Students Shine at AIAA Region 1 Student Conference

At the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region 1 Student Conference—held April 13 and 14 at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York—more than half of the papers (37 of 66) that were presented were from students at the University of Maryland (UMD). Twelve students won awards for their papers, and seven were from UMD.

These students include:

Skylar Trythall: second place in the undergraduate division for his paper, “Laser Ablation Plume Impingement onto Spacecraft Materials.” Professor Ray Sedwick is Trythall’s faculty advisor.

William V. Whitmore: third place in the undergraduate division for his paper, “Tracking of Neutrally Buoyant Helium Bubbles in Low- Speed Flow with Motion Capture Cameras.” Professor Jewel Barlow is Whitmore’s faculty advisor.

Saimouli Katragadda and Benedict A. Mondal: first place in the undergraduate team division for their paper, “Stereoscopic Mixed Reality in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Search and Rescue.” Dr. Anil Deane is the faculty advisor.

Blaire Weinberg, Juliette Abbonizio, and Joseph Breeden: third place in the undergraduate team division for their paper, “Engineering of a Tribocharging Regolith Simulant Experiment.” Professor Christine Hartzell and Professor Mary Bowden are the faculty advisors.

AIAA sponsors student conferences in each AIAA Region for student members at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The conference is open to anyone interested in aerospace related fields. Students from regional schools are invited to submit papers and give formal presentations that are judged for technical content and communication skills. Monetary prizes are awarded to the top three winners in each category.

Published April 26, 2018