• Professor of Practice, Mechanical Engineering
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Dale Cope

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., in Aerospace Engineering, Wichita State University — 2002
  • M.S., in Aeronautical Engineering, Air Force Institute of Technology — 1988
  • B.S., in Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University — 1982

Research Interests

    • Engineering Education
    • Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs)

Industry Experience

    • 6 years as Program Manager on the Air Force Aircraft Structural Integrity Program for Southwest Research Institute
    • 5 years as Laboratory Director of the Aircraft Structural Testing and Evaluation Center for the National Institute for Aviation Research
    • 7 years as a KC-135 aircraft structures engineer for The Boeing Company
    • 12 years as an active duty Air Force officer serving as an Aeronautical Engineer for the KC-135 aircraft program office and Assistant Professor in Aeronautics at the U.S. Air Force Academy

Awards & Honors

  • 2021 College of Engineering - Instructional Faculty Teaching Award
  • 2021 Aggie Club of Engineers Professor of Excellence Award
  • 2018 ASME Best Teacher Award
  • 2012 Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
  • 2007 Meritorious Service Medal, U.S. Air Force (USAF)

Selected Publications

  • “Unmanned aircraft systems for precision weed detection and management: Prospects and challenges”; Singh, V,; A. Rana, M. Bishop, A. M. Filippi, D. Cope, N. Rajan, and M. Bagavathiannan; Academic Press, October 2019
  • “Prediction of maize grain yield before maturity using improved temporal height estimates of unmanned aerial systems”, SL Anderson, SC Murray, L Malambo, C Ratcliff, S Popescu, D Cope, A Chang, J Jung, JA Thomasson; The Plant Phenome Journal 2 (1), 1-15 (2019)
  • “Measurement and calibration of plant-height from fixed-wing UAV images”; Han, X.; J.A. Thomasson, G.C. Bagnall, N.A. Pugh, D.W. Horne, W.L. Rooney, J. Jung, A. Chang, L. Malambo, S.C. Popescu, I.T. Gates, and D.A. Cope; Sensors 2018, 18(12), 4092; Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18124092 (2018)
  • “Unmanned aerial vehicles for high-throughput phenotyping and agronomic research”; Shi, Y., J. Thomasson, S. Murray, N. Ace, W. Rooney, S. Shafian, N. Rajan, G. Rouze, C. Morgan, H. Neely, A. Rana, M. Bagavathiannan, J. Henrickson, E. Bowden, J. Valasek, J. Olsenholler, M. Bishop, R. Sheridan, E. Putman, S. Popescu, T. Burks, D. Cope, A. Ibrahim, B. Mccutchen, D. Baltensperger, R. Avant, M. Vidrine, and C. Yang; PloS ONE 11 (7), e0159781 (2016)
  • “Integration of Remote Sensing and Risk Analysis for Airframe Structural Integrity Assessment”; Cope, D., J. Cronenberger, K. Kozak, K. Schrader, L. Smith, and C. Thwing; Annual Conference of the Prognostics and Health Management Society, Oct 2010
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