Program areas at NIAA
Research program:during fy22, Nia's research staff continued its outstanding collaborations with nasa langley researchers, providing direct technical support spanning the breadth of larc's research portfolio. Additionally, significant research was also performed by university faculty and graduate students (at both Nia member and non-member institutions), small businesses, and independent subject matter experts.technology dissemination and transfer - during fy22, Nia researchers authored or co-authored 107 technical publications, either presented at National or international conferences, or appearing in peer-reviewed technical journals. Also, during fy22, Nia researchers filed thirteen (13) invention disclosures/new technology reports. Seminars and workshops - as nasa langley's strategic research partner, each year Nia plans, facilitates, and hosts a variety of short courses, workshops and seminars in support of center initiatives and continuing workforce training. Such activities remained limited during fy22 as a result of covid restrictions; however, Nia supported three (3) short courses/workshops and twelve (12) technical seminars during the year. The administrative support for these activities is provided by staff from Nia's graduate education department. Visitors program - the Nia visitor researcher program exists to foster collaboration between nasa larc researchers and scholars from across the international community on topics of interest to nasa. In fy22, the visitors program continued to be impacted by travel restrictions that evolved because of the covid-19 pandemic. However, before travel restrictions were fully lifted, Nia supported one in-person us student and one virtual researcher in support of larc sponsors. Once travel restrictions were lifted, Nia supported an additional 17 fy22 visitors in support of larc sponsors. Though Nia does not anticipate having many virtual visitors as the way ahead, this has opened up an accessibility to have collaboration which might otherwise not be feasible. Nia visitor support includes facilitation of visas for entrance into the us where applicable under Nia's j-1 visa program and handling all actions required by larc security for center access and badging purposes.
Public outreach:the media communication group at Nia provides strategic public outreach support to nasa on a variety of platforms. Nia's public outreach activities primarily support nasa headquarters' science and space technology mission directorates; but also receive funding from and provide support to non-profit, and commercial entities outside of nasa. During fy22, all cooperative agreement funding supporting Nia's public outreach activities was provided by sources outside of nasa langley. While no funding was provided directly by larc organizations, langley personnel and subject matter were prominently featured in Nia's public outreach programming. Nia's ability to leverage nasa headquarters' relationships to amplify the content and reach of nasa langley accomplishments provides significant value to the langley community. Our public outreach program once again reached millions of americans with messages of the importance of nasa missions and Aerospace technologies in their daily lives.
Educational outreach:the Nia educational outreach program continued to connect with students at both the k-12 and university levels, addressing the National concern of interest and aptitude of k-12 students in stem, and fostering university education in disciplines related to the Aerospace industry.
S.p. Langley professor research program:fy22 represented another excellent year of accomplishments for the langley professor (lap) program. Fifteen students were funded using lap funds throughout the year. Over three hundred fifty (350) total students were funded through lap and external funds raised by the laps, or were self-funded; however, this number is significantly distorted due to prof. mavris and prof. german of Georgia tech who advise over 200 graduate students and over 100 undergrads. The laps and their students also published over 158 peer-reviewed publications and conference papers as well as several patents and book sections. They also taught 16 courses. The laps continued to perform important and larc-relevant research.they also each gave presentations to the langley tech council that were very well received and provoked many follow-up collaborative discussions. Graduate education program:nia's graduate education program provides unique educational and research opportunities to students seeking advanced degrees at Nia's member universities, as well as for nasa employees and others in the local Aerospace workforce. Students can select courses from a portfolio offered by Nia's nine member universities, benefit from a department-sized faculty-in-residence and perform their thesis and dissertation research at larc while collaborating with leading nasa researchers. The Nia graduate education program has produced 246 graduates (through end of summer semester 2022), including 102 phds. Many of these graduates have elected to stay in the larc workforce, and many others have secured influential positions in industry or with other government agencies.a total of seven students graduated during fy22: four in fall 2021 (including two phds), two in spring 2021 (one phd) and one in summer 2021 (one phd). of this total, five were advised by langley professors and two by faculty based at member home campuses. Continuing education:nia supports a wide variety of continuing education opportunities for engineers and scientists at nasa larc, as well as for other local organizations. Activities in fy 2022 were significantly impacted by the covid-19 pandemic, with a reduced level of in-person activity. Nevertheless, Nia supported or hosted the following:supported the nasa turbulence modeling symposium (the "spalart" symposium) held at the lockheed-martin facility in suffolk, va (july 2022)hosted a 2-day openvsp workshop at Nia hq (august 2022)facilitated a design of experiments short course, offered in a customized format for attendees at nasa larc and other centers, taught by drew landman of odu. (the course started in early fy 22 and will complete in calendar year 2022).