Note: This article was provided by the University of San Diego and originally reported by Katherine Connor. It was reported on Feb. 12 that a team of engineers led by the University of California (UC) San Diego have received a $5.8 million University Leadership Initiative (ULI) grant from NASA to create computational design tools that will help U.S. companies develop more efficient electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designs faster. “This project is part of a growing field called urban air mobility (UAM), an exciting vision enabling point-to-point, on-demand air travel within densely populated areas,” says John Hwang, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego and principal investigator for the project. “We will combine multidisciplinary computational models of UAM vehicles and advanced design optimization algorithms to develop methods and tools for rapidly designing safe, quiet and affordable vehicle concepts.”