Concepts from eight teams participating in the 2022 Gateways to Blue Skies: Airports of Tomorrow (Blue Skies) Competition have been selected to present their design concepts to a panel of industry experts at the 2022 Blue Skies Forum, slated for June 2-3, 2022. As the aviation industry moves into the future of Zero Emission Aviation by 2050, planes and airports of today will be vastly different in tomorrow’s landscape. In an effort to ignite progress toward climate-friendly aviation, the all-new competition sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) seeks to engage current university students in imagining and designing aeronautics’ future.
Aviation efficiency and safety are top-of-mind for industry experts. As the future unfolds, NASA ARMD is researching technologies in fuels, aircraft design and other areas that reduce noise, fuel use and harmful emissions. NASA-developed technologies have contributed to improving aviation sustainability both economically and environmentally in recent decades. The Blue Skies competition seeks to inspire the incoming generation of engineers, planners, architects and other related disciplines to conceptualize changes to new airport designs or airport overhauls to ensure technology changes in the air go hand-in-hand with infrastructure changes on the ground.
The 2022 Blue Skies judging panel has selected eight teams as finalists in this year’s competition:
- Carnegie Mellon University — Project Title: Sustainability and Connected Autonomy: A New Era for Aviation — Advisor: Dr. Sebastian Scherer
- Manhattan College — Project Title: Soaring Into the 2050s — Advisor: Dr. Bahareh Estejab
- Ohio State University — Project Title: Project ECOAir — Advisor: Ethan Rivera
- University of California, Irvine — Project Title: Blue Skies, Green Fuels, Bright Future — Advisor: Dr. Jacqueline Huynh
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign — Project Title: Modern Day Wright Brothers — Advisor: Dr. Leon Liebenburg
- University of Pennsylvania — Project Title: Carbon Negative: A Modular Approach to Advancing Green Airport Infrastructure — Advisor: Dr. Jacqueline B. Kirtley
- University of Texas, Austin — Project Title: Airports Supporting the Future of Aviation — Advisor: Dr. Lina Sela
- University of Texas, Austin — Project Title: Bluebonnet Skies — Advisor: Dr. Shannon O’Brien
“Between universities adopting this competition as part of in-class curriculum and students creating teams on their own, Blue Skies is proving to do what we set out to achieve: Engage a wide variety of university students across age groups, disciplines, and academic levels in conducting research into climate friendly aviaton technologies of the future,” said Steven Holz, NASA Aeronautics University Innovation Assistant Project Manager and Blue Skies sponsor. “The submissions to the inaugural competition are diverse and creative. We are excited to host the finalist teams at the June Forum.”
Finalist teams receive $6,000 stipends to facilitate full participation in the competition, including presenting their design concepts at the 2022 Blue Skies Forum in Hampton, VA in June, which will be livestreamed globally. Winning team members earn a chance to intern at one of NASA’s Aeronautics centers in the 2022-23 academic year.
“Moving the needle on aeronautics in terms of climate change is of utmost interest to NASA Aeronautics and the entire industry,” said Koushik Datta, NASA Aeronautics University Innovation Project Manager and Blue Skies sponsor. “It is also of global interest, as climate-friendly improvements in air travel will have ripple effects around the world. Our goal is to engage and inspire the next generation of aviation industry experts to have a mind toward sustainability as they work through their education and step into their careers.”
For more on the Gateways to Blues Skies: Airports of Tomorrow competition, visit https://blueskies.nianet.org.
The 2022 Gateways to Blue Skies competition is sponsored by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace.