AEM 1301 Holds Ballooning Showcase

Professor James Flaten’s AEM 1301 freshman class, Ballooning: Design, Build, and Fly wrapped up the semester with a ballooning showcase of their projects. He teaches students about balloons, blimps, and zeppelins. Each student creates three airships over the semester. They start by presenting a Preliminary Design Report to the class. After three weeks of building, they present a Flight Readiness Report, and then fly their airships.

Freshman Nathan Twardock said, “This is definitely something I will be able to put on a resume, and will be able to talk about in an interview. Gaining hands on experience freshman year is not something a lot of people have, so not only was it fun, and a good way to take my mind off my other classes, but it is also something that could set me apart from students my age.”

Last year, students built R/C airships, and then displayed them in the Balas Atrium in Akerman Hall. The purpose of the class is to allow freshmen to experiment with building miniature airships to be tested indoors. Students also get to work on microcontroller programming skills, soldering, CAD, and radio control.

The Ballooning showcase on December 11 gave students an opportunity to display their work from the past semester, and also explain the building process and answer questions.

Professor Flaten said, "It is useful to give students interesting and non-trivial 'build activities' early on, to motivate them to persevere in theory classes. This seminar combines history and building of lighter-than-air vehicles (things not covered much in the AEM major) along with introducing students to microcontrollers and 'home-built' radio control systems. Class members benefit from the many technical skills they acquire, regardless of what major they ultimately pursue."