An “out-of-this-world” collaboration with ECE

Teamwork is essential in the everyday careers of engineering students once they graduate.

For undergraduates in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), the Major Design Experience (MDE) teaches key collaboration and communication skills, project management, and proper documentation through hands-on learning with industry and academic professionals.

Virginia Spaceport Authority (VSA) – a spaceport for small- and mid-class rocket systems based in Wallops, Virginia and headquartered in Norfolk – partnered with MDE for the second year to develop a unified approach to the control and data systems used with their launch pads at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS). 

With guidance from MARS chief engineer, Walter Taraila, students from the spring 2025 MDE class created a blueprint for a scalable, user-friendly, and reliable supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system that VSA plans to integrate into upcoming launch pad builds.

ECE chatted with Taraila about working with Virginia Tech students, collective learning opportunities, and how VSA benefitted from the collaboration.

How did the SCADA project get selected for the students to work on? 

The Virginia Spaceport Authority management requested ideas and considered a few project options. They saw the most value in the SCADA project. The system takes telemetry from launchpads, payload processing facilities, runways, and other VSA sites, and shows that information in an efficient manner using a hypervisor, which puts helpful information into a single user interface.

We provided them with a sandbox development area where they could apply their technical skills to real-world challenges. They built a test bench simulating a launchpad, routed telemetry through inline hardware, and developed software to manage the data flow. They also had to troubleshoot hardware-software integration, which is a highly valuable skill in our field. In the long term, SCADA will help us detect off-nominal conditions faster and reduce mean time to repair, which improves operational efficiency at the spaceport.

What was it like working with the students?

I enjoyed working with the students—they each brought unique perspectives. I’ve been working on launchpads for over ten years, so it was great to see them tackle problems differently than me. The students are really talented.

How did you benefit from the collaboration? What did you learn from working with the students?

They taught me useful things. I gave them some tough problems—for example, how to efficiently transmit data from a launchpad to a hypervisor. They ended up teaching me how to create an Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture, which ingested incoming sensor data, formatted it into OPC tags, and bridged that to the graphical user interface.

I really enjoyed hearing everyone’s unique technical solutions to tough problems. A lot can be accomplished when we work together on a shared challenge.

How will the students’ work be utilized at VSA?

VSA is currently developing our own in-house SCADA system using many of the same tools and software the students used. The insights gained during this collaboration with Virginia Tech, including last year’s work, will help streamline our development and production environments. Their work on the test bench helped us anticipate challenges and avoid delays. It essentially gave us a head start on our own development process.

Would you recommend working with Virginia Tech MDE to other companies?

Yes, definitely. It’s a great experience. When I was an engineering student, my senior design class was my favorite; it had a lasting impact on my career. I hope that Virginia Tech students have a similar experience and it will help them grow, build their resumes with relevant skills, and promote their careers like it did for me.