On 29 April-1 May, the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) held its annual External Advisory Board (EAB) meeting and review. The program for this event included overviews for ASDL’s seven divisions and its Experimental Testing Group and presentations and demonstrations of ASDL graduate student “Grand Challenge” projects. The event featured 48 Grand Challenges—24 focused on system of systems (SoS) topics and 24 focused on vehicle design topics. The external audience was composed of ASDL External Advisory Board members and sponsors, with representatives from government organizations, FFRDCs, and companies.

“The ASDL Grand Challenge program is a core component of the ASDL academic program and serves as an important means of teaching and training our first-year students,” explained ASDL Director and Distinguished Regents Professor Dimitri Mavris. In the Grand Challenges, student teams are given broad, open-ended problems to address over the course of two semesters. “We are grateful to our sponsors for supporting these projects and giving the student teams interesting, real-world topics ranging from Transportation Infrastructure & Sustainability and Environmental Concerns to Lunar Operations & Infrastructure and Defense & National Security Considerations,” continued Mavris.

The event included a poster session/reception where students presented the project poster to board members and sponsors. There was also a feedback session during which the sponsors provided constructive comments to the students about their work as well as advice on how to use the critical system thinking skills they learned through the course of the projects.

Dr. Daniel P. Schrage Award for Excellence

Recognizes the best Grand Challenge teams in both the SoS and Vehicle Design categories

System of Systems Winner

Global Aerospace Materials Board for Inventory Tracking (GAMBIT)

Team members:

• Miral Alabady
• Harsha Antony
• Julian Babel
• Salma Benhissoune

Technical advisors:

• Neil Weston
• Zhimin Liu

Vehicle Design Winner

Synchronized ASAP-FOQA Event Linkage (SAFELINK)

Team members:

• Jayla Lett
• Naomi Michael
• Nicholas Marco
• Lily Johnson

Technical advisors:

• Jirat Bhanpato
• Raphael Gautier
• Michelle Kirby
• Ameya Behere
• Chetan Chandra
• Xiao Jing
• Kshitij Sawant
• Noe Lepez Da Silva Duarte
• Timilehin Oderinde

Spirit of ASDL Innovation Award

Recognizes the System of Systems and Vehicle Design Grand Challenge teams that embrace and exemplify ASDL’s drive to develop and implement new ideas and approaches

Generalized Residue-to-Energy Evaluation Network & Techno Economic Analysis (GREEN TEA)

Team members:

• Ainsley Marshall
• Jonathan Martin
• Nishka Mirkhelkar
• Triasha Sarkar

Technical advisors:

• Chrysoula Lydia Pastra
• Barbara Sampaio Felix
• Evanthia Kallou
• Shraddha Sheshadri
• Pete Madden (U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities)

Transparent Reasoning for Aircraft Condition Knowledge (TRACK)

Team members:

• Ethan Traub
• Paula Ibelings
• Anika Chawla
• Agisilaos Chatzetoglou
• Konstantinos Dimitriadis
• David Perez Amezcua

Technical advisors:

• Woong Je Sung
• Elena Garcia
• Aaron Rubel
• Madhav Desetty

ASDL Atlas Prize

Recognizes the team that accepts the challenge of an exceptional problem and rises to the occasion

Modular Architecture for Next-Generation ACE Operations (MANGO)

Team members:

• Ryan Calzone
• Kevin Lau
• Braegan Zimmerman
• Nicholas Marco

Technical advisors:

• Jimmy Tai

 

Tradeoff Analysis for Next-Generation Aircraft Optimization(TANGO)

Team members:

• Kevin Maranto
• Sterling Price
• Ethan Stroup
• Nicolas Pielczyk
• Ariadne Papamichou

Technical advisors:

• Jimmy Tai
• Brennan Stewart
• John Nairus (AFRL)
• Soumya Patnaik (AFRL)
• Greg Reich (AFRL)