ric Frew, a first-year Ph.D. student from Cleveland, Ohio, readily admits he loves Stanford. He earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering at Cornell University in 1994 and chose Stanford over M.I.T. for his graduate work. Eric muses that the fact he made his decision during a cold January in Ithaca, New York, gave Stanford a decisive edge over M.I.T. All joking aside, Eric maintains he chose The Farm because it is one of the most reputable schools with one of the best engineering programs in the world. Eric earned his M.S. in astronautics from Stanford in 1996 and began his doctoral work last fall.

Both of Eric's parents are junior high-school teachers, and he reasons that his desire to be a professor is in his genes. Because he has always enjoyed real problem-solving and building things, he chose to pursue a degree in engineering and decided on astronautics for his graduate work due to a life-long fascination with space and space-travel. Although he eventually would like to teach at the college level, Eric plans to work in one of the smaller start-up companies associated with his lab or possibly for NASA in robotics before returning to academia.

Eric's research involves the Hummingbird Project under the direction of Professors Steve Rock and Robert Cannon. In addition to Eric and the two faculty members, the research team comprises three other graduate students: one in electrical engineering and two others in aeronautics and astronautics. The team is developing the Hummingbird, an autonomous helicopter which uses the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) to control the helicopter in flight. Helicopters, which are inherently unstable vehicles, had not been successfully used for such a purpose before. Control and navigation are accomplished by the GPS receiver on the Hummingbird locking onto four of a 24-satellite constellation, and using the differential carrier phase technique from the four signals to provide three-dimensional positioning accuracy of the helicopter to within several centimeters and attitude to within several degrees. The GPS signals are controlled by three atomic clocks on each satellite, which lose or gain only one second in 36,000 years.

There are many real-world uses for the autonomous helicopter. For example, the military has expressed an interest in using the vehicle to provide "over the hill reconnaissance" to track people or to identify objects such as tanks or trucks. Since the craft is unmanned, it can go where a pilot would not be able to fly. Eric explained that another application could be exploring potentially hazardous wreckage or accident scenes like the 1986 Chernobyl disaster site. Other uses range from inspecting power-lines to crop-dusting to the production of Hollywood movies.

Eric recalls receiving word of his Stanford Graduate Fellowship when Professor Rock called him into his office and shook his hand in congratulations. Eric was surprised by the warm welcome until Professor Rock handed him the official award letter. "It was nice to receive an award which I was nominated for rather than had to apply. I really do consider this an honor," he says. Eric remarks that he is pleased Stanford recognizes the struggle that graduate students experience in searching for funding, and he appreciates the university's willingness to help solve the problem.

Currently, the Hummingbird Project is well-funded through a combination of grants from the government and from private companies. Eric considers himself lucky that his interests coincide with a funded project. If this were not the case, he would have had to go elsewhere, and he has seen many of his colleagues struggle with this issue. Eric also notes that the Hummingbird Project will not necessarily end up being his Ph.D. project. The Stanford Graduate Fellowship allows him the freedom to work on another project if he so desires.