The Air Force Institute of Technology's Center for Directed Energy had great success with its undergraduate research assistant program and Directed Energy Summer Intern program. The 2009 CDE research assistants and summer interns proved to be yet another high caliber and ambitious group of individuals. CDE research assistants are hired via a contract vehicle, work part time during the academic year/full time during the summer, and attend Dayton-area colleges and universities. DESI students come to AFIT from schools across the nation for a 12 to 14 week full-time research experience. This year’s DESI class, sponsored by the High Energy Laser-Joint Technology Office (HEL-JTO) in support of the Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS), hail from the Arizona State University, University of Michigan, Washington University, and Brown University. These undergraduate students work alongside AFIT faculty and CDE research staff in research areas including modeling atmospheric effects on directed energy propagation, experimental hardware design, pose estimation, tracking programs, modeling and simulation programs, and experimental adaptive optics. Students participating in both programs gain valuable real world experience in the applications of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to real world Department of Defense Directed Energy technology problems.

CDE is known throughout the Directed Energy and Intelligence communities for its computational performance analysis tools. The production and maintenance of these software products would simply not be possible without the creativity, professionalism, and the desire to contribute exhibited by the Center’s present and past research assistants and interns. Furthermore, they continue and follow-up thesis research conducted by the military graduate students who participate in Center activities.

The success of this program is best demonstrated by the student’s numerous products, papers, awards, and journal articles, as well as the student matriculation. Consider the following for the period 2004-2009:

• Three DESI students will present technical research results at the upcoming Twelfth Annual Directed Energy Symposium
• The program participants provided support to key Directed Energy performance modeling deliverables: HELEEOS and LEEDR
• 40 technical papers were presented with direct contribution from research assistants or summer interns
• Nine of the 40 papers were published in peer reviewed journals
• CDE received the 2007 USAF Modeling and Simulation Award for Acquisition
• Six MS students and three PhD students enrolled at AFIT as a result of their engagement as a research assistant or DESI intern
• The programs resulted in five additions to the USAF DE STEM professional cadre supporting CDE computational or experimental research efforts

Research assistants and the DESI program are examples of CDE’s execution of its tri-fold focus on research, education, and innovation. The program also directly supports the AFIT mission and vision. CDE research efforts deliver high quality products to the DoD Directed Energy community. In addition to the preparation of STEM military members via the awarding of advanced degrees, CDE contributes directly to the development of the next generation of civilian DoD STEM professionals, which is critical to the maintenance of the technical supremacy of the USAF, DoD, and United States.