NASA's ULI: 10 Years of Impact celebrates a decade of university-led aeronautics research under the University Leadership Initiative (ULI). The University of Texas at Austin led a ULI project in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Purdue University, and Morgan State University focused on autonomous cargo operations. The team developed and validated algorithms for safe, autonomous air cargo, specifically, safe separation and routing algorithms tested through a hybrid simulation and live aircraft testbed using drones. The demonstrations were used to identify integration challenges, test solutions, and evaluate algorithm performance in realistic conditions.
UT Austin's NASA ULI partnership also served as a workforce development pipeline. Don-Terry Veal Jr., the first student to participate in the dual-degree program between Purdue and Morgan State, did so through the UT Austin-led ULI project, illustrating how the initiative connected research universities to broaden participation in aerospace engineering.
Click here to view NASA's "Decade of Impact" feature!