November is National Aviation History Month. From the first glider flight over 100 years ago by the Wright Brothers to the largest aviation wonders of present, advancements in aviation engineering and technology have soared to new heights—literally. Airplanes are likely the first things that come to mind when we hear the word “aviation.” But where do helicopters and other vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft fit in to the mix?
This month, Vaughn College turns its sights to the history of personal VTOL aircrafts and chronicles the advancements, benefits, and future of this amazing technology. Did someone say “flying cars?”
For nearly 90 years, Vaughn has been steeped in aviation history. From opening its doors in 1932 as the Casey Jones School of Aeronautics to its present day ranking as one of the nation’s Best Colleges in the Regional North by U.S. News and World Report, Vaughn has remained true to its vision of educating and training its graduates for futureproof careers.
What are VTOL vehicles?
Vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts are vehicles that have the unique ability to depart, hover and land vertically. In addition to their unique take off and landing abilities, they can fly slowly and land in small spaces, unlike conventional aircraft. Today, there are two types of VTOL technology: rotary wing aircraft and powered lift. Here is how they compare:
- Rotary wing aircraft or rotorcraft—These vehicles use lift to become airborne. Lift is generated from spinning rotor blades revolving around a central mast. The helicopter is a popular example of a rotary wing aircraft.
- Powered-lift aircraft—These aircraft have a fixed wing design. Although they take off and land vertically, they perform differently than rotary wing aircraft when in flight. Some rely on the rotor for lift, and then switch to a fixed-wing lift while in flight, while others involve tilting the aircraft forward to achieve horizontal flight. Today, some powered-lift aircrafts are considered vertical and/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) vehicles that can switch to conventional takeoff and landing (CTL).
The history of VTOL technology
Most would never connect the dots between Leonardo Da Vinci and helicopters. But did you know the famous Renaissance painter sketched an image resembling a helicopter that he named the “aerial screw.” It is believed he made small models of the design but never pursued vertical flight any further. One Italian who did make his mark in vertical flight was Enrico Forlanini. In 1877, Forlanini became the first to build an unmanned steam-powered helicopter that remained in the air for about 20 seconds. This first flight laid the foundation of rotary aircraft for years to come. Test your knowledge on more historic first flights in our blog: “Greatest First Flights in Aviation History in Honor of Aviation History Month.”
Advancements in engineering and technology
From the 1920s through the 1940s, inventors across the globe attempted to design and fly their experimental helicopters. Unfortunately, some met with disastrous results. It wasn’t until the 1950s when the widespread use of turbine engines helped lead the way to building the helicopters and modern VTOL aircraft we know today.
Flying cars
The “flying car” concept was first introduced after World War II. Even Henry Ford predicted it would be a reality in the near future. Ford, along with several automobile manufacturers and the US Army, delivered prototypes of “flying jeeps” The Ford Motor Company created a personal aircraft named the Volante Tri-Athodyne—a 3/8-to-scale concept car model that used three ducted fans to enable VTOL. Unfortunately, Ford abandoned the project. In 1956, the US Army initiated the largest innovation when it began investigating “flying jeeps” as an alternative to helicopters on account of their smaller size and ease of flying. Although the research was dismissed, the concept still lives on today. Read more about the future of flying cars in our blog: “Urban Air Mobility: Transforming Sky Transportation.”
Benefits of VTOL technology
Today’s engineers are designing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that use electric motors or batteries instead of fuel. This advancement is proving beneficial on several economic and environmental fronts. Here are some benefits of VTOL technology we are seeing today:
- Lower overall vehicle costs due to a reduction in maintenance and fuel costs
- Noise pollution and gas emissions reduction with more energy efficient vehicles
- Combat or rescue situation usage stemming from more landing flexibility in small areas
- Speed and accuracy due to wing optimization, since they do not control takeoff and landing
- Faster aircraft due to less drag
The fast and futuristic
Aircraft racing is putting eVTOL on the fast track. Alauda Racing, an Australian aviation firm, is introducing the Airspeeder, the new electric VTOL that was modeled after the 1960s British Formula One race car. With original plans to race this year, Air Race E is organizing a World Cup of electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) aircraft. Pilots will experience onboard cameras and racing speeds up to 125 mph.
Closer to home at Vaughn
Vaughn’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Team has bragging rights of its own. For the past two years, the team placed first and second place, respectively, at the 2018 and 2019 Micro Air Vehicle Student Challenge Competition. They developed two drones to compete in both the manual and autonomous categories. Both drones were designed to perform VTOL with onboard flight-stabilization and camera. Way to go, team!
Are you ready to pursue a futureproof career? Discover all that’s possible with a degree in engineering and technology, management, or aviation. Apply today.
Since the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States earlier this year, engineers and technologists have remained in high demand. Dice, a leading technology career hub which connects employers with skilled technology professionals, analyzed the job positions and skills that rose highest in demand between February and March of 2020.
According to the results of the Dice Tech Job Report*, the need for technologists is more critical than ever, as technology plays a key role in making this unexpected transition to a remote workplace a smooth and successful one.
Why techies are critical employees
Source: Labor Insight Jobs (Burning Glass Technologies)
The shift from businesses operating from their headquarters to a remote workplace had employers— almost overnight—examining their remote frameworks. Technologists were needed just as quickly to execute critical components to expedite the widespread conversion.
Here are some examples of how businesses pivoted to maintain communication and operations between employees and clients:
- Meetings became video calls (Zoom being one of the most popular)
- Conferences turned into webinars
- Conversations shifted to instant messaging
To keep business flowing as usual, engineers and tech professionals were needed to work behind the scenes to meet the demands of a changing world and workplace. Here are a few job titles of the tech professionals needed to make all of this happen:
- Engineers
- Cloud architects
- Systems administrators
- Cybersecurity experts
- Application designers/developers
And, here are two critical components that tech professionals addressed to keep the remote workplace running smoothly:
- Ensuring remote frameworks and infrastructure are secure
- Ensuring employees had reliable connectivity to work from outside the office
Where the jobs are 
Source: Labor Insight Jobs (Burning Glass Technologies)
Technology, or tech giants, consulting agencies and government contractors top the list of tech employers who were hiring during the first quarter of 2020, according to the Dice report. This is great news for Vaughn College students who are currently pursuing engineering degrees, as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the Boeing Company fall among the list of the top 25 tech companies listed in the Dice report.
Read about Vaughn graduate Atif Saeed ’20 who started a job at Lockheed Martin this summer working as a mechanical engineer.
Engineers and tech professionals may be interested to learn that between February and March of this year, online retail giant Amazon increased its technology job postings by 110 percent—looking specifically for software developers and network engineers. This comes as no surprise since consumers used Amazon as an alternative to shopping at grocery stores and other essential retailers during the lockdown. Walmart increased its technology postings by 64 percent in March—in addition to the 150,000 employees they pledged to hire—and specifically sought to hire software developers and project managers.
Source: Labor Insight Jobs (Burning Glass Technologies)
According to the Dice report, different states showed varying growth, depending on how each state reacted to the COVID-19 lockdown. In New York, for example, the state was quick to enforce a stricter “stay at home” order, compared to other states that were slower to require that non-essential employees work remotely.
Shift in job postings due to pandemic
Cybersecurity engineering jobs topped the list of having the most uptick in job postings, according to the Dice report. Cybersecurity engineering job postings surged by 20 percent during February and March of this year, as businesses took a proactive approach to combating pandemic-themed phishing and cyber-attacks. System engineers were also in demand, having placed at 11 percent, and showing a clear indication that companies were concerned with maintaining their network and computer infrastructure.
Discover a futureproof career at Vaughn
The job outlook for the engineering and technology fields remains bright, and will remain so, despite the recent surge in demand during the pandemic. If your passion lies within these futureproof fields, then now is the time to capture this opportunity by earning your engineering and technology degree from Vaughn College.
Discover all that is possible. Apply today.
*Source: Dice Tech Job Report
Cultural differences have proven to play a role in pursuing a career. For 20-year-old Zarin Tasnim ’21, her dream of becoming a doctor was quickly replaced by pursuing a bachelor of science degree in airport management and taking air traffic control courses after she attended an Open House at Vaughn College in 2017.
Learning from a cartoon
Born in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Tasnim moved with her family to Queens, New York when she was nine years old. She recalls life being difficult then as she did not know how to speak the English language. This obstacle kept her from having many friends. “I knew even at an early age that I needed to learn how to speak English,” said Tasnim. “Believe it or not, I credit the cartoon character ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ for helping me learn English,” she said laughingly. “I watched the show every day and before I knew it, I was able to speak the language well enough to make myself understood.”
Breaking cultural barriers
Growing up, Tasnim aspired to become a doctor but she said something did not feel right about it. She believed she had a different path to take. When she entered high school, she enrolled in the science technology engineering and math (STEM) program. She admits biology was not her favorite subject and soon realized the medical field might not be the right path for her. She switched her focus toward mechanical engineering and decided that would be her track when she moved onto college. Tasnim thought her future was set. She received a full-ride, four-year scholarship to Brooklyn College and was ready to dive into her engineering degree—until she heard about Vaughn. “In my country we are encouraged to become doctors or engineers,” Tasnim said. “I always thought becoming a doctor would be my path. That all changed when I discovered Vaughn.”
Changing paths
Even with the full scholarship in place at Brooklyn College, Tasnim wasted no time attending an Open House at Vaughn. “From the minute I saw the radar and tower control simulators, I knew Vaughn was the perfect college for me. It felt like home,” she said. At that moment, Tasnim was at a crossroads. Her parents were excited that she was considering a college closer to home, but the financial hurdle came into question. She had her tuition covered at another college, but her heart was set on Vaughn. The question Tasnim asked herself: “How can I afford to attend Vaughn?”
Finding Financial Opportunities
In the summer of 2017, Tasnim attended an express registration event and was accepted on the spot. She enrolled in the airport management program for the upcoming fall semester. Soon after, Tasnim realized she and her family could not afford the program. With a heavy heart, she began the process of withdrawing from her fall classes when Vaughn approached her about the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) which provided her the financial assistance to remain a student at Vaughn. One of the requirements of HEOP is to complete a summer semester. Vaughn enrolled her right away and Tasnim was on her way to pursuing her dream.
The HEOP program is an important part of life at Vaughn, and its mandate closely follows the College’s own: Providing economically and educationally disadvantaged and underrepresented students the possibility of a college education. The primary objective of both HEOP and Vaughn is to help provide a broad range of services to students who—because of academic and economic circumstances—would otherwise be unable to attend college, yet have the potential and desire to obtain a college degree.
Balancing work and studies
Although Tasnim is pursuing a degree in airport management, she is focusing on air traffic control to be her ultimate profession. With help from Vaughn’s career services department, she was hired by the Washington Center for a summer internship, where she works at LaGuardia Airport’s air traffic control tower. “It’s important that I position myself wisely to prepare for my future in aviation,” Tasnim said. “Working as an airport manager will give me the experience that I need right out of college to help lay the groundwork for my future. I hope to be hired as an air traffic controller after graduation to land my dream job.” In addition to her internship, she holds a second part-time job working as a receptionist at the security desk at Vaughn.
Grateful to Vaughn
Without the support and guidance from HEOP and the Vaughn family, Tasnim said she wouldn’t be where she is today. “It’s important for me to break the stereotype of working in a predominantly male profession,” she stated. “I still pinch myself every day that I’m where I am now. Even my parents can’t believe it.” She explains how the professors at Vaughn have been instrumental in helping her on her journey, but the driving force is her close relationship she has with her siblings. “My younger sister and brother look up to me as a role model,” Tasnim said lovingly. “I need to show them that anything is possible and not to settle in life. It’s acceptable to change your mind. Change is a good thing and I’m living proof of that.”
Are you prepared for your next job interview? You may be relieved to learn the commute may only be as far as your living room. Read on to learn the advantages of a Zoom interview and the best tips and practices to make it a successful experience.
Job interviews of today are getting more screen time as employers are opting to use video conferencing software, such as Zoom, to connect with job candidates instead of traditional in-person meetings. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing, Zoom interviews have become more popular than ever. If you have already been using Zoom to connect with family and friends, you may think you have a handle on using this video conferencing software. But how would you fare using it in a job interview?
Below we have prepared a checklist of tips to help you prepare for a successful job interview via Zoom. But first, let us start with some of the ways both employers and candidates are benefiting from screen-to-screen interviews in contrast to traditional face-to-face ones.
Advantages of Zoom Interviews
Interviewing for a job can be a bit nerve-wracking for some. And for the interviewers, scheduling them can be a challenge. Conducting interviews via Zoom can be beneficial for both parties, thus making the experience more convenient and less stressful. Here are some of the advantages of Zoom interviews over traditional in-person ones:
- No face-to-face contact—which is particularly beneficial during COVID-19.
- Reduces pressure and puts candidates more at ease, since they are in their own environment.
- More convenient for out-of-town participants—both employer and individual candidates.
- Interviews can be arranged and organized quickly.
- Employers can screen candidates efficiently.
Ways to Prepare for a Zoom Interview
Preparation is the key to success, especially when preparing for a Zoom interview. Here are some helpful tips to prepare for a positive experience:
- Conduct practice interviews and record yourself to evaluate and fine-tune your answers and screen appearance.
- Update your computer with the latest edition of Zoom software.
- If using a laptop, check that it is fully charged.
- Be sure you have a strong internet connection.
- Advise household members of the day and time of your call to limit distractions.
- Close out everything on your desktop before the interview.
- Dress professionally.
- Choose a:
- Professional background with limited clutter
- Room with good lighting—facing toward a window is better than having the light behind you
- Quiet space that is free of distractions – make sure children and dogs are secured in separate rooms
Tips for Success Before the Call
There are a few simple things to do right before the call that could make or break the interview. Be sure to:
- Silence your phone and put it away until after the interview.
- Turn off all notifications from social media websites and other distractions.
- Use a desktop or laptop when possible instead of the Zoom mobile app. Computer cameras are more stable and also provide a better view for the interviewer.
Tips for Success During the Call
Now that you have selected the best space for your call, fined-tuned your computer and are dressed for success, here are some important tips to keep in mind during the call. Remember, a Zoom interview is just as formal as an in-person one.
- Use your mute button when you are not talking to eliminate any distracting background noises.
- It has been proven that most people look at themselves during Zoom meetings, so you can hide your video from your display by right clicking on your video and selecting “Hide Myself.” This will enable you to focus on and make eye contact with the other people in the meeting.
- Be aware of your body language. Maintain good posture and use non-verbal cues like smiling and head-nodding when listening to the interviewer.
- Ask questions with confidence.
Vaughn College is dedicated to the success of its students. We hope you found these interviewing tips for a Zoom interview helpful. Remember: You only have one chance to make a good first impression. Now is your time to shine. Visit career services to learn more about how Vaughn College can help you on your path towards a futureproof career.
Calling future engineers! Vaughn has pulled out all the stops as the College introduces its first-ever virtual engineering competition as part of its summer academy program. Imagine putting your ingenuity and problem-solving skills to the test while competing for a chance to win scholarship money to Vaughn? If you are passionate about engineering and have the competitive edge to show off your skills while solving some of the world’s most serious problems right now, then buckle up for a fun and exciting summer experience. Here is what you need to know:
Who is eligible?
The Engineering Innovation Summer Academy is open to local high school students and transfer students who have a passion for both engineering and problem solving.
About the program
The six-week program offers qualifying students a chance to earn three (3) Vaughn College credits at no cost, as well as a chance to win scholarship money to Vaughn. Here is what you need to know about the program:
- Students will make a difference by tackling a contemporary problem related to modern circumstances—such as pandemics, societal issues, climate change and the like—that may have an engineering-related solution.
- Students will work in small teams of three to create an idea and sustainable operations model that will take the form of a product or service that is responsive to clients and investors.
- Classes will be synchronous and completed online via Zoom.
- Webinars will feature guest speakers (engineering entrepreneurs) on a variety of topics discussing real-world experiences.
- Students will pitch products/services to simulated investors on August 14 for the chance to win scholarship money to Vaughn.
- First Place – $7,500 per team member
- Second Place – $5,000 per team member
- Third Place – $2,500 per team member
When is it?
The course runs Monday, July 6 through Friday, August 14.
Speaker Series Schedule: Fridays 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
- July 10: Young Entrepreneurs Speak
- July 17: Women Entrepreneurs Speak
- July 24: Global Entrepreneurial Programs
- July 31: IP and Standards Explained
- August 7: Getting Financing
- August 14: Summer Academy Pitches
NOTE: There is a nine-student minimum to run the program. Scholarship awards can be combined with current offers but cannot exceed the cost of tuition.
How do I enroll?
(Submissions are due no later than June 18 at 12:59 p.m.)
Eligible students should post a 30-45-second video on Instagram that details a world problem they are passionate about solving.
The following information should be addressed in the video:
- A world problem that you are passionate about which could be solved with an engineering solution
- How Vaughn’s Engineering Innovation Summer Academy would help you explore that world problem
- Why you are excited about winning scholarship money to Vaughn College
The following criteria is required:
- Tag @vaughncollege on your video to ensure we can access your video for consideration
- Complete the required form on the Engineering Innovation Summer Academy page
- After acceptance to the summer program, you will be asked to complete an application to attend Vaughn College, where your application fee will be waived.
Gaining a valuable experience
In such uncertain times, the summer academy program at Vaughn opens the door to students to gain valuable experience at both a personal and professional level. Here is what you will gain:
- Making your mark among your peers by solving some of the world’s current modern-day problems
- Studying locally, studying safe
- Enjoying small class sizes and individualized attention
Engineering Entrepreneur Speaker Series
For those who want to hear from the experts but not compete, Vaughn is also offering a webinar speaker series where you can hear engineering entrepreneurs speak about their experiences. Webinars will be held every Friday from July 10 to August 7 at 12 p.m. You can listen to the webinars for FREE, or purchase access to the videos for a limited time, receive the ability to ask questions of the speakers and obtain membership to the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE).
Tier One Access: FREE
You will receive FREE live Speaker Series Webinar access every Friday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. from July 10 through August 7.
- July 10: Young Entrepreneurs Speak
- July 17: Women Entrepreneurs Speak
- July 24: Global Entrepreneurial Programs
- July 31: IP and Standards Explained
- August 7: Getting Financing
Register Now for FREE Tier One Access
Tier Two Access: $50
You will receive:
- Three-month access to all five webinars
- Ability to submit one question per week after the webinar to the one of the featured speakers
- Half-year Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) Student Membership
Tier Three Access: $100
You will receive:
- Three-month access to all five webinars
- Ability to submit one question per week after the webinar to one of the featured speakers
- Half-year Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) Student Membership
- Name will be added to a lottery for 10, 30-minute mentorship sessions with a member of the IEEE Entrepreneurship Committee of professionals
Register Now for Tier Two or Three Access
