guidance of faculty and research mentors. In this paper, a couple of drone swarm projects were briefly summarized. By the end of the summer program, students were surveyed about their undergraduate research experiences. A couple of months after students were back to their home institutions, a couple of students were interviewed about the impact of their undergraduate research experiences on their continued learning. The faculty who helped to supervise the undergraduate students at the REU also were interviewed. The feedback from the students and reflections from the faculty would provide guidance about the integration of the undergraduate research experiences into the courses in order to broaden impacts of the undergraduate research on learning and teaching. In the future, at least another two cohorts of students especially from underrepresented groups will be recruited. We will have a longitudinal study to explore the impacts of the undergraduate research experiences on learning and teaching using a mixed research method of the surveys and interviews.

Authors

Ryan Restivo Saint Bonaventure University
Connor Walsh University of Tennessee at Martin
Wesley Chase Duclos
Vrushank Mali University of Tennessee at Martin
Dr. Jian Wang University of Tennessee at Martin
Prof. Huihui H. Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4098-5313 St. Bonaventure University [biography]

Dr. Huihui Wang is a Full Teaching Professor and Director of Computing Programs at Northeastern University in Arlington, VA. She was a rotating program director at the NSF since August 2021 until June 2024. She was a tenured Associate Professor and Director of Cybersecurity Programs at St. Bonaventure University and the Founding Chair of the Engineering Department at Jacksonville University, FL.
Dr. Thomas Yang Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach [biography]

Dr. Thomas Yang received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2004 from the University of Central Florida (UCF). He is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU)-Daytona Beach. Dr. Yang was a 2013 National Research Council (NRC) Senior Research Fellow supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and a Visiting Faculty Research Fellow at Air Force Research Lab/Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) in 2012, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022. Dr. Yang is the recipient of 2017 ERAU Abas Sivjee Outstanding Researcher of the Year Award, 2010 IEEE Florida Council Outstanding Engineering Educator Award, Best of Session and Best of Track (Special Topics & Space Systems) paper awards at 2021 Digital Avionics Systems Conference, and Best Paper Award at 2014 IEEE International Conference on Electro/Information Technology.
Prof. Richard Stansbury Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach [biography]

Dr. Richard S. Stansbury is an associate professor of computer engineering and computer science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. His research interests include unmanned aircraft systems, field robotics, and applied artificial
Prof. Houbing Herbert Song http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2631-9223 University of Maryland, Baltimore County [biography]

Houbing Song (M’12–SM’14-F’23) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, in August 2012.

He is currently a Tenured Associate Professor, the Director of NSF Center for Aviation Big Data Analytics (Planning), and the Director of the Security and Optimization for Networked Globe Laboratory (SONG Lab, www.SONGLab.us), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD. Prior to joining UMBC, he was a Tenured Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL. He serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Internet of Things Journal (2020-present), IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (2021-present), and IEEE Journal on Miniaturization for Air and Space Systems (J-MASS) (2020-present). He was an Associate Technical Editor for IEEE Communications Magazine (2017-2020). He is the editor of eight books, the author of more than 100 articles and the inventor of 2 patents. His research interests include cyber-physical systems/internet of things, cybersecurity and privacy, and AI/machine learning/big data analytics. His research has been sponsored by federal agencies (including National Science Foundation, US Department of Transportation, and Federal Aviation Administration, among others) and industry. His research has been featured by popular news media outlets, including IEEE GlobalSpec's Engineering360, Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), Security Magazine, CXOTech Magazine, Fox News, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Times, and New Atlas.

Dr. Song is an IEEE Fellow, an ACM Distinguished Scientist, and an ACM Distinguished Speaker. Dr. Song is a Highly Cited Researcher identified by Clarivate™ (2021, 2022) and a Top 1000 Computer Scientist identified by Research.com. He received Research.com Rising Star of Science Award in 2022 (World Ranking: 82; US Ranking: 16). Dr. Song was a recipient of 10+ Best Paper Awards from major international conferences, including IEEE CPSCom-2019, IEEE ICII 2019, IEEE/AIAA ICNS 2019, IEEE CBDCom 2020, WASA 2020, AIAA/ IEEE DASC 2021, IEEE GLOBECOM 2021 and IEEE INFOCOM 2022.

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