Virtual Celebration for AME Senior Awards 2020.
The 2020 AME Senior Awards were held on Friday, May 1 via Zoom. Amidst a backdrop of virtual confetti and a stream of celebratory music, faculty, staff and students from the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering celebrated student excellence, focusing largely on achievements of students in AME 441, where students created innovative solutions to some of the most pressing engineering problems over the course of a single semester. Awards were presented by Matthew Gilpin, senior lecturer of aerospace and mechanical engineering and one of the instructors of AME 441.
Here are the winners:
Eyre Associates Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
This award, which recognizes an AME student who has demonstrated academic excellence throughout their undergraduate academic career, honors the Eyre Associates’ contributions over many years to the support and development of the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.
Jinkun Liu
Andrew Newsome
Tony Maxworthy Award for Analytic and Experimental Elegance
Professor Tony Maxworthy was a leading light in the Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering department from his arrival in 1967 to his passing in 2013. His research was always characterized by an elegance and incisiveness where any given experiment often proved to be the defining study of its time. This award is therefore given to the student work that most closely exemplifies this combination of experimental and analytical elegance for which “TMax” was famous.
Jinkun Liu, Jialing Tong and Xuehuo Zhang for their project “Developing a Low-cost Endoscopic PIV System”
The Laufer Prize for Outstanding Achievement
John Laufer established the Aerospace branch of USC’s AME Department in 1964 and served as chairman of the Department for 19 years. In his honor, the Department established the John Laufer Memorial Award to recognize the student or students with the most scientifically meritorious project in the Senior Experimental Projects Laboratory
Zachary Begland, Tristan Caparas, Brady Donahue and Ara Mahseredjian for their project “Flow Angularity Characterization of the Dryden Wind Tunnel”
The Bleeker Award for Superb Craftmanship
Al Bleeker was an enthusiastic, dedicated supporter of undergraduate experimental studies. The faculty, students and friends of the AME Department as a tribute to Al’s contributions established this award, for excellence and imagination in the design and construction of experiments during the senior year laboratory course.
John Dervartanian, Brandon Vo, Zongyang Xiang and Zhenjun Yan for their project “Prototyping and Testing of a Continual Feed Flying Shear”
AME Student Achievement Award for Outstanding Ingenuity and Performance
The Achievement Award is given to the students in the AME Senior projects laboratory who have shown outstanding ingenuity and performance in the design, construction, and testing of their senior project.
Sophia Fast, David Kim, Clayton Marceau and Andrew Rooney for their project “Fire Prevention System”
Timothy Bean, Noah K. Brown, Alexandra Bruce and Andrew Combs for their project “The Effect of Boundary Layer Manipulation on the Discharge Phase of Buoyancy Based Energy Storage Systems”
A. James Armstrong, Noah Brown, Samuel Monroe and Lucas McLeland for their project “Design and Manufacture of a 1U Wireless Cold Gas Propulsion Module for CubeSat Systems Integration and Environmental Test”
AME Senior Project Showcase “Best in Show”
Voted on by VSOE faculty and staff, and industry representatives during the annual AME Senior Projects Showcase.
Michael Allen, Boris Chan, Ashley Golla and Juliet Mills for their project “Adaptable Test Apparatus to Characterize Magnetorheological Suspension System Performance”
Published on May 9th, 2020
Last updated on May 12th, 2020
