News Story
Shrestha and DeVries Win 2014 Graduate Student Research Awards Competition
Aerospace engineering students Elena Shrestha and Levi DeVries are the winners of the Department of Aerospace Engineering’s 2014 Graduate Student Research Awards Competition. Shrestha and DeVries won the M.S. and Ph.D. categories respectively, and they were selected out of the field of 9 competitors. Both Shrestha and DeVries will proceed to the college-level competition that will be held Saturday, May 17.
Elena Shrestha
Advisor: Inderjit Chopra
Paper: “Development of a 100-gram Micro-Cyclocopter Capable of Autonomous Hover”
Summary: Research focus is on the design, development and hover testing of a cycloidal-rotor aircraft.
Levi DeVries
Advisor: Derek Paley
Paper: “Observability-based Optimization for Flow Sensing and Control of an Underwater Vehicle in a Uniform Flowfield”
Summary: Research is focused on how an underwater vehicle can control its motion by sensing the surrounding flowfield and use sensor measurements in a dynamic feedback controller.
The graduate research winners were announced at the Alfred R. Gessow Memorial Lecture held April 30th. The awards were presented by Alfred Gessow Professor Inderjit Chopra, Department Chair and Minta Martin Professor of Aerospace Engineering Norman Wereley and guest lecturer Dr. William D. Lewis, the Director for Aviation Development at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center in Redstone Arsenal, AL.
The decision for each category was unanimous, and faculty judges included Associate Professor Sean Humbert, Associate Professor Robert Sanner, Professor Allison Flatau, Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sung Lee, Associate Professor James Baeder, Associate Professor Ray Sedwick and Associate Professor Kenneth Yu.
Photos from the event can be viewed on the department's Facebook page.
Published May 8, 2014