Ten Miami students have have received a $6,500 scholarship through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in collaboration with Miami University’s Mobile Learning Center.

Students will conduct research during the academic year at Miami and the following summer at the AFRL Discovery Lab, a resident at the Tec^Edge Innovation and Collaboration Center in Dayton.

Scholarship recipients will participate in the Year-at-the-Edge (YATE) program, a collaboration between the Mobile Learning Center and the AFRL Discovery Lab. The program is in its second year and began in spring of 2012.

The scholarship recipients and program participants and their majors are Cooper Dieterle, sophomore, electrical engineering; Garrett Emrick, freshman, software engineering; David Gayda, sophomore, software engineering and music; Brandon Harmon, junior, software engineering; Heather Horne, sophomore, software engineering, interactive media studies (IMS) minor; Benjamin Kleykamp, junior, graphic design and IMS; Steven Marshall, junior, software engineering; Peter Simon, sophomore, computer science, IMS minor; Kendall Stilgenbauer, freshman, computer science; and Craig Wolfer, sophomore, computer science.

During the spring 2013 semester and over the summer, students will continue previous YATE participants’ research and development of four new systems of mobile technology. These include:

• Eagle Eye: a virtual command center for supporting decision making in disaster and other similar situations. The system is meant to provide data to decision-makers using social media, information from first responders and other on-site sources.

• Mobile AR System (MARS): a mobile device system for data collection and augmented reality. The system integrates data collection and augmented reality to provide first responders and concerned citizens with a way to provide data collection services to Eagle Eye.

• First Response and Operations Data Observer (FRODO): a robotic system for first response observations. The robotic system will be used to gather data in first response situations in order to feed information to Eagle Eye.

• Virtual Miami: a “second life”-based representation of Miami. One of the hallmarks of the YATE program is the use of a virtual environment to coordinate activities between geographically separated researchers. This project will be used to create a virtual Miami campus while also provide a platform for integrating Eagle Eye functionality into a virtual environment.

Miami’s Mobile Learning Center was initiated in 2010 to promote the use of mobile technology for education. The center is a joint venture of Miami’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies and information technology services.