ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — University of Central Florida and Florida State University are among the teams that will provide some big help to NASA’s research focus on sustainable aviation.

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The two schools are among the university teams selected to participate in NASA’s University Leadership Initiative.

The initiative gives the academic community an opportunity to support NASA’s aeronautical research goals and provide students with valuable experience in solving real-world technical challenges.

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Three of the four teams will work toward lowering or eliminating aircraft emissions. Each team will approach the problem from a slightly different perspective.

The fourth team’s autonomy research is in support of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility campaign.

“Aviation of the future has to be climate friendly to keep the world flying, and a great way to do that is to allow tomorrow’s top minds to begin making contributions to these goals while still in school,” said Koushik Datta, ULI project manager.

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Another key goal of ULI is to give students experience in leading a multidisciplinary team made up of partners from other universities and industry, including student populations who are under-represented or have not applied their skills to aviation problems, NASA said.

“A diverse research team enables more voices to be heard, and more creative ideas to be explored,” said Datta.

The four teams could lead to awards of up to $31.5 million over the next five years.

READ: NASA announces astronaut candidate class for 2021

See the four teams and their research topics below:

University of Central Florida

The team will explore using liquid ammonia – a non-traditional source – as fuel for a jet engine and generating electricity from the engine’s exhaust heat, reducing emissions, and saving on fuel. Team members include Georgia Tech, Purdue University, Boeing, GE Research, ANSYS, Southwest Research Institute, and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.

Florida State University

The team will consider how hybrid hydrogen-electric power generation could be combined with fuel cell technology to lower emissions. Team members include Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, University at Buffalo, University of Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Raytheon, Boeing, and Advanced Magnet Lab.

Georgia Institute of Technology

The team will turn its attention to sustainable aviation challenges related to a jet engine’s combustor but in this case the engine is powering a commercial supersonic transport. Team members include Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech, Spelman College, Missouri University of Science and Technology, General Electric, and Aerodyne Research Incorporated.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The team aims to deliver trustworthy autonomy tools to help Advanced Air Mobility aircraft fly safely through complex airspace, typical of dense urban environments. Team members include Georgia Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina A&T State University, University of Nevada at Reno, Lockheed Martin, and Sierra Nevada Corporation.

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