Adam Del Colliano Wins Regional AIAA Best Aircraft Operations Paper

Department of Aerospace Engineering graduating senior Adam Del Colliano (’22) won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Aircraft Operations Technical Committee Best Aircraft Operations Paper at the AIAA 2022 Region I Student Conference with his paper, “IR Detection System for Application in Wildfire Suppression.”

“This paper outlined my research using a thermal imaging camera and a LiDAR sensor to track statistics of a wildfire, specifically of the fire’s front, to help more efficiently fight the fire and protect the lives of firefighters,” explained Del Colliano.

Del Colliano is heading to SURVICE Engineering later this summer to begin work as a robotics engineer.

AIAA holds conferences in each region for university student members at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This is the first year since the program’s inception that High School Members were invited to present. The student conferences are a way for students to present their research and be judged on technical content and presentation skills by AIAA members working in the aerospace industry. Lockheed Martin was the generous sponsor of these conferences.

More than 170 papers were presented this year by university and high school students across all six regions, with over 500 students and professionals in attendance.

The first-place university student winners in each undergraduate, graduate, and team categories (listed below) are invited to attend and present their papers at the AIAA International Student Conference, to be held in conjunction with the 2023 AIAA SciTech Forum in National Harbor, Md., 23-27 January.

Published June 7, 2022