MAY 2009

In this issue:
1. HONORS AND RECOGNITION
2. PROMOTIONS
3. QUOTED
4. KIDS' ASTRONOMY PROGRAM SEEKS VOLUNTEERS
6. LENS ON 16.64
7. GIANT LEAPS FEATURES LUMINARIES FROM PAST, PRESENT
8. "FLYING CAR" COMING TO CAMPUS MAY 15
9. CALENDAR YOUR EVENT

1. Honors and recognition

AeroAstro staff and a student group were honored with special recognition at the April 22 annual department awards lunch. Administrative assistant Mark Prendergast was presented the Wings Award in recognition of his support of AeroAstro students, staff, and faculty; especially the Lean Advancement Initiative, Nano-Engineered Composite aerospace Structures Consortium, and the Technology Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Structures. The AeroAstro Spirit of XVI Team Award was presented to Robin Palazzolo and Sue Whitehead for their handling a myriad of tasks, from scheduling to promotion cases, from faculty search to event planning, and "virtually anything else that occurs in the AeroAstro department," while maintaining a terrific sense of caring, good humor, dedication, and individual attention to all. The Spirit of XVI Individual Award went to Paul Bauer for shaping the education of countless AeroAstro students over the years through hands-on research and design experiences. The Vicki Kerrebrock award was given to the the Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics for its influence on the department through leadership on issues impacting graduate students, involvement in the recruiting of new students, and sponsorship of numerous activities that strengthen our community. Congratulations to all. For descriptions of the awards and more on the AeroAstro Awards and Recognition Program, visit the department Web site awards page.

Professors Ian Waitz and Dave Darmofal present GA^3 officers with the department's annual Vicki Kerrebrock Award.

Two AeroAstro student were honored at this month's 2009 Institute Award Convocation. Senior Jeremy McGee, received the Albert G. Hill Prize, which is awarded to the minority undergraduate junior or senior student who has maintained high academic standards and made continued contributions to the improvement of the quality of life for minorities at MIT. Ph.D. candidate Alejandra Uranga received the Graduate Student Council Teaching Award for the School of Engineering, which is given each year to one professor or teaching assistant from each school for excellence in teaching a graduate level course. Alejandra works with Professor Jaume Peraire and  
is a TA in the CDO program.

Professor Wesley Harris was named to three year term as a member of the Universities Space Research Association Board of Trustees. USRA focuses on space-related technical competencies with the goal of expanding knowledge and developing technology for the benefit of the academic community, space-related industries, and NASA's mission to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research."

Space Systems Lab manager SharonLeah Brown and Man Vehicle Lab Administrative Assistant Liz Zotos were inducted into the MIT Quarter Century Club on April 16 in recognition of their 25 years of service to the institute. At the same gathering, Professor Larry Young was inducted for a second time, having just completed his 50th year!

President Susan Hockfield (second from left) poses with (from left) SharonLeah Brown, Liz Zotos, and Larry Young. Brown, Zotos, and Young represent 100 years of service at MIT.

AeroAstro Class of '09ers David Sanchez, Ashley Micks, and Jonathan Lounsbury are among the students who have been invited to join the Xi Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in recognition of their excellent academic records. They will be initiated in a ceremony on June 4.

Professor Zoltan Spakovszky has been named a recipient of MIT's Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching. The award, which acknowledges the tradition of high quality engineering education at MIT, honors junior faculty members who have balanced their research agenda with excellent, enthusiastic, and creative teaching.

Fiscal Officer Ping Lee, Student Coordinator Beth Marois, and Space Systems Lab Associate Director Alvar Saenz-Otero were presented School of Engineering Infinite Mile Awards at an April 29 ceremony. Beth received the IMA Award for Excellence, Ping received the Ellen J. Mandigo Award for Outstanding Service, and Alvar was presented the IMA for Diversity and Community. - more -

Alvar Saenz-Otero, Beth Marois (center), and Ping Lee were presented with School of Engineering's Infinite Mile Awards at an April 29 ceremony

And, finally, a very special congratulations to all award and prize recepients feted at the May 11 AeroAstro Senior Recognition Dinner:

• Andrew Morsa Prize: Fuzhou Hu, Matthew Peddie, Piotr Fidkowski
• Yvnge Raustein Award: Katie Gordon
• Apollo Award: Ryan McLinko
• David J. Shapiro Award: Bruno Alvisio, Danielle DeLatte, Raqeebul Ketan, Jake Lowenthal, Natasha Bosanac, Eli Cohen. Also Shapiro grant to Ramon L. Torres
• Leaders for Manufacturing Prize: Jillian James, Ashley Micks, Rodrigo Zeledon
• Lockheed Martin Prize for Excellence in Systems Engineering: Stephanie Couch, Frances Gonzalez, Caroline Lowenthal, Ryan McLinko, Tina Srivastava
• United Technologies Corp. Prize: Alexander Pina, Gregory Wellman, Ryan Daspit, Eric Munoz
• Admiral Luis De Florez Prize: Louis Perna, Bruce Vest, Jesse Carr, Anton de Winter, Erich Mueller
• James Means Award for Excellence in Space Systems Engineering: Emily Grosse
• James Means Award for Excellence in Flight Vehicle Engineering: Joseph Pokora, Constantine Speridakos
• Henry Webb Salisbury Award: David Sanchez
• Rene H. Miller Prize in Systems Engineering: Wilfried Hofstetter
• AeroAstro Teaching Assistantship Award: Brad Holschuh
• IAA Undergraduate Advising Award: Professor Sheila Widnall
• The AIAA Undergraduate Teaching Award: Professor Steve Hall

Emilio Frazzoli

2. Promotions

The MIT Corporation Executive Committee has approved the promotion of Professor Emilio Frazzoli to the rank of Associate Professor With Tenure. In making this announcement to the department, department head Professor Ian Waitz said, "Emilio has demonstrated a unique ability to integrate ideas and methods from the areas of control theory, estimation and signal processing, computer science, networking and information theory, and operations research. He is also a thoughtful, caring educator, a superb mentor, and a wonderful colleague."

Dr. James Hileman has been named Associate Director of the Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction, an aviation environmental research collaboration headquartered in AeroAstro. Along with this position within PARTNER, Jim has been promoted to an AeroAstro Principal Research Engineer. Jim is an expert in aeroacoustics, low-noise aircraft design, alternative fuels for aviation, and assessing aviation environmental impacts.

Missy Cummings

3. Quoted

Professor Missy Cummings was featured in the article, "MIT Professor: No Need for Traditional Pilots to Fly USAF UAV Fleet" appearing in the April 3 issue of "Inside the Air Force." Referring to Missy as "a leading researcher in the field of unmanned aerial systems control stations," the newsletter said she "is calling for the pilot-centric Air Force to eliminate traditional, rated pilots from unmanned aerial systems and instead develop a specialized career field of UAS operators." She was quoted saying, “You just don’t need [traditional] pilots anymore, that’s the bottom line. You don’t need someone with stick and rudder skills; you need someone with point and click [analytical] skills."

4. Kids' astronomy program seeks volunteers

The MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics invites AeroAstro grad students, undergrads, and postdocs to be a part of its middle school astronomy after-school program. "We're expanding the program, and we've had great response from AeroAstro in the past," says Kavli's Education and Public Outreach Specialist Mark Hartman. Hartman says he would be pleased to attend meetings of grad students, undergrads, and/or postdocs and give a five-minute overview of this opportunity. Contact Mark for more information at mhartman@space.mit.edu

6. Lens on 16.64

Professor John Hansman has shared some photos of students in his 16.64 Flight Measurement Lab class.

At Sterling Airport, Lindley Graham, Jesse Car and Ryan Luersen place tufts on a sailplane wing to investigate flow separation and stall spine behavior.	Sophomore Danielle DeLatte prepares for a hover test in a Robinson R-44 at Hanscom Field in Bedford.

7. Giant Leaps to feature luminaries from past, present

Activities for the June 10-12 Giant Leaps celebration of the Apollo Program and the moon landing 40th anniversary continue to take shape. Speakers have been confirmed for the June 11 Symposium and include Apollo astronaut Jack Schmitt, Apollo flight ops director Chris Kraft, Kennedy counsel and speechwriter Ted Sorenson, Obama's science advisor John Hodren, and many other luminaries representing the past, present, and future of aviation, space, energy, environment, and technology. For a complete Symposium agenda and info on other Giant Leaps activities, visit http://apollo40.mit.edu. And, if you haven't done so, register for Giant Leaps today!

The "flying car" Transition

8. "Flying car" coming to campus May 15

Most in the department have read about AeroAstro alums Anna Mracek Dietrich, Carl Dietrich, and Sam Schweighart's roadable airplane Transition, which recently made its first flight. Now is your chance to see the unique vehicle right here on campus. Anna writes, "It's hard to believe that it's been three years since (we) were in grad school in the department and runners-up in the MIT $100k competition. Back then, Terrafugia, our roadable aircraft company, was just a business plan, but here we are! To help celebrate a new years' worth of winners, we're bringing the Transition Proof of Concept to the $100k Awards Reception on Kresge Oval, Wednesday 5/13 after work. The official showcase starts at 6pm, but we should be there and set up by 5pm. See http://www.mit100k.org/ for more information on the event. We don't get into Cambridge as much as we'd like, so we'd all really enjoy it if you had a moment to come by and say hello while we're there!"

9. Calendar your event

Whenever your lab, group, class, or organization is planning an event, consider posting it to the AeroAstro calendar and, if appropriate, Institute online events calendars. In fact, every time you send a posting to aaevents@mit.edu, why not post it on the AeroAstro calendar, too? A neat feature of the AeroAstro online calendar is that events posted there will automatically be posted to the Institute calendar as well, unless you choose otherwise. And, if you spot a calendar event you want to remember, a beta feature adds the event to TechTime Desktop Client, Microsoft Outlook, Macintosh iCal, or Evolution calendars with a single click.

AeroAstro people authenticated to post to the calendars are Paul Bauer, Sharonleah Brown, Sally Chapman, Phyllis Collymore, the GA^3 executive committee, Julie Finn, Kathyrn Fischer, Lauren Gallant, Marilyn Good, Ed Greitzer, Helen Halaris, John Keesee, Ping Lee, Jennie Leith, Beth Marois, Palazzolo, Raji Patel, Mark Prendergast, Juliet Perdichizzi, Jean Sofronas, Marie Stuppard, and Liz Zotos.

If you would like to be authenticated to post, or you need directions about how to post, contact Bill Litant.

If you know of events, honors, activities, or other information you'd like to see in the next issue of AeroAstro enews, please send to wlitant@mit.edu — we'd be pleased to include your submissions.

© 2009 MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. All rights reserved.