September 10, 2004

BOISE STATE NAMED PARTNER IN $2 MILLON FAA CENTER TO STUDY CABIN AIR QUALITY AND BIO/CHEMICAL THREATS

Boise State University will partner with Harvard University, Auburn University and four other research universities in a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) research center to study cabin air quality and conduct an assessment of chemical and biological threats in airliners. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s FAA has created a new Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Airliner Cabin Environment Research. The FAA will contribute at least $1 million to the center the first year and $500,000 in each of the second and third years. Matching funds will be provided by the private sector. “We’ve brought together some of the brightest minds science has to offer to focus on cabin air quality and chemical and biological threats to protect passengers and crew members,” said FAA administrator Marion Blakey. “This research will be of great benefit to the flying public.” John Owens, Boise State University vice president of research, said “the work of this center could significantly improve conditions for travelers by examining a variety of issues including air filtration and re-circulation. This is a problem of international scope that we are trying to attack and solve. It is a perfect example of the type of issue we want to address as a metropolitan research university.” The partnership will be led by Auburn University. The other members from academia are Boise State University; Harvard University; Purdue University; Kansas State University; University of California at Berkeley; and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The Center of Excellence is considered a world-class partnership of academia, industry and government formed to identify solutions for existing and anticipated airliner cabin environment problems. The members of this Center will collaborate with the FAA and engage in the research and development of tools to ensure the safety, security and health of all human occupants of aerospace vehicles. This partnership will seek to develop tools to understand and mitigate environmental issues that concern aircraft occupants including health issues; development of sensor system technologies to detect contaminants; response methodology for cabin environment incidents; mitigation of air cabin contamination; and scientific data collection to support regulatory standards. Boise State researchers will concentrate on the development of cargo and cabin air quality sensors and instrumentation to detect potential environmental contaminants. “This is a great opportunity for Boise State to work with some of the finest schools in the country on a worthwhile task,” said electrical engineering professor Joe Hartman, who will lead Boise State’s research efforts for the center. “We will be focused on electrical engineering and instrumentation of these onboard sensors and techniques that will ultimately improve cabin air quality. We are very grateful to the FAA for setting up the programming and selecting our team.” Hartman hopes to begin research activities at Boise State later this fall as graduate students interact with other schools to determine appropriate surveillance methods for measuring air quality. This is the second FAA center involving Boise State as a research partner. In September 2003, Boise State, along with MIT, Stanford University and five other universities, was named a partner in the Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Aircraft Noise and Aviation Emissions Mitigation. “With this second Center of Excellence designation from the FAA, Boise State continues to be recognized as a prominent research institution,” said Cheryl Schrader, dean of Boise State’s College of Engineering. “We are certainly proud to be part of this consortium of universities, especially when selected to help solve an important quality of life issue.” There are five other FAA Centers of Excellence that focus on airport technology, operations research, airworthiness assurance, general aviation, and advanced materials. For more information about the FAA Centers of Excellence program, visit www.coe.faa.gov. -30- Contact: Joe Hartman, Electrical Engineering, (208) 426-5714, jhartman@boisestate.edu, Paul Takemoto, Federal Aviation Administration, (202) 267-3883                                                              Media Contact: Pat Pyke, communications and marketing, (208) 426-1987, ppyke@boisestate.edu Online at: http://news.boisestate.edu