What Happened
8 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) For 10 years, a NASA initiative has helped the agency produce breakthrough aeronautical innovations while fostering the aviation workforce of tomorrow – and the University Leadership Initiative (ULI) is still flying high, making awards with the potential to change 21st century air travel. Through ULI, NASA has supported more than 1,100 students at 100 schools, allowing them to pursue advancements in top priority areas for U.S.
Table of Contents
Why It Matters
aviation, including high-speed flight, advanced air mobility, future airspace management and safety, and electrified propulsion. Many of those students have used their ULI experience as a springboard to careers in aviation.
Key Details
- And many of their ideas — such as designing more efficient wings or building supersonic aircraft that can change shape in flight — are either being investigated further by industry or the technologies adopted outright. As it celebrates a decade of success, NASA’s ULI team is looking forward to leveraging student innovations with new awards in 2026 and beyond. “Through ULI we’re building the workforce of the future and fostering the skill sets we so desperately need to compete globally,” said John Cavolowsky, director of NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Through ULI we're building the workforce of the future and fostering the skill set we so desperately need to compete globally.
- john cavolowsky Director, Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program What makes ULI unique from other NASA research projects, and especially appealing to universities, is that it provides the opportunity for university students and faculty to propose what research to conduct. Usually, NASA determines the research it needs and then does the work itself or through partnerships and contracts.
- But with ULI, the agency shares its goals and universities consider how they can best help realize them. “There are no better ways in my mind to help develop that talent within the students than to engage them in identifying big problems and then give them the resources they need to use their creativity to solve them,” Cavolowsky said. ULI history NASA’s relationship with academia and reliance on its research proficiency is written into NASA’s DNA going back to the days of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, from which NASA was formed in 1958. “For more than a century we have leaned on the brilliance and the capabilities of universities to help us think,” Cavolowsky said.
- “With ULI we can ensure they continue to bring their fresh ideas and young energy to the work we do at NASA Aeronautics.” ULI evolved from an earlier project called Leading Edge Aeronautics Research for NASA (LEARN). NASA selected five LEARN teams in 2015 to pursue truly outside of the box ideas that showed promise but needed additional study. One of those teams, for example, sought to take a cue from migrating flocks of birds by asking if airliners could save fuel by cruising in a giant ‘V’ formation. The numbers were intriguing and simple flight tests proved the concept, although the idea never made it to practice. Slightly retooled but keeping the innovative spirit of LEARN, ULI was officially announced in 2016 and a year later NASA selected five teams of university professors and students to contribute solutions to the biggest aeronautical challenges of the 21st century. A decade later, NASA has made a total of $220 million in awards to 33 teams over eight rounds of solicitations Smooth flying One of the earliest selected ULI teams was led by James Coder, who at the time was an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His team worked on technology that would smooth the airflow around a wing to make it more efficient. Technically known as slotted natural laminar flow (SNLF) wings, Coder has called the idea a potential game changer for commercial airliners. The more efficient wing would mean less drag on an airplane, which in turn could help airlines save money on fuel. Coder credits ULI for not only helping to prove the technology’s effectiveness – with the aid of wind tunnel testing at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California – but for providing students with an experience they couldn’t get elsewhere. Three University of Tennessee/Knoxville students and co-investigator Dan Somers (in red jacket) prepare a slotted laminar flow wing section for testing in a wind tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.University of Tennessee/Knoxville “After 10 years industry remains interested in the SNLF technology and I am optimistic for good reason about its future,” Coder said. “And project alumni have gone on to do many wonderful things and leverage what they did and learned through the ULI.” With ULI experience prominent on their resumes, several of the students on Coder’s team wound up with jobs in industry – such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin – and government labs.
Background Context
8 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) For 10 years, a NASA initiative has helped the agency produce breakthrough aeronautical innovations while fostering the aviation workforce of tomorrow – and the University Leadership Initiative (ULI) is still flying high, making awards with the potential to change 21st century air travel. Through ULI, NASA has supported more than 1,100 students at 100 schools, allowing them to pursue advancements in top priority areas for U.S. aviation, including high-speed flight, advanced air mobility, future airspace management and safety, and electrified propulsion. Many of those students have used
What To Watch Next
Track official statements, independent verification, and regional impact updates in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Editorial Next Step
Add your local context, fact checks, quotes, and analysis before or after publication.
Source: NASA – Original Link
Source: NASA
