On 10 March, the AIAA Dayton-Cincinnati Section held the 51st annual Dayton-Cincinnati Aerospace Sciences Symposium (DCASS) at the Sinclair Ponitz Conference Center in Dayton, Ohio, where over 130 presentations were given. Christopher Ruscher and Joseph Miller (the executive chair and co-chair of the symposium) told the audience, “Today, we hope you attend the diverse technical presentations submitted by our region’s aerospace professionals, students, and academics, highlighting scientific research and engineering innovations, get a chance to catch up with some old colleagues and meet new collaborators, and help promote STEM in the region.”
Ruscher and Miller also drew attention to the theme of the day in an introduction letter for the event: “As we mark our 51st symposium, we highlight the double meaning of LI – the Roman numeral for 51, and the atomic symbol for Lithium– to celebrate the advances in hybrid electric propulsion and the region’s investment in advanced air mobility.”
In alignment with this theme, the keynote speaker, Parker Vascik, director of Product Strategy at Electra, gave an engaging lecture on how advancements in mobility electrification have sparked a revolution in aircraft design that promises rapid innovation in the coming years for aircraft performance, efficiency, sustainability, and cost. Vascik’s lecture concluded with a Q&A session where he took specific care to interact with and listen to the students in attendance.
The symposium also included an exhibit space featuring booths from Parallax, DEWESoft, GE Aerospace, and AIAA HQ, among others.
As the day concluded, a student from Ohio who had presented stated, “This was my first time at this event and I’m so excited to come back next year. I really appreciated the thoughtful questions that were asked after I presented. And the food at the conference has been really good too.”
