Cheryl Reuben is an undergraduate research assistant in the Atmospheric and Environmental Research Lab.

Just after midnight on April 7 along the eastern coast of Florida, Jun Wang saw a blinding light burst across a harbor, followed by a mighty roar. It was a SpaceX rocket lifting off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and starting its ascent into space. With his wife and two of his kids by his side, Wang watched the rocket climb higher and higher into the inky sky — carrying years of his research with it.

For 40-plus years, the Army has been waiting for someone like 18-year-old Santos. He runs, he deadlifts, executes push-ups and carries burdens like a pack mule and is fresh as a daisy the next day. He’s also entirely virtual. University of Iowa's Santos (and his female counterpart Sophia), is a biomechanically accurate digital avatar that predicts behavior through

Karim Malek, director of the Virtual Soldier Research program at the University of Iowa, and Maj. Gen. Stewart Wallace (retired) appear on the Iowa Innovation Podcast powered by NewBoCo. They discuss how the Virtual Soldier Research program has the capacity to change the world, why Wallace would come out of retirement for this specific project, and host Anthony’s fears of the movie “I, Robot” becoming a reality.

DARPA is also testing how human pilots interact with AI to examine how well they trust machines to automatically conduct dogfights. Air Force pilots have flown L-29 jet trainers also running AI algorithms at the University of Iowa Technology Institute's Operator Performance Laboratory.

Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL) director and University of Iowa industrial engineering professor Tom “Mach” Schnell briefed national security leaders on a project seeking to improve artificial intelligence in aerial combat.

In less than three years, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms developed under DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program have progressed from controlling simulated F-16s flying aerial dogfights on computer screens to controlling an actual F-16 in flight. University of Iowa's Operator Performance Lab has contributed to the progress.

The University of Iowa may not have the visibility of some aviation schools, but the institution is well known for important research for the civil and military sectors. Robert W. Moorman spoke with their principals. Often research of new technology serves as a prologue to a corresponding need for new or better training. Such could be the case with various research programs at the Iowa Technology Institute, part of the College of Engineering.

It’s fly-in pancake breakfast day at the Iowa City Municipal Airport and, as usual, Tom “Mach” Schnell is hustling around a hangar that is the high-tech headquarters for the University of Iowa Operator Performance Laboratory.

The Iowa Technology Institute participated in the University of Iowa's new pilot program, Discover Your University, which allows faculty and staff to explore campus that they don’t get to visit during a normal workday.