Incubator client tests prototype for innovative flight tracker system
Dr. Junaid Zubairi (left), with Inderdeep Singh Bajwa (center) and Fredonia Technology Incubator Director Chuck Cornell.
A prototype of the patented Flight Data Tracker, a system developed by Department of Computer and Information Sciences Professor Junaid Zubairi to track and record flight data in real-time, was successfully tested this summer at the Fredonia Technology Incubator.
Dr. Zubairi founded Advanced Data Research Labs, a client of the incubator, to create the Flight Data Tracker. He was assisted by a student intern, Inderdeep Singh Bajwa, in testing the Flight Data Tracker using radio transceivers and a flight data recorder, a key step leading to validation of its technology. Testing equipment was made possible through grants from Fredonia and the SUNY Research Foundation.
“The recent mishaps in aviation have highlighted the need to monitor, track and control the flights as much in real-time as possible,” said Zubairi. “I am encouraged by the successful testing to date of the Flight Data Tracker prototype.”
The Flight Data Tracker, which was designed at Fredonia, is a real-time system for tracking and saving flight data on ground servers that is otherwise only stored in a plane's flight data recorder. Interviews conducted with aviation safety and communications experts demonstrated promise that Zubairi’s tracker system would solve a problem of filling the gap between the flight data recorder and the real-time analysis and usage of the flight safety data.
Mr. Bajwa, who has worked with radio systems to help build the FDT prototype, also interviewed potential customers through the SUNY Research Foundation Office of Research and the Economic Development’s SUNY Summer Startup School.
“I am enjoying the awesome blend of aerospace, software and hardware engineering, and entrepreneurship,” Bajwa said. “This has been an exciting opportunity and great learning experience at the incubator.”
The U.S. patent awarded in August 2017 for the Flight Data Tracker covers the novel radio routing feature that keeps transmission cost down. “With the support of the SUNY Research Foundation and the incubator, Dr. Zubairi has been taking the steps toward the commercialization of his research,” said Chuck Cornell, incubator director. “It’s exciting to see this startup advance.”
