The Airborne Environmental Research Observational camera (AEROcam): a case study of multidisciplinary experiential learning

The Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium, an organization of remote sensing research groups at eight Upper Midwest universities with its headquarters located at the University of North Dakota (UND), has entered into a strategic alliance with the UND School of Engineering & Mines to design Earth imaging sensors. The first of these instruments, the Airborne Environmental Research Observational Camera (AEROCam), is a four-band multispectral sensor with extremely high image resolution designed for flight on University of North Dakota airplanes. Position and attitude data for the camera is collected by a global positioning system and an inertial navigation system, so that the images can be automatically geo-corrected after each flight and then distributed to end users via the Internet. Targeted scientific applications include precision agriculture, natural resource management, and disaster (e.g., flooding and forest fire) response. A multidisciplinary team of electrical and mechanical engineering students is developing the AEROCam system, with input from regional farmers and ranchers. Project management and funding are being provided by the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, with the technical management team consisting of faculty within the School of Engineering & Mines. As members of the AEROCam design team, undergraduate and graduate students have received an opportunity to contribute to a real-world systems engineering project and to gain valuable hands-on experience. The university is benefiting from the project in many ways, from an increased expertise in systems engineering, to a vastly improved research and development infrastructure, to the production of an excellent public relations vehicle. A real market need exists for the digital imagery that will be gathered by the AEROCam sensor, and this has motivated both the students and the faculty to design, build, and test a professional-quality instrument.