Posted: Friday, August 20, 2010 12:01 am

MTSU will partner Friday with ISR Group Inc. ISR supports unmanned programs that are vital to National Defense, Intelligence, and Homeland Security Agencies, as well as Commercial Corporations.

MTSU’s nationally ranked aerospace department and Savannah, Tenn.-based ISR Group will sign a memorandum of understanding to create a Center of Excellence in Unmanned Aerial Systems research, training and education, officials from both organizations announced.

The signing will be held Friday, Aug. 20, at 10 a.m. in the Business and Aerospace Building’s first-floor east lobby area. Events will start at 9 a.m. with a welcome by new MTSU Provost Dr. Brad Bartel, remarks by President Sidney A. McPhee, ISR Group CEO Alfred Lumpkin and others.

ISR Group is the leading provider of unmanned aircraft system training services, said Dr. Wayne Dornan, the aerospace department chair.

“We couldn’t be more delighted with this partnership,” Dornan added.

“We are extremely proud of our aerospace program, and this is a great leap forward to propelling it to the leading edge of contemporary aeronautical science,” McPhee said. “This is consistent with MTSU’s Academic Master Plan, which promotes education and research through internal and external collaboration”

MTSU Flight Operations Center representatives will fly the ISR Group officials to Murfreesboro from Savannah Friday morning. A static display of a full-size scan eagle (UAS) will be on display at the signing, Dornan said.

“We are excited about this partnership with MTSU,” said Bob Boggan, ISR executive vice president. “In conjunction with MTSU, ISR Group is focused on developing a Center of Excellence for unmanned technology in this region of the country.  By leveraging state, academic, and private business, we have created a powerful combination that brings tremendous value to the unmanned market and to the southeastern U.S.  The unmanned market is growing rapidly and is attracting investment as well as talented, knowledgeable people.  Tennessee has the right business environment, and the MTSU/ISR Group Team has the right strategy to capture business and attract talented people to our state. Our ultimate goal is to develop a leading position in the unmanned market.”

ISR Group owns a 10-square-mile UAS flight training range in Hardin County. In order for ISR Group to test UAVs, they need MTSU to sponsor certificates of authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, Dornan said.

“We’ll be the only institution in the mid-south to have anything like this,” Dornan said of the proposed collaborative program in UAS within the aerospace program, which is considered one of the best in the country.

The ISR Group employs highly skilled professionals in support of research and development, testing and evaluation, production, operations, maintenance, training and logistical support activities of UAS on a worldwide basis.

As MTSU and the aerospace department pursue a new concentration in unmanned aerial systems, IRS Group has agreed to provide equipment, personnel and an opportunity for MTSU students to spend time in Savannah flying the unmanned vehicles, Dornan said.

“ISR and MTSU will begin to create a new curriculum and explore the possibility of adding a new multi-disciplinary concentration in aerospace of UAS,” Dornan said. “UAVs will become part of our reality in the next decade, and one of the major questions is how will these UAVs safely fly among general aviation and commercial aircraft in the national airspace.

“We will work with ISR and our ITT partners to design a UAS that will replace the human in the aircraft, but still be safe in the national air space. This new concentration will attract a new kind of student. Today’s generation of kids love computer games, simulation and virtual reality. This would be a perfect concentration for them.”

The aerospace chair said students who graduate from this program would be able to operate a UAS.

“And this is very important,” Dornan said, “because of the widespread application of the UAS: agriculture, fisheries, law enforcement, forestry, to name a few. In the next 10 years, there will be a verifiable explosion of the UAS in our country, and our students will have the expertise to operate these systems.”