University of Houston engineering professor Guanrong "Ron" Chen and alumnus James N. Ortiz have been selected to receive the M. Barry Carlton Award from the IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society for their article, "Intelligent Control for a Planning System for Astronaut Training."
IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Systems Society gives the award for the best paper published in the AES Transactions during a calendar year. They will each receive a plaque and share a $1,000 cash award in recognition of their work.
"Our paper competed with research papers from universities and research organizations from all over the world," said Ortiz, 1996 Ph.D. electrical engineering graduate from UH and chief engineer at Johnson Space Center. "This award is quite an honor considering that the IEEE is the largest professional organization in the world and the most prestigious in electrical engineering."
Ortiz and Chen, professor of electrical and computer engineering, began researching the topic as part of Ortiz's doctoral studies. The research combined control systems theory and artificial intelligence to mechanize the preparation of training plans for the astronauts that participate in the NASA-led International Space Station. In order to complete the research, Ortiz received detailed information from JSC on astronaut training, activities and plans, verification and testing of his models and computer programs.
"The mathematical models that we developed to emulate the planning process were surprisingly efficient and produced very small computer programs," explained Ortiz. "These computer programs not only produced complete training plans that met all required prerequisites, but also optimized these plans to minimize the expenditure of the resources, such as overall training time and amount of travel."
Ortiz is also a member of the Industrial Advisory Committee for the UH Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and lectures classes on control systems theory.
Friends of M. Barry Carlton established the M. Barry Carlton Memorial Award in 1957. Carlton dedicated his life to the reliability of communications equipment, particularly equipment carried in aircraft. Carlton's highest range was Assistant Secretary of Research and Development for the U.S. Department of Defense. He died on June 30, 1956 in the greatest commercial air disaster in history to that date. In this disaster two airplanes crashed in the Grand Canyon in Northern Arizona, in a midair collision, killing all 128 persons aboard. At the time of his death, he was employed by the Magnavox Company. The award was initiated by the former Military Electronics Group, and continued with a broadened scope by the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society.