The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a model aviation association representing more than 195,000 members from every walk of life, income level, and age group. There are more than 2,500 AMA model airplane clubs across the country, and AMA offers its clubs official contest sanction, insurance, and assistance in getting and keeping flying sites. The organization is also the voice of its membership, providing connections with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and other government agencies through the national headquarters in Muncie, Indiana. As the organization matures, it was looking for ways to support its infrastructure and programming with an endowment. In this project, students explored how media assets, especially video, could help AMA encourage members to provide financial assistance toward the organization’s future programming, growth, and legacy.
Faculty Mentors: Tim Pollard; Suzanne Plesha
Departments: Telecommunications; Office of Immersive Learning
Community Partner: Academy of Model Aeronautics
Students: Austin Cain, Kendall Gavin, Dennis Healy, Seth Heitmann, Jacob Kemiel, Drew Klawiter, Julian Magana, Kaleb Marr, Mathias Miles, Justin Morris, Fei Pan, Rachel Replogle, Harper Robinson, Max Van Dongen, Andrew Westmoreland, and Braden Whited
Social well-being and quality of life can be measured using indicators like income, housing, education, health, and the physical environment of an area. In this immersive learning Building Better Neighborhoods project, students evaluated the quality-of-life for residents in the Riverside-Normal City Neighborhood in Muncie. They assessed the living quality for each housing unit in the neighborhood, including the building’s health, physical environment, and its adjacency to community amenities and hazards. Features, such as driving and walking distance to nearest grocery stores, parks, and other amenities, were derived from existing GIS layers or extracted from high-resolution aerial photos in the GIS lab at Ball State University. Additionally, the students used smartphones equipped with thermal infrared cameras to collect information on structure heat loss, road conditions, and lawn health. The students integrated the collected data into a living quality geodatabase of Muncie neighborhoods for further analysis. 
