Carol Taylor

“Major strides have been made in the last 40 years to make flying the safest of all major modes of transportation. More technological advances are needed however, to prevent a rise in accidents if air traffic triples as predicted in the next twenty years.” — NASA

In order to meet this challenge, the NASA Center for Aviation safety (CAS) at NC A&T State University is working to build a strong aerospace engineering research and education program with a competent faculty to address the challenges of NASA’ Aeronautics and Aviation Safety Programs. The goal of CAS is to develop materials, tools, models, and technologies that support the safe operation of aerospace vehicles. CAS is also committed to growing a high-quality aerospace engineering graduate program within the Department of Mechanical Engineering to produce world-class engineers and expand the workforce in aviation safety. Ms. Taylor will be immersed in all aspects of the center’ research including nanocomposites–processing and fabrication, testing and modeling, damage detection and monitoring, icing, biofuels, and aircraft turbulence. Outreach to K-12 students is important to CAS, and they will work with Ms. Taylor to embed engineering concepts into innovative classroom lessons in math and science and tie them to materials created by NASA as well as the new core standards for math and science.