Tue, 12/13/2016

Recently highlighted in the December issue of the AIAA Aerospace America 2016 Year in Review was work being done on the Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) or Pressure Gain Combustor (PGC) by Professors Mitsuru Kurosaka and Carl Knowlen and their students.

Tue, 11/22/2016 | Bloomberg

In an article on Peter Thiels's interest in nuclear fusion, Professor Tom Jarboe is quoted on the funding needs of making the energy source commercially viable.

Wed, 11/16/2016

UW engineering students Katherine Chun and Yoel Tekle discuss their student experiences and the impact donors make on their education.

Fri, 10/21/2016

A&A Professor and Chair Anthony Waas has just been named the recipient of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the American Society for Composites (ASC), James H. Starnes, Jr. Award for 2017. Professor Waas is receiving this award for his impactful contributions to experimental, analytical and computational aspects of composite structural mechanics, his commitment to mentoring the next generation, and his service to the field.

Fri, 10/21/2016 | UW Today

The University of Washington on Friday is launching the public phase of its most ambitious philanthropic campaign in history, with a goal of raising $5 billion by the year 2020. The campaign, called “Be Boundless — For Washington, For the World,” focuses on four key priorities: transforming the student experience, expanding the impact of the UW’s research, empowering possibility through innovation, and driving the public good. The earliest phases of the campaign began in 2010, and the UW has already received more than $3 billion toward its goal.

Fri, 10/21/2016

A&A Ph.D. candidate Michael Dodd and Professor Antonino Ferrante (principal investigator of the Computational Fluid Mechanicsgroup) are unraveling the complex physical mechanisms of droplet-turbulence interaction. The results of their research have been published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Dodd & Ferrante, Vol. 806, pp. 356-412, J. Fluid Mechanics (2016)) in an article titled, “On the interaction of Taylor length scale size droplets and isotropic turbulence.”

Tue, 10/11/2016

Professor Behçet Açıkmeşe won the 2016 Asian Journal of Control Best Paper Award. The paper, titled, “Markov Chain Approach to Probabilistic Guidance for Swarms of Autonomous Agents,” was co-authored with senior research scientist David Bayard of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Tue, 10/11/2016

The Masters of Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Composites concentration curriculum has recently been updated to include two Aerospace Composite Design classes.

Fri, 10/07/2016

In an effort to help make UAS more visible to aviation stakeholders, the Autonomous Flight Systems Laboratory launched a collaborative project with industry partners to test how UAS interact with manned aircraft.

Fri, 10/07/2016

Professor Anshu Narang-Siddarth is the new Chair Elect of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Technical Committee on Guidance, Navigation & Control.

Fri, 10/07/2016 | Sci-tech Today

AA Professor Adam Bruckner commented on the successful Blue Origin New Shepard rocket in-flight escape test.

Thu, 10/06/2016

This fall, Professors Dana Dabiri and Robert Yancey were both distinguished by their notable contributions to the aerospace community and honored with the title of AIAA Associate Technical Fellow. This is a distinction that only one out of 150 voting members earn through peer nomination and a rigorous selection and approval process each year.

Wed, 10/05/2016 | Seattle Times

A&A Alumnus Robert Hoyt's Tethers Unlimited has secured a contract to prepare an Earth orbit test of its technology for robotic, in-space manufacturing of satellite components.

Fri, 09/30/2016 | Inverse

Professor Adam Bruckner comments on the scientific feasibility of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Improbability Drive and Rick and Morty's Portal Guns.

Fri, 09/30/2016 | Seattle Times

BlackSky, a company owned by A&A Alum Jason Andrews (1994), has launched its first satellite in a planned 60 satellite constellation designed to allow anyone to order low-cost, custom satellite photos.

Wed, 09/28/2016

Chair Tony Waas will be moderating the panel discussion on Additive Manufacturing at the Washington Aerospace Futures Alliance 11th Annual Governor’s Aerospace Summit.

Wed, 09/21/2016 | UW Today

Boeing announced Wednesday it is awarding $6 million in grants to more than 50 nonprofit organizations and education institutions across Washington, including $500,000 to the University of Washington. The grants are geared toward programs that enhance STEM, workforce training, and educational and career pathway opportunities for students.

Wed, 09/21/2016

In 2016, Prof. James C. Hermanson was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to collaborate with the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen in Germany (ZARM). Each summer, Hermanson travels to Germany to work in concert with the Combustion Technology group headed by Christian Eigenbrod on a new DLR-funded project to study the combustion of single oxygen droplets in a hydrogen environment. 

Fri, 09/09/2016

On Aug. 26, Rachel Peterson from Senator Patty Murray’s office visited campus to tour the UW A&A labs and receive an update on current research relevant to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water.

Thu, 09/01/2016

Summer on the campus of the University of Washington has a relaxed feel. On sunny days, Mt. Rainier is visible from Rainier Vista where people picnic, throw Frisbees or stop to take photos of the view. In the center of campus, Drumheller Fountain sends cascades of water into Frosh Pond, splashing the resident ducks amidst the blooming roses. The William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics looks on; quiet on the outside but inside the air simmers with excitement and creative energy.

Mon, 08/22/2016 | Washington UAS

Dr. Chris Lum from the University of Washington William E. Boeing department of Aeronautics & Astronautics will be joining a panel with Dr. Lav R. Khot from Washington State University at 2016 UAS Agricultural and Academic Conference to discuss the latest UAS trends in agriculture. The panel will explore various ways UAS technology is being used currently and explore future opportunities for technology adoption and employment in the agriculture industry. This conference is hosted by the Washington State Unmanned Aviation Technology Coalition in Sunnyside WA on Thursday September 15, 2016. Agenda and registration are posted online.

Tue, 08/02/2016 | GeekWire

Congratulations to A&A alumnus Rob Hoyt (PhD ‘94), co-founder, CEO and chief scientist of Tethers Unlimited, on receiving a $2.2M contract in a public-private partnership with NASA and Millennium Space Systems to deliver miniaturized water-fueled HYDROS™ thrusters for CubeSats and other small satellite missions.

Tethers Unlimited Inc Facebook

Mon, 07/11/2016

The inaugural Additive Manufacturing (AM) for Aerospace course was completed in spring quarter 2016 as part of the evening Masters of Aerospace Engineering (MAE) program. Additive manufacturing - which includes "3D printing" - is a manufacturing process that uses computer models to create 3D objects by building up layer upon layer of material. This approach can produce complex structures and material properties previously unattainable by traditional manufacturing methods.

This year, the Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace class provided an overview of design, manufacturing, inspection, qualification, and certification considerations that one must consider in when selecting from a broad spectrum of available AM methods. Each student was given the opportunity to design and print a 3D object, which provided first-hand view of the design and manufacturing process start-to-finish.

The class was taught by Dr. Robert Yancey, the Vice President for Additive Manufacturing at Altair Engineering and Affiliate Professor at UW, with assistance from A&A research engineers Fiona Spencer and Eliot George. This class was also supported by Dr. Royan D’Mello, a postdoctoral fellow working with A&A Professor and Chair Anthony Waas. Interest in the Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace course has exceeded expectations and the department is hoping to make it a regular offering in the MAE program.

Fri, 07/08/2016

Congratulations to UW A&A doctoral student Gustavo Eidji Camarinha Fujiwara for winning the AIAA AVIATION 2016 - Best Student Paper Award! AVIATION 2016 is a national conference organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the world's largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession. A panel of judges selected Gustavo for his outstanding paper and presentation in the Atmospheric and Space Environments session in Washington, DC the week of June 13-17, 2016. His paper titled "Computational and Experimental Ice Accretions of Large Swept Wings in the Icing Research Tunnel" contributes to improving aviation safety through better understanding of the field of Aerodynamics and Aircraft Icing. Advised by Dr. Michael Bragg, Dean of the UW College of Engineering and Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Gustavo is researching multidisciplinary methods to improve aircraft design and make them more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. This research was funded by NASA and the FAA in collaboration with Boeing and ONERA.

Read his paper. | Visit the AIAA Conference Website.

Fri, 06/03/2016

Our students made an unprecedented clean sweep of the awards in both the Undergraduate and Masters’ categories at the 2016 AIAA Region VI Student Conference at Oregon State University in April. The winners are:

Undergraduate:

• 1st:   Mia Lee – "Tunable Bistability of Origami-based Mechanical Metamaterials" (Advisor: Prof. Yang, Mentor: Hiromi Yasuda)
• 2nd:  Zhisong Chen – "Leaf-out Origami with Multi-Configuration Stability" (Advisor: Prof. Yang, Mentor: Hiromi Yasuda) 
• 3rd:   Lucas Heflin  – "Baffled Tube Ram Accelerator Structural Design" (Advisor: Prof.Knowlen)

Masters:

• 1st:   Jake Boening  – "Design and Experimental Investigation of a Continuously Rotating Detonation Engine Initiated by Azimuthally Sequential Sparking" (Advisors: Profs. Knowlen and Kurosaka)
• 2nd:  Navid Daneshvaran  – "Transient Computational Fuid Dynamic Modeling of Baffled Tube Ram Accelerator in Eulerian Frame of Reference" (Advisor: Prof. Knowlen)
• 3rd:   Wei-Siang Lay – "Design of a Rail Gun System for Mitigating Disruptions in Fusion Reactors" (Advisor: Dr. Raman)

Also presenting papers were: Kendall Dale in the Undergraduate Category, Richard Grist and Jeff Glusman in the Graduate Category, and Ryan Fowler in the Team Category. 

Congratulations to all of these outstanding students!