News

Photo of Dr. Majumdar with Jason Clendenin, who is a Corporate Pilot at University of Arkansas and Air Force Reserve B-52 instructor pilot, assessing the simulator capabilities.

We’re excited to announce the newest addition to the ASYST Lab — a state-of-the-art Frasca flight simulator (advanced aviation training device, AATD). This high-fidelity simulator marks a significant step forward in our lab’s capabilities, enabling cutting-edge research in aviation safety, autonomous systems, and human factors.

The Frasca simulator is equipped with advanced avionics and realistic flight controls, offering a highly immersive environment for both student training and research experiments. It will play a key role in supporting future research projects across multiple domains, including integration with unmanned systems. We look forward to the exciting opportunities this technology will bring to our lab and collaborators in the aerospace research community.

We are excited to welcome Toluwalase (Tolu) Olatunji as the newest Ph.D. student in the ASYST Lab, who joined us in January 2025. Tolu brings an outstanding academic background and has been awarded the prestigious Doctoral Academy Fellowship (DAF) to support her doctoral research. We look forward to the valuable contributions she will make to our research community!

Nina Kondur, an Aerospace Engineering senior from Purdue University, is working as a research assistant at the ASYST lab in Summer ’24. Meanwhile, Ryker Davis, a Mechanical Engineering senior from the University of Arkansas, has joined the research to evaluate pilots’ proficiency in energy management principles. In this photo, the student researchers are setting up the Redbird SD flight simulator at the Fayetteville Public Library for the research experiment with pilots. To learn more about this research and to participate in our study (if you are a student or certified pilot), click here:

https://uark.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_72OwOPW2OPa8rTE.

After Sydney Sommers was awarded the Honors Research Grant in Spring 2024, we have two more undergraduate students, Lauren Westfall and Samson Parker, who have secured the grant. This grant will help them support their honors thesis research starting Fall 2024!

Sydney was the first undergraduate student to join the ASYST Lab in 2023, a month into its inception. In her research, she analyzed General Aviation instructional accidents using the National Transportation Safety Board database.

Please contact Dr. Majumdar through her email (neelm@uark.edu) to follow up on this fantastic opportunity. To learn more, go to Join our team.

Mehedi is a graduate student who completed his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology. Upon his arrival in Fayetteville, he found the place reminiscent of Darjeeling, a scenic town in the Himalayan foothills. Welcome Mehedi to this beautiful city and campus!

Sydney Sommers, Lauren Westfall, Ryker Davis, and Samson Parker have joined the ASYST Lab and are motivated to work towards their individual projects. More details coming soon!