COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M aerospace engineering students have placed first in the 2008 Region IV American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Student Technical Paper Conference, advancing to the international competition in Orlando, Fla., in January 2009.

Three additional Texas A&M student papers placed 2nd and 3rd in their respective competition categories.

The 2008 AIAA regional paper competition was held April 18-19 and hosted by the University of Arkansas Student Branch and the Houston Section. Attending were 65 students and faculty advisers from University of Arkansas, University of New Mexico, Louisiana State University, Rice University, University of Texas-Arlington, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University.

In the Freshman/Sophomore History Category, Texas A&M's Grant Atkinson won first place with his paper, "Gemini Applications: The Promise of the Gusmobile." Atkinson's adviser is Dr. John Valasek.

In the Team Design Division, first place team went to the Aggie team of Kristen Holmstrom, Amy Bolon, Jane Nguyen, Roy Palacios, Albert Soto and Brock Spratlen, for their paper, "Cooperative Transportation of a Flexible Object Towards Construction of a Martian Habitat." The team's advisers were Dr. John E. Hurtado, Magda Lagoudas and Lesley Weitz.

In the Undergraduate Technical Division, Alex Bayeh won first place for his paper, "Analysis of Mach Disks From an Underexpanded Nozzle Using Experimental and Computational Methods." Bayeh's adviser is Dr. Adonios Karpetis. Third place in the same category went to Texas A&M's Clark Moody for his paper, "Neural Network Approximation of Doublet Panel Analysis Code," with faculty adviser Dr. John Valasek.

In the Graduate Technical Division, Kenton Kirkpatrick placed first with the paper, "Reinforcement Learning for Active Length Control of Shape Memory Alloys," with adviser Dr. John Valasek. Second place went to Shane Schouten for "Flight-Test Measurement of the Canard Wake on a Velocity XL-5 RG," with faculty adviser Dr. William Saric. Third place went to Shalom Johnson for "Rotating Stall Suppression Test Rig Using Oscillatory Blowing Actuation on Blades." Johnson's advisers are Dr. Othon Rediniotis and Dr. Paul Cizmas.

For more information, contact

Source: Dr. John Valasek
valasek@tamu.edu

Reporter: Lesley Kriewald
lesleyk@tamu.edu
(979) 845-5524

News Story 1831, April 24, 2008

Direct page link:
http://engineeringnews.tamu.edu/news/1831

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