AAMU Professor Mentored Student at GTRI Huntsville Research Center

AAMU Assistant Math Professor Dr. Kenneth Sartor and senior electrical engineering major Malcolm Echols took part in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) Defense-University Affiliated Research Traineeship (DART) Program.

DART’s main goal is to leverage the pipeline of researchers underrepresented in STEM and accelerate their awareness, knowledge, access, and opportunities in research and development (R&D) contracting for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Sartor and Echols spent the summer at GTRI’s research facility in Huntsville, AL., conducting research using machine learning to improve predictive maintenance for the Army’s helicopters.

“The DART program was administered by AAMU Research Innovation Science Engineering (RISE). DART can be seen as a "proof of concept" to see if a faculty member can effectively mentor a student so that successful execution of a DoD contract can be accomplished,” states Sartor. “The customer was so impressed, AAMU student Malcolm Echols was hired to continue to work for GTRI after the summer contract was over. We plan to apply this paradigm to other contracts within AAMU-RISE Foundation that relate to artificial intelligence since it worked for the DART program,” adds Sartor.

“We have been working with GTRI in a Mentor/protege relationship since May of 2022. This includes support from GTRI in developing our research infrastructure, as well as teaming with our researchers and students on a number of cutting-edge contracting tasks for multiple DoD customers," says Dr. Andrew Scott, Professor and Chair of the AAMU Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and Interim President/Director of AAMU-RISE. “As a result of their efforts, GTRI is looking to expand on the DART program for summer 2024, and hopes to include multiple HBCU teams and additional DoD sites,” adds Scott.

Echols is now working for GTRI as a Research Intern. “Under the mentorship of Dr. Sartor, we were able to provide insight that led to new and improved machine learning techniques. This project helped confirm that the talent being nurtured here at Alabama A&M has the potential to contribute groundbreaking ideas and research to government projects.”

For more: https://www.gtri.gatech.edu/newsroom/gtris-dart-program-supports-dod-research-opportunities-hbcus