Orlando, FL 

ERAU PBL members spent their Spring Break at the Phi Beta Lambda Annual State Leadership Conference. Members competed in business and industry focused competitive events, attended leadership development workshops, and networked with fellow members and industry leaders throughout the state.  Ms. Audrey Parios, Chapter President, competed in the Job Interview competition and was the state runner-up. The Website Design team of Ms. Lauren Drake, Mr. Nick Hernandez, and Chapter Treasurer Mr. Tim Bernard walked away with third place. Additionally, Justin Flemons, Chapter Vice-President, was elected as the PBL President for the state of Florida!

For information on how to get involved with PBL, contact the Chapter Advisor Professor Raymond Sanders at raymond.sanders@erau.edu

This year 16 of our ISTAT U students, Dr(s)  Guzhva and Raghavan, Patrick Herlehy and Dean Williams attended the ISTAT Americas conference in San Diego from March 5-7th 2017. This was made possible by the generous support of the ISTAT foundation which helped out by offering scholarships and conference fee waivers for our students. Each student was paired with an industry mentor and several activities were planned for the students to understand the industry and chat with others about their career prospects. Students are already starting to hear about internship opportunities from the member companies and received great opportunities to network with industry professionals. 

Please check out ISTAT.org  for further information about the ISTAT U program or contact Dr. Raghavan at 386-226-6246. 

Invests $1 million for job-growth in Central Florida

As a part of the the new MicaPlex, FireSpring Fund and Embry-Riddle will be working together to give back to the community by investing in innovative start-up businesses. The one million dollar investment from Embry-Riddle to the non-profit FireSpring Fund will allow FireSpring to offer seed money, mentorship, and support to new businesses in the Central Florida area. Embry-Riddle's Board of Trustees Chairman Mori Hosseiniri believes, "t he FireSpring Fund's expertise, combined with the array of resources at Embry-Riddle's Research Park, will provide a significant, vital and exciting boost for economic development in Volusia County." 

In late February Embry-Riddle hosted an Ethics and Diversity Discussion Panel in the Willie-Miller Auditorium organized by the College of Business Ethics and Diversity Committee. Topics ranged from what constitutes an ethical organization to the challenges and opportunities surrounding diversity within organizations. Students learned about how corporations and organizations commit to diversity initiatives through effective leadership. 

The panelists included:

• Moderator Dr. Bert Zarb, Professor and Department Chair, Economics, Finance and Information Systems
• Sarah Fedder, College Relations Consultant, Republic Airways Holdings
• Robert Grech, Special Agent in Charge, Miami Field Office, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, U.S. State Department
• Reverend David Keck, Chaplain, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Gloria Molina, Manager, Multicultural Development, NASCAR

Attended in Orlando by several COB Students

The annual Women in Aviation International Conference was held this year in Orlando in early March. The Conference was attended by ERAU alumni, the National Association of Women MBA's, the Women in Aviation ERAU Chapter and several other COB students. The Conference was an excellent networking event for our students. 

For information on joining Women in Aviation,  click here.

Embry-Riddle student designed and patented a jetbridge that would save time and money at the gate

College of Aviation student Dynamite Obinna and College of Business Professor and Associate Dean for Research Massoud Bazargan have won Best Presentation and received much attention from airlines at the annual symposium of the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (AGIFORS) for Obinna's new jetbridge design and Bazargan's supporting research. The jetbridge and research could reduce gate times by up to 12 minutes with Obinna's jetway extension, which would use both doors of an aircraft for boarding and deplaning.