Aerospace lab flies high at WCC

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KANE'OHE — Windward Community College and NASA are offering a unique learning opportunity and opening students' minds to career possibilities never offered in Hawai'i before with a new $250,000 aerospace laboratory at the college's Kane'ohe campus.

Leimomi Dierks, an education specialist in the science department at Windward Community College, is at the controls of an F-16 flight simulator at the Center Exploration Lab installed by NASA. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The college and officials from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will dedicate the facility next week.

The lab, in the science building, Hale 'Imiloa, is equipped with 13 computers, including a $40,000 virtual reality flight simulator of the space shuttle and a laboratory-grade wind tunnel, used for testing wind dynamics and wing design.

And use of the lab isn't limited to WCC students. The plan is to allow students in seventh grade and above to use the facility, where they will be guided through hands-on flight and space missions.

Jake Hudson, lab coordinator and physics teacher at St. Andrew's Priory, said he's sure the lab will launch careers in aviation for many of the students who use it.

"I'd like to see some of the students going through it today be shuttle pilots in a couple of years and come back to remind us where they got their start," Hudson said.

Kerri Tenno, a senior, said she can't wait to return to the lab. The students were impressed by the simulator that allows a "pilot" to fly such aircraft as the space shuttle and the F-16 fighter jet, Tenno said.

The simulator is equipped with a video screen that displays a cockpit and terrain, allowing students to practice takeoffs, landings and flying.

Tenno said she was particularly interested in the computer that allowed users to design an airplane, one of many tasks she had to perform while there. The computer not only found flaws in a design, but could estimate an airplane's construction cost and how much an airline company would have to charge to make a profit from its investment, she said.

The experience and equipment is very much like someone might have who works in that industry, Tenno said.

"It's really cool because we're in high school and this is what people do after college," she said.

The lab was financed by a grant submitted by Windward professor Joe Ciotti, who has been instrumental in bringing other facilities to the college, including the Imaginarium, the Aerospace Exploration Laboratory and an astronomical observatory that is still in the planning stages.

NASA supplied computers, work stations, chairs, headsets and a model of the space shuttle. NASA also paid to have it all put together, including loading programs onto the computers.

The lab is designed to give up to 24 students at a time two types of hands-on projects, Ciotti said.

In the "aeronautics" scenario, students gather essential data at work stations to complete a cross-country flight, including aircraft design, air traffic control, global positioning, weather and remote sensing.

In the "microgravity" scenario, students explore phenomena and processes that are normally masked by the effects of gravity. They learn about the International Space Station, robotics, living and working in space, biotechnology and complete a virtual space flight.

"We're trying to give them a project-based education system rather than learning science and mathematics in chunks and bits," Ciotti said.

For now the lab is focusing on attracting classroom students in grades seven and up, he said, but eventually it will be open to continuing education students and the public. So far a class of Upward Bound students has trained in the lab, and Kailua High School Air Force ROTC and Polynesian voyaging teachers have expressed interest, Ciotti said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.