Gala Recap 2021 Virtual AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala

AIAA presented its most prestigious awards at the virtual AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on 12 August. The gala is an annual event recognizing the most influential and inspiring individuals in aerospace, whose outstanding contributions merit the highest accolades.

The 2021 premier award winners are:

Gen. Ellen M. Pawlikowski, U.S. Air Force (retired), recipient of the AIAA Goddard Astronautics Award. This award is the highest honor AIAA bestows for notable achievement in the field of astronautics.

Michimasa Fujino, Honda Aircraft Company, recipient of the AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award. This award is the highest honor AIAA bestows for notable achievement in the field of aeronautics.

Merri J. Sanchez, The Aerospace Corporation, recipient of the AIAA Distinguished Service Award. This award is given in recognition of an individual member who has provided distinguished service to the Institute over a period of years.

Michael Watkins, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Michael A. Gross, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Frank Flechtner, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences; Albert Zaglauer, Airbus Defence and Space
Recipients of the AIAA International Cooperation Award. The award recognizes individual/s who have made significant contributions to the initiation, organization, implementation, and/or management of activities with significant U.S. involvement and that includes extensive international cooperative activities in space, aeronautics, or both.

Marcia S. Smith, SpacePolicyOnline.com, recipient of the AIAA Public Service Award. The highest recognition AIAA bestows on a person outside the aerospace community who has shown consistent and visible support for national aviation and space goals.

Benjamin Jorns, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, recipient of the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award. The award is presented for a notable contribution made by a young person, age 35 or under, to the advancement of aeronautics or astronautics.

Humberto Silva III, Sandia National Laboratories, recipient of the AIAA Engineer of the Year. This award is presented to a member of the Institute who has made a recent individual, technical contribution in the application of scientific and mathematical principles leading to a significant technical accomplishment.

Suzanne Banas, South Miami Middle Community School Miami, Florida; Leesa Hubbard, W.A. Wright Elementary, Mt. Juliet, Tennessee; Mark Westlake, Saint Thomas Academy, Mendota Heights, Minnesota
Recipients of the AIAA Educator Achievement Award. This award is given in recognition of the teachers’ efforts to promote STEM education.

For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards Program, contact Patricia Carr at patriciac@aiaa.org.

Section News AIAA Sydney Section Hosts Lecture on Satellite Operations at UNSW Canberra Space

Dr. Bright is the Flight Operations Lead at UNSW Canberra, Australia. Credit: UNSW Canberra

By Michael Spencer (AIAA Associate Fellow), AIAA Sydney Section

On 16 June, Dr. Courtney Bright was a guest speaker at a public space lecture arranged by the AIAA Sydney Section. The talk covered her motivations and the beginning of her space engineering career, and her involvement to lead flight operations in the UNSW Canberra Space university space program involving five satellites in four discrete space missions, all now in orbit.

Dr. Bright is responsible for planning, testing, and executing the operations of UNSW Canberra Space satellite missions. She has a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering; her Ph.D. research focused on novel thrust vectoring methods for spacecraft propulsion. During her studies, she commenced part-time work with the first generation of the UNSW Canberra Space workforce formed in 2014. After submitting her thesis, she transitioned to a full-time position with the growing team and space program at UNSW Canberra Space.

During her student days, she was a student member of AIAA and joined the AIAA Sydney Section committee to assist in organizing space promotions and outreach activities. In 2017, Dr. Bright was a member of the student organizing committee for “Astronaut Stories Australia,” a national public outreach to host international guest speakers, including former NASA astronauts Dr. Sandy Magnus and Pamela Melroy.

Dr. Bright briefly described the engineering, testing and flight operations conducted at UNSW Canberra Space. The university space program is designed to demonstrate new technologies for research at UNSW Canberra, including research areas into unique and bespoke systems engineering, software designs, onboard satellite processing, space situational awareness, and satellite formation flying. The research is benefiting space interests at the university and the Royal Australian Air Force.

She shared observations and experiences gained from the space program, which includes the Buccaneer Risk Management Mission (launched 2017), M1 (launched 2018), M2 Pathfinder (launched 2020), and the M2 twin-satellite mission (launched 2021). As the Flight Operations Lead, Dr. Bright and the team have had to formalize operating procedures that have influenced satellite engineering designs to optimize the use of available human resources. For example, the satellites are only operated during business hours and need onboard systems that can be trusted to keep the satellite safe until the next working shift.

One of the most significant project lessons learned was to conduct end-to-end integrated system testing before launch: using the operations software and ground station software to communicate over-the-air with the “plugs-out” integrated spacecraft, with final versions of flight software loaded. During the program, a stressful event occurred when M1 was launched in 2018 by the SpaceX Smallsat Express, with another 63 satellites, all released in quick succession as a satellite cluster! The challenge for the cluster release is to identify each satellite. Two months after launch, only 50% of satellites were identified; two years later, twelve satellites are still not identified. Unfortunately, the M1 satellites failed to contact for unknown reasons, but the rapid response fault-finding and diagnostics served to benefit the designs for the follow-on missions. The next major milestone in the program is the pending “divorce” event where the M2 satellite pair will separate into two independent satellites to perform formation-flying experiments.

The nature of working in and with space in an Australian university space program demands a genuinely global approach involving international partners for space launch services, space surveillance and satellite tracking, and even with some of the research students at the university.

“Space is a genuinely multidisciplinary field, and with significant funding and growth of the space sector in Australia, it’s now possible to get involved in impactful space projects and missions without moving overseas.”

If you missed Dr. Bright’s talk, you can watch the recording at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wwysdhzLVco&feature=youtu.be.

Section News AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Saves Alabama Quiz Bowl State Championships from Cancellation

AIAA GHS hosted wo large, traditionally in-person tournaments – one for middle school and one for high school – through Zoom sessions and an online buzzer system. Credit: GHS

By Robin Osborne, AIAA Greater Huntsville Section

The AIAA Greater Huntsville Section (GHS) partnered with the Alabama Scholastic Competition Association (ASCA) in spring 2021 to help save the State Championships for the Alabama Academic Quiz Bowl from inevitable cancellation during the COVID-19 pandemic. AIAA GHS hosted two large, traditionally in-person tournaments – one for middle school and one for high school – through Zoom sessions and an online buzzer system. Together with Jacobs Space Exploration Group and ERC, Inc., AIAA GHS sponsored the tournaments by providing support in the form of funding, volunteers, technical expertise, and even a tournament director to handle the logistics associated with live online tournaments.

ASCA President Lee Henry wrote, “On behalf of ASCA, I sincerely thank all of the good people at AIAA GHS for their hard work in making sure that our tournaments took place this year. I also want to thank Jacobs and ERC for their generous sponsorships. This has been an incredibly difficult year, and we likely would not have been able to host our tournaments without this assistance. Because so many wonderful people stepped up to help, we were able to give our students the high-quality academic competition that they have worked for and deserve. It was a pleasure working with everyone and I hope that this is the beginning of a long-lasting partnership!”

Eshan Pokhrel, a junior at Sparkman High School who has been active in Scholars’ Bowl programs since 6th grade, commented, “After having our sophomore year and season cut short due to COVID-19, I was happy to see that ASCA and AIAA GHS were able to find a way to keep the state engaged in quiz bowl, despite the challenge of hosting our state districts and championship online threatening participation. It was by far the best and most efficiently-run tournament we attended this season.”

The scholastic tournaments, which are traditionally in person, challenged students from 56 schools across Alabama with detailed questions related to the STEM disciplines, as well as other areas such as history, literature, fine arts, and pop culture. Teams competed by answering tossup and bonus questions related to those subjects. Quiz bowl is akin to Jeopardy! for students. The questions, provided by the National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT), are complex and advanced for students’ current grade levels, and in many cases the top-performing teams studied for years in after-school sessions under the guidance of teacher-coaches who have a passion for both the game and bringing out the best in their students.

In total, 64 volunteers consisting of members of the Huntsville aerospace community, teachers and students from across Alabama, and quiz bowl alumni assisted. Volunteers ranged from middle school students to Ph.Ds. Nishanth Goli, AIAA GHS chair, commented, “AIAA GHS members are usually enthusiastic for STEM volunteer events, but for the quiz bowl events, we received unprecedented enthusiasm. Members volunteered for 4-8 hours on the day of the middle school and high school events, and additional time was spent in the practice sessions beforehand. Our membership’s passion for STEM is commendable and the GHS Council will keep their interests intact and remain actively involved with ASCA and quiz bowl. We are excited about this collaboration and helping shape the future of our community.”

ASCA, consisting mostly of teachers, is the volunteer organization that hosts the annual Alabama State Championships each spring. During the previous school year, in March 2020, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 necessitated cancellation of ASCA’s High School State Championship, along with all other in-person tournaments throughout the United States.

Section News AIAA Dayton/Cincinnati Section Members Honored with AIAA Special Service Citation

Marc Polanka, AIAA Dayton/Cincinnati Section Honors and Awards Officer, presented both Tim Leger and Brian Bohan with their citations. Credit: Dayton/Cincinnati Section

In May, Dr. Brian Bohan of the Air Force Institute of Technology and Dr. Timothy Leger of the Air Force Research Laboratory were honored with the AIAA Special Service Citation, an award given by AIAA Headquarters for service at the local level above and beyond the ordinary in type, intensity, or duration. Both were awarded in recognition of their roles and outstanding service to the Dayton-Cincinnati Aerospace Sciences Symposium, an annual technical event hosted by the section. Bohan served as the executive chair and Leger as webmaster. Both members received their awards at a section event in June.

AIAA Foundation Making an Impact: How Our Partners Help Us Inspire the Next Generation

(Left) Mark Westlake, Physics educator at Saint Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, MN; (right) University of Texas at Austin students participating in the 2021 DBF. Credit: Saint Thomas Academy and University of Texas at Austin

The AIAA Foundation inspires and supports the next generation of aerospace professionals. From classroom to career, the AIAA Foundation enables innovative K-12 and university programming. AIAA is working every day to reach our goal of impacting 1 million students a year where their aspirations begin.

We know the effect classroom teachers can have by making young students aware of the possibilities, helping students see themselves as possible contributors to society, and encouraging them to build their skills. This year through the Classroom Grant Program, 83 educators received grants of up to $500 that will affect nearly 24,000 students. The AIAA Foundation also has provided other resources through our K-12 partnerships and Aerospace Micro-Lessons that help educators spark a student’s interest in aerospace. Our Design/Build/Launch (DBL) competition, in partnership with Blue Origin, invites high school students to develop research proposals in the fields of microgravity science or space technology, pairing their experiment with a public outreach plan to share the excitement of the field with others. The top proposal receives a free spaceflight for their payload on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and a $1,000 grant to prepare and develop the experiment for flight.

As these students begin their university years, the AIAA Foundation supports hands-on experiences like the Design/Build/Fly (DBF) competition and university design competitions, which provide students with a unique opportunity to apply engineering skills. We also encourage students to present their research at the AIAA Regional Student Conferences. These conferences allow undergraduate and graduate students to receive feedback on their research and presentation style from respected industry professionals. The AIAA Foundation also financially supports students; this year we provided over $75,000 in undergraduate scholarship and graduate awards to the next generation of aerospace professionals.

The AIAA Foundation recently received a $1 million grant from Blue Origin’s Club for the Future. We are finalizing the strategy to inspire the most students with this gift. We’ll do more of what we know works, and also try new, innovative programs that engage young hearts and minds to fuel the next generation of aerospace professionals. Through our partners and donors, the AIAA Foundation looks forward to reaching even more educators and students with resources, experiences, and programming.

Please consider making your own donation in honor of the AIAA Foundation’s 25th anniversary; every donation makes an impact. For more information please visit aiaa.org/foundation or contact Alex D’Imperio, alexandrad@aiaa.org.

AIAA Committees Membership Nominations Are Now Open for AIAA Technical Committees and Integration and Outreach Committees for 2022/2023.

The Technical Activities Division (TAD) and Integration and Outreach Division (IOD) work diligently with their committee chairs to maintain a reasonable balance in appropriate representation to the field from industry, research, education, and government and the specialties covered in the specific TC/IOC scopes. TAD and IOD encourage the nomination of young professionals (those individuals 35 years and younger). Committees have a 50-person maximum unless approval is granted to exceed that limit. Nominees selected for membership who are not AIAA members in good standing must become members or renew their membership within 45 days of start of the membership term (1 May–30 April).

If you currently serve on a TC/IOC, you will automatically be considered for the 2022/2023 membership term. Nominations are submitted online. The nomination form can be found on the AIAA website at aiaa.org, under My AIAA, Nominations and Voting, Technical Committee Online Nomination. Nominations are due by 1 November 2021.

Information about the committees can be found at
Integration and Outreach Committees: aiaa.org/integration-and-outreach-division-committees; Technical Committees: aiaa.org/technical-committees

AIAA Foundation Making an Impact: Scholarship and Graduate Award Winners

Each year, AIAA distributes over $70,000 in scholarships and graduate awards to undergraduate and graduate students studying aerospace engineering at accredited colleges and universities throughout the United States. In 2021, AIAA scholarship and graduate award winners came from all corners of the aerospace industry and are studying a variety of topics from digital avionics to hypersonics. Below, we profile this year’s 20 scholarship and graduate award winners who are shaping the future of aerospace.

AIAA Graduate Award Winners

Neil Armstrong Graduate Award
Alexis Harroun
Purdue University
Amount of Award: $5,000

Alexis is a Ph.D. student in the school of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University. She currently researches rotating detonation engines and how to improve chemical rocket engine performance. Alexis graduated with her master’s from Purdue in 2019 and her bachelor’s from the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington in 2017. She is a member of the AIAA Young Professionals Group and the ASCEND Guiding Coalition. Alexis is a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow and was one of Aviation Week’s 20 Twenties in 2019.

I am truly honored to receive the AIAA Neil Armstrong Award. The AIAA has contributed significantly to my educational and professional development and I am appreciative of how this award will support me as I continue my graduate studies.

Orville & Wilbur Wright Graduate Awards
Abhishek Shastry
University of Maryland, College Park
Amount of Award: $5,000

Abhishek is a doctoral student at University of Maryland. His present research pursuits at the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center are on eVTOL aircrafts and UAVs for green electric aviation. In the future, he plans to explore entrepreneurship options in the field.

Receiving this AIAA award which is named after the pioneers of aviation means a lot to me. It says that leaders of aviation today trust me to revolutionize the industry tomorrow.

Akanksha Baranwal
Texas A&M University
Amount of Award: $5,000

Akanksha is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University, working under the supervision of Dr. Diego Donzis. She holds Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology degrees in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. Her Ph.D. dissertation focuses on fundamental understanding and modeling of momentum transport and non-equilibrium energy transport processes in high-speed turbulent flows using massively-parallel, high-fidelity simulations. She aims to pursue a career in research and academia. Akanksha wishes to gain expertise in wide-ranging physics in the broad field of fluid mechanics and thermal sciences and provide robust engineering solutions utilizing powerful tools such as high-performance computing and data-driven modeling techniques.

This award inspires me to continue my efforts towards my research and contribute to the progress of the field. This recognition would facilitate me in gaining wide experience in the company of erudite personalities of the field at various fora and better equip me to mentor the next generation of aerospace engineers.

Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Graduate Awards in Aerospace Engineering
Paige Drummond
North Carolina State University
Amount of Award: $5,000

Paige graduated in May 2021 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. Throughout her undergraduate studies she was particularly interested in aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics. This passion led her to pursue a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at NCSU with a concentration in computational fluid dynamics beginning in Fall 2021. During her graduate studies she will be working on a research project related to supersonic combustion and internal flows. She aspires to have a career in a technical company focused on applied research where she can utilize the skills she will gain from her graduate studies, as well as those she has built through her undergraduate degree, to design and analyze hypersonic vehicles.

Receiving this award is a great honor and has significantly reduced the financial burden associated with pursuing a graduate degree. This award will allow me to focus entirely on my graduate studies and research which will help me develop into a better Aerospace Engineer and best prepare for my desired career.

Evan Waldron
North Carolina State University
Amount of Award: $5,000

Evan is pursuing a Master’s Degree at North Carolina State University in Aerospace Engineering, with a concentration in dynamics, vibrations, and controls. He also has an FAA Commercial Pilot Certificate with an Instrument Rating, and is planning on pursuing a Flight Instructor Certificate. He hopes to focus on controls for aerospace systems in his career. One of his main goals is to work as a guidance, navigation, and control engineer for NASA or a commercial spaceflight company.

Receiving the Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Graduate Award will help me complete my graduate studies and better prepare me to work as a controls engineer in the aerospace industry.

Luis de Florez Graduate Award
Laurens Voet
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amount of Award: $3,500

Laurens is a third-year Ph.D. student at the Gas Turbine Laboratory and the Laboratory for Aviation and Environment at MIT. His research focuses on quantifying the environmental impact of supersonic transport in terms of its take-off noise and emissions. Originally from Belgium, Laurens graduated with a BSc in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology, and obtained a MSc in Computational Methods in Aeronautics from Imperial College London, UK. After his undergrad, Laurens joined the Formula Student Team Delft as a full-time aerodynamics engineer and chief of CNC manufacturing. As part of his Ph.D., Laurens also interned at Aerion Supersonic. After his graduate studies, Laurens aspires to pursue a career in aerospace to develop projects having a positive impact on the world.

I am very grateful to receive the AIAA Luis de Florez graduate award. It is a recognition of my work, giving me a morale boost to keep pushing myself, and stimulating me to continue striving for excellence.

Guidance, Navigation, and Control Graduate Award
Oliver Jia-Richards
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amount of Award: $2,500

Oliver is currently a doctoral candidate and NASA Space Technology Research Fellow in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he also earned his S.B. and S.M. degrees. His research is on the use of microfabricated electrospray thrusters for the exploration of planetary bodies ranging from small asteroids to planets with a particular focus on the coupling between the propulsion and guidance and control subsystems. After graduation he intends to pursue a career in academia.

Receiving this award will help me to continue to explore research topics at the intersection of propulsion and guidance, navigation, and controls.

John Leland Atwood Graduate Award
Christopher Axten
Pennsylvania State University
Amount of Award: $1,250

Christopher is a Ph.D. student studying Aerospace Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. His doctoral work focuses on the use of boundary layer transition modeling in computational fluid dynamics for aircraft design. Additionally, he is studying the effects of Görtler instabilities on slotted, natural-laminar-flow airfoils. He seeks to use his knowledge in aircraft design and background laminar flow modeling techniques to contribute to the creation of future laminar flow aircraft, such as the first laminar flow commercial airplane. He has completed internships with Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), General Atomics: Aeronautical Systems, The Boeing Company, and the Army Aviation Development Directorate.

Receiving the John Leland Atwood Graduate Award is enormous to me. The award will help enable me to continue my graduate work; however, more than that, it demonstrates to me how vital and impactful my research is, which energizes me to pursue it all the more.

Martin Summerfield Propellants and Combustion Graduate Award
Hiba Kahouli
University of Southern California
Amount of Award: $1,250

Hiba is currently a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering. She is investigating the effects of pressure and fuel on the characteristics of highly turbulent jet flames with the end goal of improving the performance of jet engines. After receiving her graduate degree, she hopes to pursue her long-lived passion for high-speed flight and work toward the design of supersonic air-breathing propulsion systems. Before joining the Trojan family in 2018, Hiba obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Although she calls both Los Angeles and South Bend home, Hiba hails from Tunisia, the beautiful North African, Mediterranean country where she first fell in love with airplanes.

It is a great honor to be recognized as recipient of the Martin Summerfield Propellant and Combustion Graduate Award. I hope this serves as an incentive for me to persevere when the path gets turbulent and that I may one day inspire a younger generation to take on the exciting challenges of combustion and propulsion.

Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award
Anil Yildirim
University of Michigan
Amount of Award: $1,000

Anil is a Ph.D. candidate in Aerospace Engineering and Scientific Computing in the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Laboratory (MDO Lab), led by Prof. Joaquim R.R.A. Martins at University of Michigan. His research focuses on developing robust and high-performance tools for MDO applications, and applying these tools to multidisciplinary aircraft design problems. His research vision is to develop methods that can utilize the ever-growing power of scientific computing resources in the design of environmentally sustainable aircraft. His Ph.D. research focus is aeropropulsive design optimization, in which the aerodynamic and propulsion system designs are optimized in a coupled manner. He is working on this topic in collaboration with Dr. Justin S. Gray at NASA Glenn Research Center.

I am honored to receive the Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award with my work on aeropropulsive design optimization. It is reassuring to know that experts in the field of aircraft propulsion see the value of this research topic, and I am excited to make more progress in this field.

AIAA Undergraduate Scholarship Winners

Daedalus 88 Scholarship
Matthew Tan
Stanford University
Amount of Scholarship: $10,000

Matthew is a rising Junior at Stanford University studying Aero/Astro Engineering and Computer Science, where he helps lead the Aerospace Club and Student Space Initiative. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in Aerospace after which he hopes to work in the field of autonomy and flight dynamics. His long-term goal is to contribute to the development of next-generation aircraft designs, particularly to advance efficiency, autonomy, and safety. Additionally, Matthew would like to lower the barrier of entry to aerospace, making general aviation and personal flying more accessible and sustainable.

I am so grateful to have received this scholarship, which will go a long way in supporting my education. Most importantly, the encouragement and support I have received continues to motivate me to work hard and make the most of this opportunity to achieve my goal of developing the future of aviation.

David and Catherine Thompson Space Technology Undergraduate Scholarship
Noshin Nawar
University of Arkansas
Amount of Scholarship: $10,000

Noshin is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Concentration at the University of Arkansas. She is currently interning in Houston, TX, for NASA Johnson Space Center in the PSION lab, researching astronaut exercise devices and software interfaces. She plans to become a professor of aerospace engineering, focusing research in electric propulsion (EP), and she aspires to become an civil servant astronaut at NASA, to someday conduct research on EP systems and more from space.

I was originally afraid I could not complete my degree due to a lack of financial ability to cover tuition. Thanks to AIAA and the Thompson family, I will now be able to complete my undergrad education and hopefully go on to pursue my PhD in Aerospace Engineering, focused on electric propulsion systems design.

Vicki and George Muellner Scholarship for Aerospace Engineering
Umar Padela
Harvard University
Amount of Scholarship: $5,000

Umar is a rising junior at Harvard studying mechanical engineering with an interest in aerospace. He has been involved with his school’s aeronautics and rocketry teams for the past two years, and he is currently working with Boeing as a propulsion engineering intern. In the future, he hopes to attend graduate school for a Master’s degree in aerospace. After graduate school, he would like to pursue a job related to aircraft design.

This scholarship will allow me to focus on my education and spend more time conducting aerospace related research, which will help me in applying to graduate schools.

Wernher von Braun Undergraduate Scholarship
Satvik Kumar
Georgia Institute of Technology
Amount of Scholarship: $5,000

Airplanes have fascinated Satvik since childhood and he was always known as the plane geek. Although he was always intrigued with aviation, he developed interest in rocketry, space exploration, and vertical flight after he started his Aerospace degree program and listening to space-related presentations during his NASA internships. Throughout his time at Georgia Tech as well as his internships at the NASA Ames Research Center, he has been conducting research. Being involved in groundbreaking research in the Aerospace field has been enthralling and continues to fascinate him. His future plan is to attend graduate school following his undergraduate degree to continue aerospace research, whether it is at the university level or at a research-oriented organization such as NASA.

Dreams, motivation, hard work, and focus have always been my recipe for success. Winning this scholarship has made one of my dreams come true and motivates me to work hard, soar to new heights, and reach higher goals.

Cary Spitzer Digital Avionics Scholarship
Alexander Gross
Texas A&M University
Amount of Scholarship: $2,000

Alexander is pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Mathematics and Computer Science. While studying engineering in college, he plans to pursue co-op and internship opportunities to obtain real-world experience that he could apply further into his studies toward his degree and future career. Additionally, as an undergraduate researcher in the Texas A&M Vehicle Systems and Control Laboratory, he is continuously obtaining applicable knowledge in his field. Due to his admiration and passion for engineering feats in human spaceflight and space exploration, he aims to work in the aerospace industry as a vehicle guidance, navigation, and control engineer for spaceflight vehicles.

Throughout my collegiate career, I have always pursued avenues to continue my educational and professional development. Receiving this scholarship greatly reduces the financial burden necessary to continue my education, allowing my goal to enter the aerospace industry to become increasingly real every day.

Dr. Amy R. Prichett Digital Avionics Scholarship
Kiseuk Ahn
Bellevue College
Amount of Scholarship: $2,000

Kiseuk graduated this spring from Bellevue College, and is now transferring to Stanford University to complete his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a 2020 All-Washington Academic Team Scholar, Washington NASA Space Grant Scholar, NASA Community College Aerospace Scholar, and the 2021 Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholar. He was an undergraduate research intern at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining NASA Langley Research Center as the SCALPSS Lunar Lander structural analysis intern. Through advanced engineering courses, student-led organizations, and cutting-edge research opportunities, he hopes to continue broadening the horizons to better understand how an aircraft’s future design and technology can be implemented more efficiently to reduce harmful environmental effects.

This scholarship will not only financially help me to better focus on my studies, but it also instilled in me better confidence to believe in my ability to continue pursuing a challenging endeavor to create a better tomorrow as an aspiring research scientist.

Dr. James Rankin Digital Avionics Scholarship
Elton Shinji Okuma Hayachiguti
Georgia Institute of Technology
Amount of Scholarship: $2,000

An intense love for airplanes made Elton pursue the best education possible in aerospace engineering. He left home in Guarulhos, Brazil, to study at Georgia Institute of Technology. After three years doing research in experimental aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, and systems engineering, as well as having built many aircraft with Georgia Tech’s Design/Build/Fly team, he is happy to say that he wants to become an aircraft designer. He will pursue a graduate degree to further develop his knowledge before working toward a position in the industry where he can help create the next generation of airplanes.

Being recognized by AIAA is an incredible honor that motivates me to pursue knowledge and excellence in aerospace engineering even further. I will use this scholarship to fund my education, taking more technical courses relevant to aircraft design and safety before starting my career as an aerospace engineer.

Ellis F. Hitt Digital Avionics Scholarship
Noah Jacobs
University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
Amount of Scholarship: $2,000

Noah is a Sophomore University Fellow at the University of Alabama studying computer science and aerospace engineering. He is passionate about activism in environmental conservation, and in his spare time, he enjoys hiking, volunteering at his local planetarium, and developing flight software for the UA Space Cube Satellite Team. He hopes to pursue a career in programming machine learning and computer vision algorithms for autonomous spacecraft, and also hopes to eventually open his own planetarium!

I am so thankful to have been granted the Ellis F. Hitt Digital Avionics Scholarship – knowing that I will have the financial capital to move forward in my aerospace education takes a huge burden off of my shoulders. I hope to use this money to propel myself into my future career as an aerospace engineer!

Space Transportation Scholarship
Ryan Udell
Rice University
Amount of Scholarship: $1,500

Ryan is a recent graduate of Rice University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership. He currently works at Boeing as a Systems Engineer in the Boeing Satellite Systems Engineering Rotation Program. He is the current External Affairs Director for the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS-USA) and the former President of Rice University’s SEDS chapter. He is also a founding partner of the Zed Factor Fellowship, an internship and community outreach program for underrepresented students interested in pursuing aerospace careers. In these roles, he strives to make an impact on students to explore space by developing immersive and hands-on programs.

The AIAA scholarship will help me pursue my passion for human exploration and spaceflight!

Leatrice Gregory Pendray Scholarship
Rebekah Geil
Georgia Institute of Technology
Amount of Scholarship: $1,250

Rebekah is a 3rd-year aerospace engineering student at Georgia Institute of Technology. After a summer internship with the Air Force Research Laboratory working on deployable structures, she began taking part in undergraduate research in Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). This summer, Rebekah is working with Tietronix Software, applying MBSE to risk management for NASA projects. In the future, she hopes to pursue a master’s degree and then a career in human space exploration and operations.

To me, this scholarship goes beyond generous financial assistance. It shows me that the aerospace community is with me, and I am encouraged by your faith in my future.

Rocky Mountain Section Scholarship
Jarod Spencer
Colorado School of Mines
Amount of Scholarship: $500

Jarod is an Engineering Physics major at Colorado School of Mines with a minor in Space & Planetary Science & Engineering. His life vision is to use his talents, knowledge, and passion for space to push humanity into the future, especially a multi-planetary one. To that end, he is pursuing a career in aerospace and astronautics; he wants his work to mean something, and he refuses to be just another brick in the wall. And one day, that means going to space himself.

Thank you so much to AIAA RMS for this scholarship and also to everyone who has ever supported me in my journey! I couldn’t be where I am without you. This scholarship will do wonders to relieve financial stress in my life as well as my family’s. Now, I will have fewer loans to deal with after college and more freedom to chase my dreams!

Applications for the 2022 scholarships are being accepted from 1 October to 31 January at aiaa.org/home/get-involved/students-educators/scholarships-graduate-awards. For information about how to get involved with AIAA and make an impact on the next generation of aerospace engineers, please visit aiaa.org/get-involved or contact Merrie Scott, merries@aiaa.org or contact Michael Lagana at scholarships@aiaa.org.

Obituary Associate Fellow Duffy Died in February

Charles “Pat” Duffy Jr. died on 28 February.

Duffy graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and as a Cadet Colonel in the Army ROTC (Distinguished Military Graduate/ROTC Gold Medal from the Society of American Military Engineers). After earning his M.S. degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Idaho, he served as a First Lieutenant with the Army Combat Engineers in Germany for two years.

Moving to Seattle, Duffy began a 35-year engineering career at The Boeing Company. He held key management positions in both the commercial airplanes and the defense and space divisions in the areas of human resources, industrial and labor relations, business management, corporate strategic planning, and acquisition of new business opportunities throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He also served as Vice President of the Boeing Management Association. Duffy retired in 1992 as Director of Operations, Business, and Quality Improvement for Boeing’s Defense and Space Group.

Duffy dedicated many years of service to AIAA, serving as Region VI Director in the 1970s and as a Vice President. He worked on various committees, and also attended countless conferences and workshops across the country.

Obituary AIAA Senior Member Bhatia Died in April

Manav Bhatia died on 15 April.

He received his Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Washington, where he worked on the problem of computational design procedures for high-speed flight vehicles. He gained industry experience as a Loads and Dynamics Engineer at Aviation Partners Boeing, before moving to Virginia Tech as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. Bhatia also worked as a Research Engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

In 2014, Bhatia joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University, where he was an associate professor. Bhatia was a member of the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Technical Committee, and he recently served as the Education Subcommittee Chair. He was a frequent attendee at the AIAA SciTech and AIAA AVIATION Forums.

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Scammell Died in May

Frank Scammell died on 3 May 2021 at the age of 88 years old.

Scammell received his B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT. Early in his career, he developed new gyroscopes at Lincoln Labs, and then worked at Avco and Draper Labs on a variety of aerospace engineering projects, including missile defense, and received patents on novel mirrors for lasers. He cared deeply about the defense of the United States, and in the 1980s, he worked at the Strategic Defense Initiative in Washington, DC, where he was Group Leader of Innovative Architecture.

Obituary AIAA Associate Fellow Stewart Died in June

Robert “Bob” Stewart died on 22 June 2021, one day after his 90th birthday.

He received a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from New York University and his entire professional career centered around aviation. He went to work for Grumman Aircraft on Long Island, as well as at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL, until he was hired by Beechcraft in Wichita. He then moved to Savannah with the newly formed Gulfstream Aircraft Company.

He eventually left engineering to begin a career in private flight instruction. For many years he taught basic and instrument flying to students in Savannah working primarily through Savannah Aviation. With all the “touch and go’s” he suffered through for all the years, it is acknowledged that he likely has logged more takeoffs and landings at the Savannah Airport than any other pilot. In addition to his teaching, he was also the FAA designated pilot examiner out of the Hilton Head airport for many years. Well into his 80s, he served on the national FAA committee to revise and update pilot training.

He was active in several aviation societies, and was a proud charter member of the HHI hangar of the Quiet Birdmen.

Remembrances may be made in memory of Stewart to the AIAA Foundation, aiaa.org/foundation.

Obituary Associate Fellow Bailey Died in June

Colonel Austin James Bailey Jr. died on 24 June. He was 99 years old.

In 1941, he attended Northeastern University, College of Engineering in Boston where he completed Civilian Pilot Training, thereby launching a career as a military pilot followed by a career as an engineering test pilot.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942 and flew as a Marine Corsair fighter pilot in the Pacific. After World War II, he completed engineering school, graduating in 1950. Soon after, he was recalled for the Korean Conflict. He was shot down over North Korea and rescued in the Yellow Sea.

In 1952, Bailey joined Honeywell as an engineering test pilot. He tested flight controls for automated carrier landings, fly by wire, side stick controls, and fire control systems for such aircraft as the F2H-3, Canadian CF-100, F-100, and F-101. He participated as a test crewman in the human factors review of the Mercury Space Capsule design, as well as working with Scott Crossfield and Neil Armstrong on the X-15 flight control system. Additionally, Bailey worked on the flight controls for the SR-71 and the X-20 orbital space vehicle. As a test pilot and consultant, he worked with the Swedish Royal Air Force on systems for the SAAB fighter series.

For his achievements, Bailey was recognized with many awards including the Safety Award from the USAF for accident-free test operations in 1961. He was awarded a Silver Cup for the success of the Microwave Landing System Tests. In 2003, he was inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame. Most notably, in 1979, he was awarded the Octave Chanute Flight Award (now the AIAA Chanute Flight Test Award), a national award that recognized his outstanding engineering skills and expert test pilot capabilities to develop several advanced flight control systems.

He was a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, AIAA, the Minnesota Business Aircraft Association, and the Quiet Birdmen.

Obituary AIAA Fellow Lagacé Died in July

Paul Lagacé, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, died 16 July. He was 63 years old.

Lagacé received his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics in 1978, his master’s in 1979, and his Ph.D. in 1982. He joined the MIT faculty in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1982, where his research focused on the design and manufacture of composite structures and materials mainly used in the aerospace industry. The Technology Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Structures (TELAMS), his research laboratory, worked on research ranging from characterizing a basic understanding of composite materials to exploring their behavior in specific structural configurations to computational modeling in solid mechanics. The lab also worked on the design, fabrication, and testing of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), along with their associated materials and processes.

Lagacé was widely recognized for his research in response and failure of composite structures, and the development of composite structures technology and the safety of aircraft structural systems. He was often asked to be an advisor and consultant to industry and government agencies on aspects of structural technology and broader engineering systems. He served as a consultant, expert witness, and member of committees and panels in the investigation of accidents and their implications.

Lagacé was a Fellow of AIAA, the American Society for Composites, and the American Society for Testing and Materials (now known as ASTM International). He served as president of the International Committee on Composite Materials and was recognized as a World Fellow of Composites and Honorary Member of the Executive Council.

In addition to his research, Lagacé taught courses in mechanics of materials and structures with special emphasis on composite materials and their structures. In 1995, he was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, an honor that recognizes outstanding classroom teaching, significant innovations in education, and dedication to helping others achieve teaching excellence. He served as co-director of the MIT Leaders for Manufacturing and Systems Design and Management programs. Drawing on his own experience as a first-generation college student, Lagacé was instrumental in launching MIT’s First-Generation Program.

Outside of MIT, Lagacé found a way to integrate his love of the Red Sox with his aeronautical knowledge into a real-life problem set for his students. In the early 1990s, Lagacé observed that fewer balls seemed to reach the center field stands. He worked with his undergraduate students to construct a model of Fenway Park, which they then tested in MIT’s Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel to simulate the wind and baseball trajectory pathways. He concluded that a recently constructed press box created a wind vortex that prevented baseballs from reaching as far as they used to.