Supplemental Instruction in Mathematics within a Mathematics/Software Engineering Co-Development Project to Dynamically Predict High-Altitude Balloon Paths

Jim Fischer; Claude Kansaku

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Conference: 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Vancouver, BC
Publication Date: June 26, 2011
Start Date: June 26, 2011
End Date: June 29, 2011
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Embedded System Design
Tagged Division: Engineering Technology
Page Count: 12
Page Numbers: 22.1355.1 - 22.1355.12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--18635
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/18635
Download Count: 476

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Paper Authors

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Jim Fischer Oregon Institute of Technology

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Jim Fischer is a Professor of Mathematics at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He is currently serving as the Program Director for the OIT Applied Mathematics Program.

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Claude Kansaku Oregon Institute of Technology

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Claude Kansaku is a Professor of Computer Engineering Technology at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He is the faculty advisor for the LaunchOIT High-Altitude Balloon Satellite (BalloonSat) Program in affiliation with the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium. He has taught or co-taught BalloonSat workshops, including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Chautauqua Short Course for College Teachers.

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Abstract

Supplemental Instruction in Mathematics within a Mathematics/Software Engineering Co-Development Project to Dynamically Predict High-Altitude Balloon PathsAbstractThis work describes a co-development, student-centered project involving applied mathematicsand software engineering to address a need in the student high-altitude ballooning community. Ateam of four students completed this project as part of the requirements for a year-long JuniorProject Course Sequence in Software Engineering Technology (SET). This task not only walkedthe project team through the development of a rich software deliverable, but it also necessitatedthat the team develop a physics-based mathematical model to perform dynamic predictions inreal-time. The nature of the project required students to demonstrate learning outcomes inadvanced mathematics beyond what they normally see in their required math courses. Toaccomplish this, supplemental mathematics instruction (SMI) was offered to the students andincluded but was not limited to mathematical modeling, differential equations and numericalmethods.This project result is extremely valuable to student ballooning programs, especially those thatlaunch balloons over rugged terrain with minimal secondary roads. At present, several freelyavailable products exist to predict a high-altitude balloon flight path and payload landing site.However, these products typically use hours-old National Weather Service (NWS) sounding datato make static pre-launch predictions only. Such predictions are extremely susceptible tovariance as weather conditions change up until launch as well as during the balloon flight. Theproject used GPS position data acquired through an APRS (Automatic Position ReportingSystem) amateur radio-based system. The project married a tracking function with a dynamicprediction function that utilized the APRS data acquired in real-time. The system continuallyupdated predictions of the balloon flight path and the payload landing site. The team modeled thevertical motion of the balloon using Newton's 2nd Law and solved the corresponding differentialequations by applying a second order Runge-Kutta algorithm. A wind velocity field was initiallycreated using the hours-old NWS sounding data and subsequently updated using the quasi real-time GPS data acquired through the APRS radio system. The updated wind velocity field wasthen used in conjunction with the estimated altitude information to compute the flight path andlanding site predictions.This paper discusses the software engineering and mathematical components of the project aswell as the educational processes that led to a successful project completion. Project success washeavily reliant on the supplemental mathematics instruction and as such, conclusions and lessonslearned concerning the SMI are presented.

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Fischer, J., & Kansaku, C. (2011, June), Supplemental Instruction in Mathematics within a Mathematics/Software Engineering Co-Development Project to Dynamically Predict High-Altitude Balloon Paths Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--18635

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                 Supplemental Instruction in Mathematics within a           Mathematics/Software Engineering Co-Development Project to                Dynamically Predict High-Altitude Balloon PathsAbstractThis work describes a co-development, student-centered project involving applied mathematicsand software engineering to address a need in the student high-altitude ballooning community. Ateam of four students completed this project as part of the requirements for a year-long JuniorProject Course Sequence in Software Engineering Technology (SET). This task not only walkedthe project team through the development of a rich software deliverable, but it also necessitatedthat the team develop a physics-based mathematical model to perform dynamic predictions inreal-time. The nature of the project required students to demonstrate learning outcomes inadvanced mathematics beyond what they normally see in their required math courses. Toaccomplish this, supplemental mathematics instruction (SMI) was offered to the students andincluded but was not limited to mathematical modeling, differential equations and numericalmethods.This project result is extremely valuable to student ballooning programs, especially those thatlaunch balloons over rugged terrain with minimal secondary roads. At present, several freelyavailable products exist to predict a high-altitude balloon flight path and payload landing site.However, these products typically use hours-old National Weather Service (NWS) sounding datato make static pre-launch predictions only. Such predictions are extremely susceptible tovariance as weather conditions change up until launch as well as during the balloon flight. Theproject used GPS position data acquired through an APRS (Automatic Position ReportingSystem) amateur radio-based system. The project married a tracking function with a dynamicprediction function that utilized the APRS data acquired in real-time. The system continuallyupdated predictions of the balloon flight path and the payload landing site. The team modeled thevertical motion of the balloon using Newton&#39;s 2nd Law and solved the corresponding differentialequations by applying a second order Runge-Kutta algorithm. A wind velocity field was initiallycreated using the hours-old NWS sounding data and subsequently updated using the quasi real-time GPS data acquired through the APRS radio system. The updated wind velocity field wasthen used in conjunction with the estimated altitude information to compute the flight path andlanding site predictions.This paper discusses the software engineering and mathematical components of the project aswell as the educational processes that led to a successful project completion. Project success washeavily reliant on the supplemental mathematics instruction and as such, conclusions and lessonslearned concerning the SMI are presented.
AU  - Jim Fischer
AU  - Claude Kansaku
CY  - Vancouver, BC
DA  - 2011/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Supplemental Instruction in Mathematics within a Mathematics/Software Engineering Co-Development Project to Dynamically Predict High-Altitude Balloon Paths
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/18635
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--18635
ER  -