For the second time in three years, GT-AE doctoral student Francesca M. Favaro has been selected to receive the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship.
Mentored by Dr. Joseph Saleh, the Italy native is doing research to develop a new theoretical basis for accident prevention and system safety in the aerospace industry.
The Earhart Fellowship was established by Zonta International in 1938 to honor legendary pilot Amelia Earhart, herself a member of the global women's advocacy and service organization. It is bestowed annually on 35 women who are pursuing doctoral degrees in aerospace-related sciences or aerospace-related engineering.
This is the second time in three years that Favaro has received the $10,000 fellowship. She plans to use the funds to offset fees and living expenses while she continues her research. Favaro anticipates defending her doctoral thesis in March of 2016.
"Before I finish up, I hope to publish a textbook, with Dr. Saleh. I have published seven journal papers that will give me a good foundation," she said. "After that, I am not sure whether I want to go into industry or continue in academia."
Her research on accident causation and system safety principles makes Favaro a very attractive candidate for either career path.
For the last three years, Francesca Favaro has been developing a formal framework for using control theory as a method for investigating risk assessment. The work complements current work in this area, which is dominated more by probability and statistical analyses.
"My ultimate goal is to expand the intellectual toolkit available to safety professionals and risk analysts in the aerospace industry and beyond," she said.
"My investigations range from commercial and military aviation mishaps -- particularly software-related accidents -- to nuclear, chemical and oil and gas industry accidents."
Her work identifies and explores the current shortcomings in the way system accident analysis and prevention are studied.
"As new technologies are created, or embedded, in existing systems, new failure modes and mechanisms emerge. I believe that these risks should be preemptively eliminated or mitigated with a safety culture deeply embedded not only during the early system design stages, but also in the initial stages of an engineer training and education."
Francesca Favaro earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees, focusing on aerospace and space engineering, from Politecnico di Milano, in her native Italy. In addition to the Earhart Fellowship, she is the recipient of the 2013 Giovanni F. Moneti Memorial Fellowship, and an official reviewer for the journals Reliability Engineering and System Safety andIEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. She is married to fellow GT-AE doctoral student Matteo Carrara and the mother of three-month-old Sofia. Find out more.