UAH Insight

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Nidia Robinson wants her engineering skills to equip research of the future and the past

Nidia Robinson of Birmingham is interested in mankind’s past and future when it comes to developing her engineering skills.

Robinson says UAH is helping her mold a future in mechanical design that could help the space industry, as well as develop tools for paleontology.

Robinson, a master’s student in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, was involved in an unmanned rotorcraft competition last summer that helped her decide on earning a master’s degree in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. The Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Aerial Robotics Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., pitted engineering students from around the world in competition to develop alternative means of aircraft control other than a mouse or joystick. UAH’s Team CHARGER successfully completed Level 1 of the competition: the first school to do so in their first year of competition and the first to use an all-electric helicopter.

"The group used a program that one of the members wrote," Robinson said. "Once it was placed in autonomous mode, the program sent the coordinates to the helicopter and tracked its progress.

"Everything (concerning the project) was a learning experience," said Robinson, who also had the chance to see aircraft and control solutions developed by the other competitors.

While at UAH, Robinson has shared her knowledge as a teaching assistant to Marlow Moser, assistant professor in the department of Mechanical and Aeorspace Engineering, in the course MAE 311 — "Principles of Measurement and Instrumentation," and as a member of the Society of Women Engineers.

Robinson hopes to complete her master’s degree under the direction of Dr. Brian Landrum, associate professor of MAE, in May 2008. Her thesis project is evaluating the feasibility of using small autonomous aerial vehicles in archaeological and atmospheric research in the jungles of Central America. Her goal is to find a job in her field and later begin work on a Ph.D.

While in the career world, Robinson will also pursue her second career goal of work in paleontology. She wants to design and develop tools that can be used in paleontology research. Robinson became friends with dinosaurs at an early age in Birmingham.

"I have always been fascinated with dinosaurs, Robinson said. "I believe it was in first or second grade that we learned a little about the most common dinosaurs (T-rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Pteranodon, etc). After that, I was hooked.

"There was a store in Birmingham called "The Dino Store" and I would beg my parents to take me there almost every weekend or when I got a report card so I could get a new toy or book. I think a year or two later it closed, but whenever I would see a book about dinosaurs I would read it."

Since paleontology has always been a part of Robinson’s life, it was inevitable that any second career choice would have to co-exist.

Robinson also gained first-hand career experience through summer internships at Alabama Power Company in Birmingham. Experience that has included: building an inter-company website, date analysis, and learning corporate office interactions.