Mexican Aerospace Engineer Explores Innovative Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Technology

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Javier González Rocha

Hispanic Heritage Month at the University of Arkansas is an opportunity to highlight the contributions of scholars advancing knowledge in multiple academic disciplines. This month, the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society, and the University of Arkansas Hispanic Heritage Month Committee are collaborating to highlight the contributions of leading engineers and scientists. On Friday, Oct. 11, Javier González Rocha, a doctoral candidate in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech, will discuss the use of unmanned aircraft for atmospheric science research. 

Specifically, González Rocha will present results from his experiments using flight dynamics modeling and other methods to sense wind in the atmospheric boundary layer using multirotor unmanned aircraft. González Rocha will also highlight the significance of building and maintaining mentoring relationships to advancing knowledge in engineering and science.

"I am passionate about the advancement of engineering and science as a means of achieving meaningful societal change. It's the framework that gives my work purpose in the world," is González Rocha's message to students from all disciplines who are invited to attend his research talk. 

From his hometowns of La Jabonera, Michoacán, México and Watsonville, California, González Rocha graduated from Sacramento State University, and went on to conduct aerodynamics design research at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. As a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, he spearheaded the effort to establish a chapter of the Graduate Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

 The public is invited to attend his research presentation, which will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, October 11th in Room 105 of the Nanoscale Material Science and Engineering Building (NANO) at 731 W. Dickson St. Fayetteville, AR. 

About the Blair Center: The Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society was established in 2001 by an act of the US Congress, making it one of the rare research centers in the country to be established by congressional appropriation. It is named in honor of political scientist Diane Divers Blair who taught for thirty years in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. Her career outside of teaching included extensive public service as char of both the US Corporation of Public Broadcasting and the Commission on Public Employee Rights. Diane D. Blair was a champion of interdisciplinary research and critical thinking, and she reached across academic aisles often and with ease. The Blair Center reflects her academic model and strives to approach the study of the American South from a variety of angles, attempting to reveal the undercurrents of politics, history, and culture that have shaped the region over time.