{"498801":{"#nid":"498801","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ASDL \u0022eMEALS\u0022 Project is in Tight Competition for Air Bus Challenge","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThey are familiar nuisances to anyone who has ever traveled on a commercial airline: the intrusive tray table and its noisy cousin, the food cart.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA team of graduate students from AE\u0027s Aerospace Systems Design Lab is devising an alternative meal delivery system that could sideline those space-hoggng scourges forever: a user-controlled food requisition system that automatically delivers your meal whenever you choose to order it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The idea is, you don\u0027t have to eat just because they tell you it\u0027s time to eat, and you don\u0027t have get trapped in your seat when they are delivering everyone else\u0027s food,\u0022 says AE grad student Mathilde Deveraux, a France native and frequent flier.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The food is delivered to your seat from an overhead rail, not a person.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDeveraux and her four ASDL colleagues put together their proposal, \u0022eMeals Enhanced Meal Experience with Airborne Light Systems\u0022 for Airbus\u0027s 2015\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.airbus-fyi.com\/\u0022\u003EFly Your Ideas\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;competition.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir pitch made it through the first round of the competition, where almost 400 teams were sent away. Now, they must compete with 100 other teams to make it to the final round, in May, where just five teams will present their ideas to Airbus officials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe winners will take home a $30,000 prize -- and bragging rights.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022It would be nice to have Airbus know who I am,\u0022 said Deveraux, who graduates in May. \u0022I would like them to know what I can do.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrom now until the end of March, the ASDL team will be working with an Airbus engineer, Colin Hodges, and their ASDL mentor, Dr. Dimitri Mavris, to finesse the details of their concept. Located in Toulouse, Hodges consults with them almost daily via email, and weekly via Skype.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir plan starts with a touch-screen, where passengers can order food and drinks as they choose. It then employs an overhead rail that runs between the two rows of overhead bins and conveys meals and beverages to each row. Beverages can be stored in large containers and served on tap in the galleys, thus reducing waste by replacing bottles and cans.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to clearing the aisles of those bulky (and heavy!) carts, the system frees up space that can be used in the galleys or for more leg room. The team estimates that removing trolleys could save as much as $7.5 billion in annual fuel costs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd the flight attendants? Will they still be needed?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022You will always need flight attendants. This will give them more time to spend with passengers,\u0022 said Christopher Frank, a doctoral student on the team.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Passengers want to have humans there. They just don\u0027t need them to serve food.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrank and Deveraux said there\u0027s no way to size up their competition in this match-up, because Airbus allows each team to choose a theme and a project that are totally unique.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022If there are 100 teams out there now, there are 99\u0026nbsp; teams for us to beat,\u0022 said Deveraux. \u0022We\u0027re just working as hard as we can to deliver a good presentation.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A team of graduate students from AE\u0027s Aerospace Systems Design Lab is devising an alternative meal delivery system that could sideline those space-hoggng scourges forever."}],"uid":"30502","created_gmt":"2016-02-10 16:51:14","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:42","author":"Sapna Mistry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-02-11T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-02-11T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"498811":{"id":"498811","type":"image","title":"ASDL \u0022eMEALS\u0022 Project is in Tight Competition for Air Bus Challenge","body":null,"created":"1455145200","gmt_created":"2016-02-10 23:00:00","changed":"1475895258","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:18","alt":"ASDL \u0022eMEALS\u0022 Project is in Tight Competition for Air Bus Challenge","file":{"fid":"204657","name":"02-11-airbus_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/02-11-airbus_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/02-11-airbus_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":236783,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/02-11-airbus_0.jpg?itok=mUVpiqtc"}}},"media_ids":["498811"],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2888","name":"Airbus"},{"id":"100921","name":"ASDL"},{"id":"136391","name":"eMEALS"},{"id":"136401","name":"Mathilde Deveraux"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["kathleen.moore@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}