Capitol event celebrates scholarship recipients, honors benefactors - Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.)

Direct Link: https://www.captechu.edu/node/2686

"Winning this scholarship has not only lifted my financial burden, but brought smiles to my family," Avrum Gudelsky Memorial Award winner William Shaw said Wednesday (October 25) at the university's annual Scholarship Appreciation Breakfast.
Shaw is one of 55 Capitol students who have been awarded a wide variety of scholarships for 2017-18. Many were at the breakfast event, which gives scholarship winners an opportunity to meet and mingle with benefactors, trustees, faculty, and administration.
A senior majoring in computer science, Shaw chose Capitol for his university degree after getting to know the university while a high school student at Charles Flowers High School, which has an ongoing student internship program with Capitol. His experiences at Capitol have helped him develop his computer science skills to the point where he has been able to mentor others, Shaw said.
"Instead of me going to people for help, people have started coming to me for help," Shaw noted.
Capitol's new president, Dr. Bradford L. Sims, was on hand to thank benefactors and highlight the essential role they play in sustaining the life of the university and helping students achieve their academic goals.
The event also featured a keynote address by Thomas Scholl, a technology entrepreneur and inventor who founded the Hal and Kay Scholl Family Foundation Scholarship in honor of his parents. He spoke of Capitol's unique attributes as a university, describing it as a "gem" in the DC metro area.
"As a student, if you want to get a degree in engineering, technology, computer science, or cybersecurity, it turns out your choices are actually quite limited when you take everything into account: location, school size, tuition, curriculum, on/near campus living, online/in-class courses, and so on." When all these factors are taken into consideration, Capitol "comes out very favorably and often at the top," Scholl said.
Scholl's son William, who received his B.S. in cyber and information security from Capitol in 2015, then took the podium to describe some of the reasons he chose the Laurel-based university for his degree.
"When I first visited Capitol I came to realize it was the place for me. The things I liked most were the fact that it was close to home, I could study in my dorm room without distraction, and the environment was centered around people helping me succeed,” he said.
The Scholarship Appreciation Breakfast, held each year in the fall, honors the hard work of Capitol’s scholarship recipients and the generosity of those who make the scholarship opportunities possible.
Capitol is the only independent university in Maryland with a specialized focus on engineering and technology. Undergraduate programs offered at the university include astronautical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, and cyber and information security. The university offers a wide range of scholarships, including the Avrum Gudelsky and Homer Gudelsky memorial awards, given each year to students who have earned high academic distinction.
For more information on how you can support Capitol students through donations and scholarships, contact Melinda Bunnell-Rhyne, assistant vice president for student engagement and university development, at mabunnell-rhyne@captechu.edu.

Analytics leader SAS to visit Capitol - Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.)

Direct Link:  https://www.captechu.edu/node/2671

With interest and employment opportunities in analytics rising at a swift pace, Capitol Technology University is hosting SAS, a leading producer of analytics software, for a special event on Friday (November 3).

SAS representatives will be introducing students to the field, discussing current and future trends, highlighting career paths, and meeting with Capitol to outline specific industry needs that will inform a brand-new master’s degree program in cyber analytics as well as an undergraduate degree program at Capitol in business analytics, to be launched in Fall 2018.

“Analytics is a field with rapidly rising employer demand, “ Alspaw said. “SAS is one of the key companies in this arena and the insights they provide will be immensely valuable as we prepare to make our new programs available to students starting in Fall 2018. The event will be a valuable opportunity for our students to hear about analytics opportunities straight from the source.

Faculty members will also meet with SAS to help chart out course curriculum and plan resources.

“Our professors will be working with SAS to ensure that students gain experience with the software that the industry is using and that they are obtaining the skills and knowledge that employers need,” Alspaw said.

During the Capitol event, representatives of the company will lead two workshops. An IRS representative will also be joining SAS for a panel on how federal agencies are making use of analytics tools.

“There are many things students can learn from attending the event,” Alspaw said. “They’ll learn about business and cyber analytics, and about a leading organization in the field. They’ll learn terminology used in the field and become acquainted with software and other tools and resources. And they’ll find out about employment opportunities.”

Starting a cyber analytics program is a natural fit for Capitol, given the university’s longstanding engagement with cybersecurity. Capitol was one of the first institutions of higher education to offer an academic degree program in cybersecurity. In 2010, it started the nation’s first doctoral degree program in the field. Capitol’s cybersecurity program is a DHS and NSA-designated Center of Excellence in cybersecurity education.

With the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks on the increase, many see analytics as a way to keep ahead of potential adversaries.

“It opens up the possibility of predicting malicious behavior before it happens,” Alspaw said. “As many companies and organizations have learned, pre-empting an attack is far less costly than cleaning up after one.”

The SAS event will start at 9 am in the Avrum Gudelsky auditorium on the Capitol campus. For more information, contact Career Services at careers@captechu.edu.

Capitol student wins Grace Hopper research award - Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.)

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Capitol Technology University may be a small, close-knit school, but its engineering students are making big waves.

At the annual Grace Hopper Celebration this month, senior Zalika Dixon came away with the third-place award in the ACM Student Research Competition, impressing judges with her UV radiation monitoring project.

The internationally recognized competition, held each year in conjunction with the Grace Hopper event, offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to present their original research during a poster session. A panel of judges selects three undergraduate students and three graduate students as the winners, awarding cash prizes to each.

Dixon said she was “extremely proud” of the award given to her project, which was aimed at increasing public awareness of the effects climate change has on UV radiation. To help accomplish this goal, she created a portable UV datalogger using an Arduino board, SD card reader, and battery back, using this device to monitor UV data over a period of 10 days.

“I noticed that interest in my project was strong, particularly in the later part of the poster session,” Dixon said. “It seemed that word was getting around about the project.”

Judges, she said, asked probing questions during the session. Were variations noted in UV intensity over successive days? Who designed the equipment for collecting the data?  How long did it take to complete the project?
Although nervous, Dixon fielded the questions with professionalism and poise. Then, when the competition winners were announced, she was elated to hear her name called.
She says electronics courses at Capitol helped her build the fundamentals needed for her research. She also credits participation in TRAPSat, a student-led project at Capitol. “Through TRAPSat, I got hands-on experience with Arduino and microcontroller programming,” Dixon said. “I learned how to integrate hardware and software.”
“Since TRAPSat is interdisciplinary, I learned how to work with people from different majors,” she said. “And because we have ongoing collaborations with NASA, I’ve gained experience with working in a professional environment.”
While continuing her studies and participation in TRAPSat, Dixon now plans to expand her research project  by designing a UV alert system for the Capitol Technology University campus.
Engineering professor Dr. Garima Bajwa, who mentored Dixon as she planned and implemented her project, says Dixon’s project was especially notable because of the commitment she demonstrated, and also because of its applicability to the wider world.
“She started it from scratch and saw it through with great dedication,” Bajwa said. “The project is also important because it involves outreach, in that she is seeking to bring awareness to the community about a critical issue. It’s important for young engineers to recognize that what we do has significance for society as a whole, and Zalika understands this very well.”
The Grace Hopper Celebration, produced by AnitaB.org and held in partnership with the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), is the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. It was held from October 4-6 in Orlando, Florida.
For a video clip of Zalika Dixon receiving her award, click here.

ABET highlights Capitol as innovator in engineering education - Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.)

Direct Link: http://bit.ly/2gwpvaV

Engineering programs across the nation are undergoing an “epic revitalization” to keep pace with the rapidly evolving global economy, university accreditor ABET says in a newly-released brief that details innovations and best practices in the field.
Capitol Technology University is among six schools highlighted by ABET in the document, which explores “effective and flexible engineering programs that cultivate skilled, confident and career-ready graduates.”
The six schools – Capitol, Olin College, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Rice University -- offer undergraduate engineering programs that blur the lines between class and career, and increase access to dynamic, hands-on learning opportunities and projects for students, ABET said in the brief, entitled “Engineering Change: Lessons from Leaders on Modernizing Higher Education Engineering Curriculum.”
“The delivery of STEM curriculum in the age-old tradition of higher education is no longer effective for the business needs of today and tomorrow,” says ABET Executive Director and CEO Michael Milligan. “If we will meet the current and future demands for dynamic engineering talent, colleges and universities must rethink the role of engineers in our society and offer curriculum that prepares them to meet and overcome the challenges confronting the world today and tomorrow.”
The schools featured in the brief have all embraced a set of best practices, according to ABET. Rather than keeping program boundaries rigid, they cultivate a cross-disciplinary approach and blend different program areas. Instead of confining students to textbook learning, they integrate real-world practice into the classroom, enabling them to solve problems holistically.

Capitol and the other featured schools encourage dynamic, hands-on learning, engage with the business community, and adopt a flexible curriculum that can be adjusted as needs change, ABET said. They also have effective assessment procedures in place to ensure that students are getting a high quality educational experience.
“Capitol is a very collaborative environment,” the brief quotes Capitol academic dean and chair of the engineering department Dr. Nayef Abu-Ageel as saying. “People work in teams across different disciplines, from computer science to cybersecurity and business. And core to that collaboration is the dynamic, hands-on element of the program.”
The school also works to ensure student success, he noted. When a circuit course proved to be a tough challenge for first-year students, Capitol split the curriculum into two courses, allowing more time for students to master the content. The result was an almost immediate spike in student success rates. Moreover, for many students, that success continued through the remainder of the program.

“Our success lies in our ability to fundamentally understand our student population,” Abu-Ageel said.
ABET, publisher of the brief, is a global accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). “With ABET accreditation, students, employers, and the society we serve can be confident that a program meets the quality standards that produce graduates prepared to enter a global,” the organization said in a press release.
For more information and to download “Engineering Change,” visit www.abet.org.

Not just theory: real-time cybersecurity practice offered at Capitol’s Cyber Lab - Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.)

Direct Link: http://bit.ly/2glwseM

Not just theory: real-time cybersecurity practice offered at Capitol’s Cyber Lab

Capitol’s on-campus hub for practicing cybersecurity skills in real time is already busy, just weeks into the new school semester.

The university’s Cyber Lab, designed to help create a pipeline for cybersecurity expertise in the region, enables students to simulate, detect, analyze, and combat a wide range of cyber threats. After familiarizing themselves with cybersecurity concepts and principles during their classes, students can amplify what they’ve learned through hands-on activities in the lab.

Students running the Cyber Lab, with the guidance of Capitol faculty, are already planning activities such as last month’s Cyber Saturday event, geared towards high school and community college students. The September 21 event, starting at 9 am, offered exciting, game-oriented activities that also introduced students to cybersecurity fundamentals.
Participants in past events have used Raspberry Pis to remotely control lamps, radios, and other devices. Others have sought to kick each other off computer networks in a challenging game of virtual King of the Hill.

As the year progresses, the lab will also become a base for the university’s competition team as it prepares for the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (MACCDC).

Resources like the Cyber Lab are integral to Capitol’s approach to cyber education, which stresses practical knowhow and hands-on experience. In a field that is changing day to day as cybercriminals find new avenues, applied learning is critical, according to Capitol faculty.
“It’s a huge differentiator for us,” says Dr. William Butler, chair of Capitol’s cybersecurity program.

Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.) - Cybersecurity Education Expert Diana L. Burley to Deliver Keynote Address at Capitol

Direct Link: http://bit.ly/2z6e1lP

With cybersecurity concerns gaining prominence as never before, the need to educate professionals in the field – as well as boost awareness among the general public – is becoming more acute. This month, Capitol Technology University is hosting a prominent advocate of cybersecurity education, Dr. Diana L. Burley. Dr. Burley will deliver the keynote address at the university’s doctoral residency on Saturday, October 21, 2017, at 12 noon. The event is free and open to the general public.
Dr. Diana Burley is a nationally known cybersecurity educator and speaker. Dr. William Butler, Chair of the Cybersecurity Program at Capitol Technology University and head of the university’s Critical Infrastructures and Cyber Protection Center (CICPC), said, “She is the chairperson of a major national-level committee that is focused on developing cybersecurity curriculum both domestically and globally. Dr. Burley is very well-known in cybersecurity circles.”
As co-Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE Computer Society’s (IEEE CS) Joint Task Force on Cybersecurity Education, Dr. Burley spearheaded development of the first-ever set of global cybersecurity curricular guidelines. In 2013, she served as co-Chair of the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Professionalizing the Nation’s Cybersecurity Workforce. She has testified before the U.S. Congress, conducted international cybersecurity awareness training on behalf of the U.S. State Department and served two appointments on the Cyber Security Advisory Committee of the US Commonwealth of Virginia General Assembly Joint Commission on Technology & Science (2012, 2013).
A professor of human and organizational learning at George Washington University, she also serves as Executive Director and Chair of the university’s Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P). She holds a BA in Economics from Catholic University, as well as two masters’ degrees – in Organization Science and in Public Management and Policy – from the same institution. She completed her PhD in Organization Science and Information Technology at Carnegie-Mellon University, where she was a Woodward Wilson Foundation Fellow.
“We are very excited that Dr. Burley will be delivering the keynote address at our residency,” Butler said. “She is a highly sought-after speaker and having her visit our campus is quite an event for the university.” Dr. Burley’s address will begin at 9:00 AM on Saturday, October 21, 2017 in the William G. McGowan Academic Center on Capitol Technology University’s campus located at 11301 Springfield Road in Laurel, MD. For more information about the event or about the doctoral programs at Capitol, contact Dr. Michael R. Fain, Director of Doctoral Programs, via
telephone at (240) 965-2457 or email at mrfain@captechu.edu.

About Capitol Technology University
Founded in 1927 as the Capitol Radio Engineering Institute, Capitol Technology University is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) focused institution of higher education, providing undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, information sciences and technology leadership, that has flexibility and opportunities to grow, and that adapts offerings to emerging workforce needs. Capitol Technology University is the only independent university in Maryland that specializes in providing a relevant education in engineering, business and related fields, taking great pride in its proven record of placing graduates in competitive careers with salaries that are higher than the industry average.

Date: 

Friday, October 13, 2017

Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.) - The future is here: learn about brain-machine interfaces at Capitol workshop

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Imagine being able to operate your computer without needing a mouse or a keyboard, by controlling it directly with your brain.

Imagine using your thoughts to adjust the temperature settings in your home, change channels on your smart TV, play the new Taylor Swift single, or turn on the lights.
Sound like sci-fi fantasy? Once, it would have been. Now it is becoming reality, as a result of brain machine interfaces (BMI) – an emerging field of technological research that is generating intense interest. Capitol Technology University, home to one of the nation’s most highly regarded cybersecurity programs, will be providing an opportunity for young people to learn about brain machine interfaces and even to try them out for themselves.
The university’s popular Cyber Saturday program – aimed at community college students – will focus on BMIs during sessions in February, March, and April.
“We’re going to introduce brain machine interfaces to students and have them engage in a variety of activities – controlling computers, playing games, and operating various devices,” explained cybersecurity professor Dr. Jason M. Pittman who is spearheading the initiative together with Dr. Garima Bajwa of the engineering department. “We’ll also be teaching them about the cybersecurity aspects that come with this new technology.”
The program is part of a federal grant Capitol has received to conduct research into brain machine interfaces – and into the host of potential security issues that they raise.
Linking brains to computers can bring about enormous benefits and conveniences, but also opens up new avenues for criminal or malevolent behavior, he said. Malware could potentially be employed that gives adversaries direct access to their victims’ thoughts.
“Imagine the Equifax breach, but in the context of your thoughts,” he said. “Someone’s not breaching a company to steal data that’s on the hard drive. Rather, someone’s seeking to backchannel an EEG device so they can read your thoughts while you are thinking them.
Dr. Bajwa and Dr. Pittman hope to help mitigate these risks through their research, which is focused on authentication -- that is, on ensuring that BMI-controlled devices can only be controlled by the intended user, and that the user’s thoughts are controlling only the intended devices.
“A new paradigm is emerging for how we interact with machines, and along with it comes a new paradigm for criminal action,” Pittman said. “With this capacity-building grant, Capitol is helping to map out this new and largely uncharted territory.”
Interested in exploring BMIs? Contact the cybersecurity program at cybersat@captechu.edu to learn more about the upcoming Cyber Saturday workshops, or register here.

Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.) - Fusion Lab: Collaborative, cross-disciplinary education can expand skill sets and open career doors

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Visit the Fusion Lab at Capitol Technology University on any given day, and you’ll see students soldering circuits or creating form factors with a 3D printer. You’ll see them working out equations on the chalkboard, coding at computers, or strategizing ways of attracting interest and funding for their projects.
You’ll meet astronautical engineering students, and their peers from the cybersecurity program. Increasingly, you’ll also see electrical engineers, computer engineers, and students from Capitol’s business programs.
The lab, as its name suggests, is a place where knowledge and skills from different fields can be fused in the service of engineering and technology projects. It reflects a key component of Capitol’s vision of 21^st-century technology education – namely, the realization that technologists and engineers do not work in a vacuum. They collaborate, learn from each other, and broaden their individual skill sets.
“I’ve never had a job where I work only with people that have my degree,” says Ryan Schrenk, who founded the TRAPSat student project at Capitol and teaches in the university’s astronautical engineering program. “Yet, in many colleges, you can get very closed off. Your EEs work with EEs and your AEs work with AEs, and it’s only later, once they’re on the job, that they start to branch out.”
The Fusion Lab is part of an endeavor at Capitol to provide students with a different kind of educational experience, one that is less compartmentalized and more reflective of real-world conditions. Through the lab and other facilities, as well as through cross-curricular courses and activities, the university has made collaboration across disciplines part of its institutional culture.
 “With the employment arena becoming much more competitive, there’s an obvious advantage to starting that process much earlier, before you’ve graduated. You want to show employers that you’re well-rounded and very open to working with other people from outside your major,” Schrenk says.
The TRAPSat team – part of a combined mission, known as Cactus-1, that is preparing a satellite payload for launch into space -- includes members from nearly every undergraduate degree program at Capitol. Among the team members are astronautical engineering student Marc Horvath; Alec Johnson, who is completing a dual major in software engineering and mobile computing and game programming; and Marissa Jagernath, who studies business administration.
Horvath and Johnson, who serve as the team’s co-leads for communications, say that combining their expertise not only benefits the project but strengthens their individual capabilities. “Alec has had a lot of prior experience in the military with radio signals, and that’s definitely been an asset with comms,” says Horvath. “We’ve traded a lot of skill sets. For instance, I can handle the circuitry, and since Alec has a foundation in software programing, we can get something done that, working in isolation, we wouldn’t have the skill sets to do.”
For Johnson, working on a satellite project has opened up potential employment opportunities in the space sector – opportunities he might not have considered if not for his participation in Cactus-1.
“Through this project, I’ve learned about link budgets, for instance, and about antenna deployment -- for example, how placing the antenna on one side of a CubeSat will affect how we do communications,” he says. “It’s brought me a breadth of experience, and that opens up some possibilities that I would otherwise have closed myself off to because I’m not an astronautical engineering major. As a software engineer working with Cactus-1, I can apply for space ops positions – and I plan to do so.”
Jagernath handles outreach and press relations for TRAPSat and acts as the team’s liaison with the University of Maryland’s balloon payload program. She says “not a lot of business students” get the chance to work closely with an engineering team as part of their university studies.
“I’m always learning something, and there’s always something to learn,” she says.

Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.) - Computer science not just about coding, professor says

Direct Link:  http://bit.ly/2wzthqk Planning a career in computer science? It’s not only about learning how to be a coding wizard. Sure, a professional in the field can be expected to have a solid command of the major programming languages, including PhP, SQL, Python, Perl, and C++. That’s a baseline for any computer science major, says the chair of Capitol Technology University’s Computer Science program, Dr. Eric Sabbah. A deeper understanding of the field, though, requires critical thinking skills that can be applied across varied scenarios, he said. “The ability to analyze a problem and understand what goes into solving it – is huge. If we can accomplish that, we’ve done our job,” he said. Students in Capitol’s computer science bachelor’s program first master the syntax and technology fundamentals, with a strong emphasis on object-oriented programming, but in their junior and senior years the scope moves towards higher-level knowledge, he said. “At first it’s just about making things work, but we don’t stop there. As they move through the program, students ask questions like “is it efficient? Is it designed in an elegant way? Does it deliver a good user experience?” Soft skills, such as being able to communicate and work together as part of the team, are also essential. “Any time you’re going to work in industry, you’re not going to be working alone,” he said. “It’s true that many computer scientists and STEM people do like to work alone. But real life isn’t that way. You’re going to be part of a team, collaborating together to get things done.” Capitol helps its students build those vital teamwork and communication skills through collaborative student projects, he said, as well as a capstone course that concludes the graduate program and is designed to replicate a real-life project, complete with documentation and budgeting. “Having those skills is what distinguishes you between having a career and having a great career,” Sabbah said.

Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.) - IASP, CTSP scholarships help students meet nation’s cyber challenges

Direct Link: http://bit.ly/2fHujKd
 
“I want to be able to do something and contribute to the defense of our infrastructure,” says Emmanuel Onwulata. He’s a master’s student in cyber and information security at Capitol Technology University, and one of two Capitol master’s students to be selected this year for the prestigious Information Assurance Scholarship Program.
The award “gives me the opportunity to do cybersecurity research, which I love with a passion,” Onwulata says. It’s a critical field nowadays, he adds, because of “the current situation, where a lot of systems are being hacked due to inadequate protections and controls.”
Onwulata and Josh Nelbach are Capitol’s IASP recipients for 2017. Selection for the Department of Defense sponsored program results in a full scholarship package including tuition coverage as well as a $30,000 stipend. After graduation, recipients go on to cybersecurity roles in the federal government.
Nelbach says he is “extremely grateful” to have been selected. Like Onwulata, he sees it as an opportunity to serve the country as it grapples with an increasingly complex array of cybersecurity threats.

“It’s an investment by the American people in their own security. America is investing in me by ensuring I can gain the best education I can in order to defend our nation,” Nelbach said.
Capitol, a pioneer in the field of cybersecurity education and a designated Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) in the field, has also announced this year’s recipients of the school’s Cyber Transfer Scholarship Program, which is awarded to community college students seeking to complete bachelor’s degrees in cybersecurity. The CTSP is funded under a grant from  the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Andrew Brant (Northern Virginia CC), Willie F Brown (Delta College), Matthew Harris (Volunteer State CC), Brad Howell (Volunteer State CC), Shelly Kleinert (Volunteer State CC), Nathan Little (Delta College), Justin Scheidler (Delta College), Jonathan Taylor (Prince Georges CC), and Jonathan Varner (Augusta Technical CC) will receive the CTSP scholarship, which covers the classes needed to move from an associate’s to a bachelor’s degree. Coursework for CTSP students is offered online, enabling them to earn their degrees without relocation.
Scholarship programs such as the IASP and CTSP not only open doors to students but also help ensure that the country has a corps of well-educated professionals in a critical field, said Dr. William Butler, who chairs the cybersecurity program at Capitol.
The university was among the first to offer academic degrees in the field, including a doctorate established in 2010, he noted.
“Capitol has well-established relationships with employers and government agencies, and we’re an NSA-designated Center for Excellence,” said Butler, who also directs the school’s Critical Infrastructures and Cyber Protection Center. “Our faculty consists of professionals working in the field. They can provide insights and exposure to current trends that the students won’t get elsewhere. As a result, a Capitol education increases students’ chances of success as well as their earning potential.”

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Capitol Technology University (Since 1927 Located Near Washington D.C.) - With new facility, Capitol Technology University offers enhanced satellite op training

Link:  http://bit.ly/2xWv6Bb
Learning to command and control and spacecraft requires both knowledge and practice, but being able to obtain hands-on training is often a challenge for students. Opportunities to assist with actual missions are limited and – understandably, given the costs and high stakes involved –little direct responsibility is placed on students.
With the help of the Hammers Company, a MD-based firm that has contributed to numerous NASA and commercial missions, Capitol Technology University now offers a resource that most space engineering programs lack: a platform for real-time training in a virtual satellite environment.
At Capitol’s brand new Space Flight Operations Training Center (SFOTC) students use actual spacecraft software to control virtual satellites, replicating the scenarios they would actually face on the job. The system incorporates a number of tools pioneered by Hammers, which has supported more than 30 NASA missions with real-time simulation, flight, and ground software systems.
 “From the operator’s standpoint, when you’re on the system, it looks exactly like the spacecraft,” explains Marcel Mabson, a software test engineer at Hammers and a Capitol alumnus.
The VirtualSat® spacecraft dynamic simulator “closes-the-loop” with the flight software simulating the actual spacecraft in orbit with sensors and actuators. Firing thrusters, performing spacecraft slews and monitoring the spacecraft telemetry are all possible in the virtual environment. VirtualSat allows the instructor to inject errors into the spacecraft to train the student to detect anomalies and conduct recovery procedures to up-link to the spacecraft. The Galaxy® spacecraft command and telemetry system allows the student to actually operate the virtual spacecraft in real-time and function as a spacecraft operator.
Classroom learning, while vital, can only go so far when it comes to preparing students for flight ops, Mabson said.
 “It’s one thing to read about it in books, but it’s a whole different story when you’re responsible for a real bird that costs several hundreds of million dollars to build and launch,” he said. “The SFOTC will give students a leg-up when they go into the real world and work in operations. They’ll have the experience.”
That includes experience with responding to unexpected events, such as a loss in communications or a systems failure. Instructors can introduce anomalies that the student will have to address. “For instance, your spacecraft has stopped talking to you,” Mabson says. “How do you recover from that? Through the software, students will be able to understand the flow and management in any number of scenarios.”
Capitol professor Rishabh Maharaja, a systems engineer for NASA’s Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) spacecraft, says the SFOTC will be integrated into several astronautical engineering courses at Capitol, and will be available to all students in the program.
It provides “real world experience while they’re still in school. And they can take that wherever they go, whether it’s to NASA or a private company, because the underlying principles are the same.”
Because other disciplines such as computer science and electrical engineering are involved in satellite operations, he anticipates that the new resource will be extended beyond AE to other programs at Capitol as well, he said.
Mabson sums up the SFOTC as “an amazing place for future engineers to learn the engineering behind spacecraft development, operations, commanding, and data analysis.”
“The fact that we can train the students to see how they react in different situations, to get the full stress as it would be in a real NASA mission, is definitely an advantage for the school to have,” he said.
Direct Link:  http://bit.ly/2xWv6Bb