Two student researchers from the Applied Physics Institute, Chris Davenport and James Lodmell, traveled to Orlando, Florida, on Mar. 16-20 for the SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, the defense industry’s leading meeting. Two physics professors from API, Dr. Phil Womble and Dr. Alex Barzilov, accompanied the students, along with an API applications engineer, Lindsey Hopper.

They were given the chance to attend presentations from top defense and security experts such as Under Secretary for Science and Technology from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Dr. Delores M. Etter from the U.S. Naval Academy, and many others.

Different fields of science and engineering were represented at the conference. Scientists and students from many national and international schools also attended the Symposium including MIT, Texas A&M, Michigan State University, University of Kentucky, University of Ottawa(Canada), Beiging University (China), and University of Canberra (Australia).

Davenport and Lodmell represented Applied Physics Institute for the session of Robotic and Mobile Sensor Technologies and Systems. They wrote a paper to show the research results that they have accomplished at API and also gave a presentation which helped to explain their work on semi-autonomous ground vehicles for defusing IED’s.

“The conference was a great networking experience for Chris and James because of the national attention it receives,” Hopper said.

• Chris Davenport presents his research results at the SPIE Defense and Security Symposium.

For further information, contact Katie Moore at 270-781-3859 or Katie.Moore@wku.edu.