Armenian professor Naira Hovakimyan has a background as a mathematician. Over the last 17 years, however, researchers in the United States have tapped Hovakimyan’s calculations to help advance work in the stability of flight control systems, reported ECN Magazine.

In March, her research group’s L1 control method was successfully tested in a Learjet plane at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Hovakimyan, now a professor of mechanical science and engineering and Schaller Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois, was a college student during the end of the Cold War. She completed a Master of Science degree in theoretical mechanics and applied mathematics in 1988 from Yerevan State University in Armenia. Hovakimyan furthered her education in Moscow, completing a PhD in physics and mathematics from the Institute of Applied Mathematics of Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992.

From 1994-98, Hovakimyan traveled the world taking advantage of offers to study and teach. She has been to Germany, France, and Israel.

Her career path was set in motion in 1998 when she received an invitation from Georgia Tech (USA), looking for a mathematician of her skill set to join the team there in studying the stability of flight control.

Meanwhile, sponsored by both the US Air Force and NASA, Hovakimyan found a position as an associate professor at Virginia Tech (USA) in 2003. It was there that Hovakimyan, jointly with postdoctoral fellow Chengyu Cao, developed the L1 adaptive control theory, which can aid a pilot to regain control of an airplane in sudden and drastic circumstances.

NASA tested a 5.5 percent subscale general transport model aircraft for a variety of challenging conditions and testing it for aggressive maneuvers.

Following the successful NASA Langley flight tests, Naira Hovakimyan’s research garnered international recognition.