Joseph Miles

Education Research that has spanned the last twelve years is mentoring teams of students (8 to 12 students, depending on the year) for the construction of a sounding rocket payload. The teams can devise an experiment of their own choosing, construct it, and then test their experiment during a launch that reaches elevations up to 75 miles above the earth. As the world anticipates human travel to Mars and commercial space flight, Stevens students participate in their own space endeavor as part of NASA’s Rock SAT-C program, a program that invites students from universities across the country to build their own experimental payloads. The NASA sponsored Rock SAT-C program is annually funded at about $33,000 per year to defray the costs of payload design, delivery, travel and lodging for the participants. The Stevens team, comprised of both undergraduate and graduate students, works on a year-long project culminating in a rocket launch in June at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. While launching a payload with experiments on a Terrier-improved Orion sounding rocket is an exciting accomplishment, the real value is in the process leading up to the launch. The team goes through the same design review process that NASA engineers go through — six design reviews. The students learn that space is a harsh environment. They find out that one can have yearlong plans go wrong and then must figure out what to do during the next cycle. In 2023, repeated rainstorms were not good for the project since it resulted in 3 launch day delays. The whole program finally launched in August. Some students say that the sounding rocket project is harder than their senior design project.

The RockSat-C program is a national program with details at:
https://www.nasa.gov/sounding-rockets/rocksat-programs
The Rock-SAT-C program utilizes about a person month of faculty time throughout the year. Dean Thangam writes a letter of matching funds for Rutgers and for NASA. There is the 10-day launch period in June (~14^th to 23^rd), when the team travels to Wallops Island, Virginia. Also, there are weekly zoom meetings on Sunday evenings at 8:00 PM and zoom meetings with NASA about once a month on Wednesday nights at 9:15 PM.

Professor Miles has over 45 years corporate experience as a manager of both resources and projects with an International scope in the manufacturing and financial sectors. Typical project activities included Information Technology, Finance, Environmental Health and Safety Applications and Human Resources. Project Manager of software development projects in various disciplines with a $3.00 MM/year budget and management of five personnel at the Mobil Oil Corporation.

-----Faculty member responsible for teaching The Engineering Design Spine with topics in Robotics (C++), Data Acquisition (LabVIEW), Truss & Beam Construction (MATLAB), and Electronics (MATLAB/Simulink/Simscape); Approx. 150 to 190 students/semester from 2004 to 2021 and 250 to 425 beginning in 2021. The Engineering Design Spine uses an interdisciplinary approach, introducing the concepts of Systems Engineering to the Stevens undergraduate student body. Design I, II, III and IV focus on EE, ME, Computer Engineering and Project Management. During 2022 I began to teach the Desing 4 lecture course entitled “Design of Dynamical Systems” and “Introduction to Programming and Algorithmic Thinking”.

-----New Jersey Statewide Program Director of the New Jersey Space Grant Consortium at Stevens Institute of Technology. Developed and constructed sounding rocket payloads in conjunction with a student team for launch by the NASA Wallops Island Facility.

-----Managed the annual summer outreach NASA-GISS program at Stevens for 3-4 Research Associates from 2004 to 2020 when it was eliminated by NASA budget cuts and Covid.

-----Prior industrial experience at The Mobil Oil Corporation as a project manager with an International scope in the manufacturing and financial industries. Typical project activities included Information Technology, Finance, Environmental Health and Safety Applications and Human Resources. Project Manager of software development projects in various disciplines with a $3.0 MM / year budget and management of five personnel.

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Associate Professor of Engineering 2004 to Present

The Engineering Design Spine, which I teach at Stevens Institute of Technology, includes Innovation and Entrepreneurship as one of its core competencies.

Gallois Competiotn - 2022

Professor Miles is the Program Director of The New Jersey Space Grant Consortium. This is a NASA-funded program in existence for approximately 35 years (created by Senator Lloyd M. Bentson of Texas) which funds educational programs throughout the State of New Jersey (as well as all other states, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico). New Jersey Space Grant funds undergraduate academic year and summer internships and graduate fellowships, a research clusters program at participating institutions, K-12 to college bridge programs, informal education programs, rocketry and ballooning programs, faculty and course development, travel support, Community College Research and K-12 teacher training, to name a few. The statewide budget is approximately $875,000 per year. (It was $225,000 in 2004). The next 4-year proposal (2025-2029) will require an independent evaluator as the budget is expected to be raised over $1,000,000 in a few years.
During August 2024, New Jersey hosted the Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting in Atlantic City where the 7 mid-Atlantic states participated.

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From 2004 to 2021, I taught Engineering Design I, II, III & IV courses in Robotics (C++), Data Acquisition (C++ and LabVIEW), Truss & Beam Construction, and Electronics (MATLAB/Simulink); The courses consisted of approximately 150 to 190 students/semester from 2004 to 2021 and 250 to 425 beginning in 2022 to present.
The Engineering Design Spine uses an inter-disciplinary approach, introducing the concepts of Systems Engineering to the Stevens undergraduate student body. Design I, II, III and IV focus on EE, ME, Computer Software & Engineering and Project Management.
During 2021, I transitioned into teaching the Design 4 lecture course entitled “Design of Dynamical Systems” and “Introduction to Programming and Algorithmic Thinking” both courses combined consist of 250 to 425 students.