Dr. Sivaguru S. Sritharan, AFIT’s Provost & Vice Chancellor presented a coin to University of Dayton’s Provost, Dr. Paul H. Benson at a recent meeting to discuss research collaboration opportunities

AFIT recently hosted the Provost of University of Dayton, Dr. Paul H. Benson at a meeting to discuss research collaboration opportunities between the two universities.  Guests from UD included Dr. John Leland, Vice President for Research and Executive Director, University of Dayton Research Institute, Dr. Paul Vanderburgh, UD’s Associate Provost for Graduate Academic Affairs, Dr. Eddy Rojas, Dean, UD School of Engineering, Dr. Robert Wilkens, Associate Dean for Research, UD School of Engineering, and Dr. Aaron Altman, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Director of UD’s Graduate Aerospace Program.

Comprehensive discussions were held in areas of mutual interest and high priority including hypersonics, additive manufacturing, and autonomy/machine learning.  Ideas for fostering increased collaboration included developing a mutual seminar speaker series and a summer faculty exchange program.  In addition, creating opportunities for faculty from both universities to draft joint research proposals and serve on master’s/doctoral dissertation committees will be addressed.

While at AFIT, the UD team toured the Center for Directed Energy and the Center for Space Research and Assurance as well as learning about AFIT’s current research efforts in the Autonomy and Navigation Technology laboratory.

Building a stronger relationship with civilian universities is a key strategic area for AFIT to increase the visibility of AFIT faculty and student accomplishments within the traditional civilian higher education system.