Morcos Recognized with Graduate School Outstanding GA Award

Department of Aerospace Engineering graduate student Michael Morcos was recognized with a University of Maryland Graduate School Outstanding Graduate Assistant (GA) Award for the 2023-2024 school year.

Morcos is currently pursuing his M.S./Ph.D. and works as a graduate assistant in Assistant Professor Umberto Saetti’s Extended Reality (XR) Flight Simulation and Control Laboratory—part of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center—where he supports work on the augmentation of pilot perception via secondary sensory cues like haptic and auditory feedback that are not typically leveraged by pilots.

“Being a GA opened my mind in coming up with new solutions that no one has worked on before, but at the same time, are incremental advancements of the state-of-the-art, informed by prior research studies and academic coursework,” said Morcos.

Looking ahead, Morcos aims to find a team of equally passionate people in the field where he can continue developing this new cutting-edge technology in real-life applications, increasing flight safety by alleviating spatial disorientation.

"Michael has not only made incredible contributions to the implementation and demonstration of our research in the XR Flight Simulation and Control lab—research that will support future flight safety improvements—but beyond the research, he has also helped obtain additional funding for our research," said Saetti.

Morcos completed his B.S. in aerospace engineering at Cairo University.

Over 4,000 UMD graduate students support the campus as administrative, research, or teaching assistants. The Graduate School established this award to recognize and honor the outstanding contributions graduate assistants provide to students, faculty, departments, and the University as a whole. The award conveys the honor of being recognized as among the top 2% of campus graduate assistants in a given year.

Published January 30, 2024