Twenty-four students and faculty were honored for their accomplishments in aeronautics and astronautics over the past year at the department's Senior Recognition Dinner on May 11 at the Cambridge Royal Sonesta Hotel.
The student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) presented the department's undergraduate teaching award to Professor Earll Murman. Professor S. Mark Spearing received the chapter's departmental advising award. The late Professor M�rten Landahl was posthumously awarded the Sigma Gamma Tau Society departmental graduate teaching award.
The Yngve Raustein Award established in 1993 by the family and friends of the late Mr. Raustein was presented to Yassir Azziz, a sophomore from Casablanca, Morocco, whose intellectual curiosity, positive attitude and dedication exemplify the spirit that Yngve Raustein brought to Unified Engineering.
The David Shapiro Memorial Award was given to Carolina Tortora, a junior from Englewood Cliffs, NJ, to pursue summer research on microgravity investigation and crew reactions in zero-G at the Politecnico di Milano in Italy; Marc E. Carreno, a senior from Tulsa, OK, to support travel and research at several European universities and aerospace companies to determine how the next wave of engineers is being prepared.
A team of six juniors -- Allen Chen of Newton, MA; Mark Kepets of Flushing, NY; Jacob Markish of Chelmsford, MA; Sumita Pennathur of Foxborough, MA; Ryan Peoples of Medford, NJ; and Charles Toye of Longmeadow, MA -- also won the Shapiro award to design, build and fly a high-speed electric model aircraft in the 1999-2000 AIAA/Cessna/ONR Student Competition.
The James Means Memorial Award for Excellence in Flight Vehicle Engineering was presented to Elizabeth M. Walker, a senior from Sherborn, MA, for design of the avionics and controls system of a next generation general aviation jet aircraft.
The James Means Memorial Award for Excellence in Space Systems Engineering was presented to twin brothers, seniors Adam J. Matuszeski and Thaddeus B. Matuszeski of Washington, DC, for significant contributions, initiative and leadership in the development of the space systems design project -- Mission Mirage: A Technology Demonstrator for Extracting Lunar Ice.
The Pratt and Whitney Prize was presented to seniors Kari A. Bingen of Portland, OR and Tyra E. Rivkin of Hoffman Estates, IL for their outstanding achievement in the design, construction, execution and reporting of an undergraduate experimental project to characterize the wake field of an alpine ski boot and make modifications for drag reduction.
The Admiral Luis de Florez Award for Original Thinking or Ingenuity was presented to seniors Man-Fuk Koo of Kowloon, Hong Kong and Jeffrey G. Reichbach of Valley Stream, NY, for outstanding ingenuity in designing, constructing and testing a single-needle colloidal thruster prototype; and to Christopher E. Carr, a senior from Seattle, for his leadership and contributions to the NIMBLE (NonInvasive Microgravity Biomedical Life Sciences) experiment which flew successfully on the NASA KC-135A "Weightless Wonder" research aircraft in March 1999.
The Leaders for Manufacturing Undergraduate Prize was awarded to seniors Benjamin D. Boehm of Valrico, FL and Stephanie J. Thomas of Lawrenceville, NJ for taking the initiative to solve significant manufacturing challenges associated with adhesively joining piezoceramics in order to investigate the piezo-induced fatigue of such joints.
The Apollo Program Prize, established in 1995 in honor of the Apollo Program chair endowment, was presented to Tyra E. Rivkin for her leadership in developing and flying PREVIEW, a peripheral vision micrograv-ity biomedical experiment, successfully flown at NASA's Johnson Space Center on board the "Weightless Wonder" (see story).
The Henry Webb Salisbury Award, established by the family and friends of Henry Salisbury, went to seniors KeithAmonlirdviman of Chicago and Stephanie J. Thomas for outstanding work in the completion of the aero/astro undergraduate degree program.
Terran K. Melconian, a junior from Reading, MA, is the 1998-99 recipient of the General James H. Doolittle Memorial Scholarship.
A version of this article appeared in the June 2, 1999 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 43, Number 32).
