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A computer scientist
with a bird’s-eye view
by Carol Menaker
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Once painfully shy, late to ride a bike, and nervous about
driving a car with a stick shift, Aragon is quite at home
in her custom-built Sabre 320, which climbs at 4,500 feet
per minute and has a roll rate of 420 degrees per second.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CECILIA ARAGON |
Shortly after completing her master’s degree, Cecilia Aragon
(M.S.’87 CS) earned her pilot’s license, became an
air show pilot, and was a two-time member of the U.S. Aerobatic
Team. Now, she has returned to Berkeley after a 14-year hiatus
from her studies to complete her doctoral degree in computer science,
where her passions for flight and mathematics merge.
“It’s so exciting being back in school,” she
says. “Berkeley is really at the forefront of this kind
of work.”
As a computer scientist in the computational sciences division
at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Aragon’s
work involves the study of local wind shear and other airflow
hazards in the search for ways to improve air travel safety. With
more than 5,000 accident-free hours in flight, she may have a
more personal investment in keeping the skies friendly.
“I have these two viewpoints that not many people have,
and I want to use them to make a difference,” Aragon says.
“People involved in aviation tend to be very specialized.
I’ve known 20-year veteran aircraft designers who have never
been in the aircraft they were designing for.”
Aragon has developed a cockpit display system that displays invisible
air currents to warn pilots of impending disturbances in the air.
The system was incorporated into a high-fidelity rotorcraft simulator
and tested by 16 U.S. Coast Guard and Navy pilots, with dramatic
results: For hazardous landing approaches in highly turbulent
conditions, the hazard indicator reduced the crash rate from 19
percent to 6.3 percent.
Perhaps the most dramatic thing about Aragon, however, is that
she used to be deathly afraid of heights, a fear she aggressively
conquered after a flight in a private plane over the beautiful
San Francisco coastline. (“I was in heaven,” she recalls.)
Now she fearlessly executes air tricks like multiple snap rolls
and tailslides.
“Mastering my fear gave me a feeling of confidence that
has carried over to other parts of my life,” Aragon says.
“Let’s face it. Compared to pointing the nose of an
airplane straight at the ground and flying vertically down at
200 miles an hour, everything else in life seems easy.”
CAROL MENAKER of San Jose is a freelancer who
writes for a number of university alumni magazines.
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FOREFRONT takes you into the
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for an intimate look at the innovative research, teaching, and
campus life that define the College of Engineering at the University
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