IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - April 2021 - 53

Majid et al.
including the term " post graduate, " which is often used in
some countries to refer to these. Unit requirements for
graduation vary, with 30 semester units, roughly equivalent to one fulltime year of study, being a common minimum. Universities offering Master of Science (MS or
MSc) in avionics engineering programs are referred in
[32] and [34], [35]. Some of these universities have introduced elements of avionics in preexisting MS Aerospace
program [33], and some universities have introduced specialized courses or certificate programs focused on specific aspects of avionics, such as Guidance and Navigation
[36], [37]. While relatively few masters-level engineering
programs are separately accredited by the Engineering
Accreditation Commission of ABET, those degree program criteria include a 30-unit minimum. In 2020, the
Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, the U.S. Air Force
Institute of Technology, and the U.S. Naval Post Graduate
School, were the only three institutions with astronautical
and or aeronautical engineering Master's Degrees that had
this Masters-level engineering program accreditation [26].
Graduate schools derive their strength from existing
research opportunities in the field and industry future outlook. The struggle for avionics engineering education to
keep pace with modern needs presents a corresponding
wealth of new research opportunities that can revitalize
existing disciplines and encourage new graduate degree
programs. Some areas are briefly described here to highlight
the breadth of research work that can be carried out under a
graduate avionics engineering research curriculum [18].
Integrated CNS/ATM and Avionics (CNSþA) Systems: The volume of air traffic is projected to
increase significantly in the coming decade, and it
will be a heterogeneous mix of platforms like the
conventional aircraft, UAVs, UAM vehicles, supersonic aircraft, and even suborbital/orbital space
planes. Unless some massive renovation in ATM
toward UAS ATM (UTM) is incorporated, the
desired level of efficiency, performance, and additionally environmental sustainability cannot be
ensured. There are needs for evolutions in the certification framework and standards. The urgency of
finding solutions for future ATM requirements is
indicated by large amounts of funding by Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) and European
Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in NextGen
ATM[39] and Single European Sky ATM Research
(SESAR) [40] projects.
UAM and Urban Traffic Management: Utilizing aircraft for intracity travel in the near future will add a
whole new dimension to aviation. Whereas numerous vehicle airframe designs are already in advanced
phase of testing, the concept cannot become a reality
till workable solutions are developed for airspace
mobility and UTM. To achieve the UTM goal, the
APRIL 2021

current CNSþA infrastructure has to evolve both
technologically and from a regulatory perspective.
Traditional avionics paradigms (e.g., relevant to navigation, communication, and obstacle avoidance)
need to be adapted to the UTM environment, with a
significant perceived impact of Alternative Positioning Navigation and Timing (A-PNT) techniques,
multiple-source sensing, and Beyond Visual Line of
Sight (BVLOS) communication technologies inherited from aerial robotics applications.
Cyber-Physical Security of Avionics and CNS/ATM
Systems: The heavy reliance of modern avionics
systems on software and networking has made them
vulnerable to undesired exploitation by unauthorized third parties. The problem is similar to what is
being faced in other systems but in avionics systems
the impact is critical due to human lives being at
stake. Additionally, due to the inherent characteristics present day cyberphysical system (CPS) architectures, several physical threats can manifest their
consequences in the cyberdimension and vice-versa.
These facts mandate for highly efficient, rugged,
and reliable cyberphysical security solutions.
Fault-Tolerant Avionics and Intelligent Health and
Usage Management Systems (HUMS): Aircraft
downtimes are undesirous in any form, be it from
weather conditions or maintenance problems. While
weather is an element of nature, aircraft grounding
due to unserviceability can be curtailed by using
fault tolerant configurations and predictive maintenance such that potentially bad components are
identified well in advance and replaced before they
cause complicated failures. One active research area
in avionics is fault tolerant architectures and the use
of advanced data analytics techniques to process
information from hundreds of sensors to monitor
system health status and determine future trends/
corrective actions (i.e., diagnosis and prognosis
functions).
AI in Avionics Systems Design and Operations:
Although AI has become an integral part of numerous engineering systems, its utilization in avionics
systems design is greatly limited primarily due to
certification issues. AI includes several data analytics, machine learning, and statistical analysis techniques; whose potential impacts in terms of efficiency,
safety, and security are significant. Thus, exploring
applications of AI in avionics and restructuring the
certification process can enable faster development
and deployment. Emerging challenges are in the
determinism, predictability, interpretability, and
verifiability of AI techniques for safety-critical
applications.

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