Lab News

Lab Updates, Networking Event

BID4R Lab Showcase at E-Week

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February 23, 2024 – This February, the BID4R Lab had the honor of being one of the highlighted labs during Engineering Week (E-week), specifically on the 21st. What an exhilarating experience it was to showcase our lab’s innovative work and the brilliant minds behind our projects!

We extend our deepest gratitude to all the students, alumni, industry professionals, and enthusiasts who

joined us. Your enthusiasm and support make our work even more meaningful. This event was a fantastic opportunity for networking, sparking collaborations, and discussing the future.

Inspired by the success of our E-week showcase, we’re more motivated than ever to continue our work. Stay tuned for updates on our projects, breakthroughs, and upcoming events.

Thank you for being part of our journey. Here’s to many more milestones and shared successes!

Awards, Lab Updates

Dr. Bryan Watson Awarded the 2023-24 Mentor of the Year

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April 10, 2024 – We’re thrilled to announce that our lab advisor, Dr. Bryan Watson, P. E., has been recognized as-24 Mentor of the Year!

Dr. Watson’s dedication to supporting students and fostering excellence in research is truly commendable. His guidance, expertise, and encouragement have been instrumental in shaping every students’ academic and professional journeys. From offering valuable insights to providing hands-on support, Dr. Watson goes above and beyond to ensure that every student thrives.

His passion for research is contagious, inspiring us to push the boundaries of knowledge and pursue innovative solutions to real-world challenges.

Under his mentorship, we’ve not only honed our technical skills but also developed a deep appreciation for collaboration, critical thinking, and perseverance.

We’re incredibly grateful for Dr. Watson’s unwavering commitment to our success. This well-deserved recognition is a testament to his outstanding mentorship and the profound impact he has on the lives and careers of his students.

Congratulations, Dr. Watson, and thank you for everything you do! 

Awards, Lab Updates, Poster Presentation

Exciting News from 2024 Discovery Day

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April 10, 2024 – We are thrilled to share some fantastic outcomes from our recent Discovery Day, particularly for BID4R Lab team.

Three of our team members, Jack Capuano, Austen Pallen, and Julia Gorthey, were named Research Scholars for the Graduating Class. This is a remarkable achievement, as it means half of the research scholars selected university-wide are from our lab!

Congratulations to Grace Gratton, Mikayla Dutkiewicz, and Noa Teed, who were awarded SURF grants to support their research projects this summer. Your hard work continues to inspire us, and we can’t wait to see what you will accomplish in the coming months.

A huge THANK YOU to each member of our team. Your dedication and passion for research are what make our lab a leading force. The lab is so grateful for the past two years together and eagerly anticipate future innovations.

Let’s continue to make waves in our fields and support each other’s growth. Here’s to more success and teamwork in the days to come!

Awards, Lab Updates

Rogelio G. Otálvaro Won People’s Choice Award at ERAU’s Graduate Research Symposium

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April 4, 2024 – Excited to share some fantastic news from today’s Graduate Research Symposium at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University! A huge round of applause for Rogelio Gracia Otálvaro for his outstanding achievement in the poster competition.

Not only did Rogelio clinch the second place, but he also captivated the audience, winning the People’s Choice Award! His poster, “Bifurcation Analysis for Complex System Resilience,” showcases not just innovative thinking but also the practical application in enhancing system resilience.

Congratulations, Rogelio, on your well-deserved recognition. Your hard work and dedication are truly inspirational!

Awards, Lab Updates

James Hand Awarded 2024 US DoD SMART Scholarship

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May 16, 2024 – We are thrilled to announce that James Hand, an exceptional EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) PhD student, has been awarded the prestigious 2024 United States Department of Defense SMART Scholarship.

James is a dedicated member of the Biologically Inspired Design-for-Resilience (BID4R) Lab, where his groundbreaking research focuses on eusocial insect-inspired approaches to addressing faulted agents in multi-agent systems. His innovative work promises to revolutionize the way we understand and implement resilience in complex technological environments.

This accomplishment is a testament to James’s hard work, creativity, and dedication to advancing the frontiers of science and technology. The SMART Scholarship is a highly competitive award that recognizes outstanding students who show great potential to become future innovators and leaders in their fields.

Please join us in congratulating James on this remarkable achievement. We can’t wait to see where his research and leadership will take him next!

Link to ERAU News: https://news.erau.edu/headlines/embry-riddle-scores-big-on-department-of-defense-smart-scholarships

Conference, Lab Updates

BID4R Lab at CSER 2023

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Members of the BID4R Lab at the Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER) at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Chase Covello presented his paper: “Using Graph Theory to Investigate the Role of Expertise on Infrastructure Evolution: A Case Study Examining the game Factorio” to a well attended session. 

In his paper, Chase and Henry focused on how research into critical infrastructure network architecture design faces two significant challenges. First, real-world network performance data is often not available due to being proprietary. Secondly, many efforts focus on analysing the structure of an infrastructure network at a single point in time, while real-world networks are constantly evolving. In this article, these two gaps (need for more data and for time-series data) are examined by utilizing a new data source: the video game Factorio. Factorio is a manufacturing simulator. Utilizing publicly available recordings of players’ networks in game, a shared end point, and completion time stamps allows the examination of different network strategies. The key research question examined in this work is how does network evolution change when comparing ten expert and ten novice designers. This article provides two key contributions. First, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of how ten different structural graph theory metrics evolve when comparing expert and novice designers is provided. The expert dataset has a narrower distribution, indicating common strategies, and focuses on critical path manufacturing early in the network’s evolution. The second contribution is a set of time-series network data that can be used for additional studies. By examining the differences in network evolution between experts and novices, this article performs a critical first step towards using in-situ graph theory metrics as a decision aid for designers during infrastructure evolution.

Lab Updates, Networking Event

BID4R Lab End-of-semester Celebration

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As the semester draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on the incredible journey of exploration, innovation, and collaboration that has defined our time in the BID4R Lab family. To celebrate the hard work, dedication, and numerous breakthroughs achieved over the past few months, we had our End-of-Semester Celebration, hosted by Dr. Watson!

This semester has been full of accomplishments and achievements our lab! BID4R Lab has continuously grown, and we are proud to announce that we have submitted 7 conference papers this semester, thanks to the dedication of our lab members!

With the closing of this wonderful semester, we look forward to another great semester of growth, collaboration, and groundbreaking achievements!

Awards, Lab Updates

James Hand Wins Student Research Symposium 2023 Award

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Exciting News from the 2023 Student Research Symposium (SRS) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University!

A massive congratulations to James Hand for his outstanding achievement at the 2023 Student Research Symposium!

James Hand, our BID4R lab’s Graduate Student received the SRS’s Graduate Student Award with his research titled “A Systematic Literature Review and Functional Decomposition Summarizing Eusocial Insect Parasite Resistance: A Tool for Biologically Inspired Design” advised by Bryan Watson, P. E.

With this award, our lab received a back-to-back awards from research symposiums at ERAU. Last semester, Jack Capuano, our lab’s Undergraduate Student won the 1st session’s Undergraduate award at the Discovery Day Research Symposium in Spring 2023 with his research titled “Development and Verification of a new Drone Swarm Search and Rescue Model.”

We are very happy to have brilliant and dedicated students in our lab! We look forward to be a part of another research symposiums!

Lab Updates, Poster Presentation

Poster Presentations at the Student Research Symposium

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This week, our dedicated BID4R Lab researchers showcased their work at the Student Research Symposium on November 15th, organized by the Office of Undergraduate Research and led by Ronnie Mack, Ed.D. The symposium offered a unique opportunity for participants to not only exhibit their research to peers but also to an esteemed panel of judges from various academic disciplines. The judging panel included representatives from Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach College of Engineering, Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach

College of Aviation, Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach College of Arts & Sciences, and professionals from industry. Additionally, visitors from Daytona State College added to the diverse audience.

Our lab proudly presented a total of 8 posters which accounted for almost 10% of all presentations! We congratulate to our researchers for their outstanding participation and the valuable insights they shared during this symposium. We are excited to see what their awesome research will bring and their upcoming conference presentations!

Lab Updates, Networking Event

Dr. Sara Behdad Visit

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We were delighted to welcome Dr. Sara Behdad to our lab meeting this week (November 13th). Dr. Behdad is an Associate Professor at the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment at the University of Florida. She leads the Green Engineering Technology for the Community of Tomorrow (GETCOT) Research Laboratory at UF and serves as the associate editor for

both the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. It was a privilege to have such an esteemed guest share her insights and expertise with us.

During the meeting, our lab organized a mini poster fair to showcase our ongoing research in the BID4R Lab. Dr. Behdad’s presence added significant value as we gained valuable insights and feedback from her distinguished perspective.