MIT Aeronautics and
Astronautics Department
enews Vol 5, #2
November 2008
In this issue:
- Welcome
- Awards and Recognition
- WIRED features Steiner
- Willcox will Co-Direct New Center
- Leveson to be Subject of Book Chapter
- Hoffman Teaching Astronaut Course
- Four MIT-ers on ISS
1. WELCOME
Welcome to Melanie Carr, new administrative assistant to Professors
Martinez-Sanchez, Radovitzky, and Lozano. Melanie has previously
temped with the department. She is located in 37-367 at extension
8-7390.
After many years of exemplary service to the department, Peggy Edwards
is settling into her new position as administrative assistant to
Associate Provost for Faculty Equity /Charles Stark Draper Professor
of Aeronautics and Astronautics Wes Harris.
Welcome to Luca Bertuccelli and Han-Lim Choi, postdoctoral associates
with Professor Jon How; and Christoph Wollersheim, postdoctoral fellow
with Professor Ian Waitz.
2. AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
The US Air Force has announced that Professor Paulo Lozano will
receive a grant through its Young Investigator Research Program to
research fully scalable porous metal electrospray propulsion. The
program "fosters creative basic research in science and engineering,
enhances early career development of outstanding young investigators,
and increases opportunities for the young investigators to recognize
the Air Force mission and the related challenges in science and engineering." Competition
for the awards is intense. You can read more about Paulo's research
at http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/news/magazine/aeroastro5/lozano.html
An MIT student team has won the Pacific International Space Center
for Exploration Systems annual design competition, which focuses
on developing an outpost on the moon. Team members are Arthur Guest,
Phillip Cunio, Wilfried Hofstetter, and Seung
Bum Hong. Their advisor is Professor Jeffrey Hoffman. The team addressed
surface operations of a moon base, including a
specialized canister for transporting food and other consumable supplies
to the lunar surface, as well as robots to serve as astronauts' assistants
in their exploration of the moon’s surface.
Aero-Astro grad student Julie Shah has received the student best
paper prize at the International Conference on Automated Planning
and Scheduling (Sydney, Australia) for her work on mixed human/robot
task coordination. The title of the paper is "Fast Dynamic Scheduling
of Disjunctive Temporal Constraint Networks through Incremental Compilation." Professor
Brian Williams refers to Julie as "an outstanding student."
Former Aero-Astro lecturer Col. Pete Young, who was long active
in AIAA student-related activities, writes to let us know that three
Aero-Astro students have been awarded AIAA undergrad scholarships.
The E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Scholarship is awarded to Ryan
McLinko, the Dr. James Rankin Digital Avionics Scholarship to Christopher
Han, and the Digitial Avionic Technical Activities Committee award
to Eric Dow. The AIAA Foundation undergraduate scholarship program
annually awards 30 scholarships of $2000 – $2,500 to college
sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
3. WIRED FEATURES STEINER
An article posted on the Wired Science Web site features Aero-Astro
grad student Stephen Steiner and his work on next-generation nanomaterials
in Professor Brian Wardle's MIT Nano-Engineered Composite aerospace
STructures lab. Among his accomplishments mentioned are a software
program Stephen wrote that automates a nanotube furnace using natural
English syntax and fuzzy logic. There's also an embedded YouTube
video, shot in the lab, from a BBC documentary. Visit http://tinyurl.com/62lqaq
4. WILLCOX WILL CO-DIRECT NEW CENTER
School of Engineering Dean Subra Suresh has said he is "delighted" that
Aero-Astro Professor Karen Willcox will co-direct (along with Professor
Tony Patera of Mechanical Engineering) the new Center for Computational
Engineering. The center will create expanded educational and research
activities and opportunities for faculty and students within SoE
and beyond in the broad area of computational engineering.
5. LEVESON TO BE SUBJECT OF BOOK CHAPTER
Professor Nancy Leveson will be the subject of a chapter in the
upcoming book "Extreme Computing: Outrageous Technology for
Extraordinary Science." According to the publisher, the book
will "discuss the work of seminal thinkers in computer science."
6. HOFFMAN TEACHING ASTRONAUT COURSE
Astronaut/AA Professor Jeff Hoffman is in England teaching a
new course at the University of Leicester on how to be an astronaut.
According to an article in The Guardian, Jeff is offering instruction
in space survival, psychological demands of long-term space travel
and "how to conduct a spacewalk without dropping your toolbag." Read
more at http://tinyurl.com/6o6d55
7. FOUR MIT-ERS ON ISS
For the first time, there are four MIT alums in space. Aero-Astro
alums Mike Fincke and Greg Chamitoff, who recently held a videoconference
with our students, have been joined Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper
and Steve Bowen. Check out a photo of the four decked out in MIT
regalia aboard the ISS at http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/img/home/spotlightphotolrg.jpg.
For a list of all former and current MIT alum astronauts, visit http://tinyurl.com/5c5oa3
If you know of events, honors, activities, or other information
you'd like to see in the next issue of Aero-Astro enews, please send
to wlitant@mit.edu - we'd be
pleased to include it!
