Transcript

May 1, 2017

Branch Activity Report

Student Branch Name: University of Connecticut

Region (I,II,III,IV,V,VI): I Section: Connecticut

Social Media Presence (Facebook, Website, Twitter, etc.)

https://www.facebook.com/UConnAIAA/

Department (Aerospace, Mechanical, Computer, Electrical, etc.)_Mechanical Engineering

2016-2017 Branch Officers 2017-2018 Branch Officers

This branch hold elections in the fall

Student Branch Chair Student Branch Chair

Name: Meagan Ferreira Member #.: 482823 Name: Ryan Hyatt Member #: 515882

Student Branch Vice-Chair Student Branch Vice-Chair

Name: Mark Winters Member #.: ______________ Name: Mike Petrucci _ Member #: 512389

Secretary: Secretary:

Name: Ryan Hyatt Member #.: 515882 Name: Chris Milne Member #:________ _____

Treasurer: Treasurer:

Name: Mike Petrucci Member #.: 512389 Name: Samuel Schulman Member #:________ _____

Other officers: Other officers:

Name: Mohit Patel Member #.: 514083 Name: Sam Calello Member #:________ _____

Name: Steve Nilla Member #.: ______________ Name: Trent Rayford Member #:________ _____

Name: AJ Lorenzetti Member #.: ______________ Name: Ryan Wendt Member #:________ _____

Name: Trent Rayford Member #.: ______________ Name: Dereck Li Member #: 607097

Name: Sam Schulman Member #.: ______________

Name: Jacob Kowalksi Member #.: 630838

Name: Dereck Li Member #.: 607097

Name: Jennifer Bennett Member #.: ______________

2016-2017 Faculty Advisor: 2017-2018 Faculty Advisor:

Name: Dr. Chih-Jen Sung Member #.: 107600 Name: Dr. Chih-Jen Sung Member #.: 107600

May 1, 2017

Do you have a tax id # under the AIAA umbrella? If yes, have you completed your IRS form 990-N

(online only) for the latest tax year?

Please indicate responses below:

1. Did your branch participate in local section events? Yes No

2. Did any members of your branch participate in any AIAA Forums ? Yes No

3. Did you have any members participate in the following student programs?

Scholarships Yes No

Design, Build,

Fly

Yes No

Design

Competitions

Yes No

Student Paper

Conferences

Yes No

If you would like to provide more details regarding your branch activities please submit additional pages. The more

you tell us about the branch (including photos and/or videos) the more exposure your branch can get out to the

members of AIAA. We would like to promote your branch and your activities through the AIAA Daily Launch, the

Aerospace America magazine, and the AIAA Momentum newsletter.

UCONN AIAAA n n u a l R e p o r t 2 0 1 6 - 2 0 1 7

2 The Newsletter, June 2018

INTRODUCTION

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President: Ryan HyattVice President: Michael PetrucciTreasurer: Samuel SchulmanSecretary: Chris Milne

Chief Technical Officer (CTO): Ryan WendtOutreach Chair: Sam CalelloPrograms Development Officer: Trent RayfordMembership Chair: Dereck Li

Sincerely,

Meagan FerreiraUConn AIAA President, 2016-2017

President: Meagan FerreiraVice President: Mark WintersTreasurer: Michael PetrucciSecretary: Ryan HyattChief Technical Officer (CTO): Mohit PatelOutreach Chair: A.J. Lorenzetti

Programs Development Officer: Steve NillaSecretary of Internal Affairs: Dereck LiFundraising Chair: Jennifer BennettWebmaster: Jacob KowalskiDiscussion Chairs: Trent Rayford & Samuel Schulman

This past year marked our third year as an active student branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. This year was highlighted by a larger leadership team, a continuation of our guest lecture series, and a foray into community and educational outreach. Our branch has continued to grow, and will continue to do so in the years to come.

The main focus of this year was to continue to build the foundation for the branch to solidly build on in coming years, which included continuing to mold our officer positions, offering a wide variety of events that would interest many different types and level of student, and also by continuing to foster connections between branch and faculty.

We also began a Rocketry subgroup within the branch, which is focused on model rocketry, high-power model rocketry, and on eventually competing in a rocketry competition. This group made contacts with the local CATO Rocketry Club, where they also found some mentors. Several students in the subgroup also obtained their certification to launch high power rockets, something that will aid them when they compete in a competition.

This year we had our largest officer board yet, with a total of 12 officers. This included the addition of a second secretary, a Fundraising Chair, Webmaster, Discussion Chairs, and a Programs Development Officer. Each served important roles within the group. The 2016-2017 officer roster included:

For the 2017-2018 school year, the branch has returned to a smaller number of officers: 8. It was determined that the board was slightly too large to function well and for everyone to have enough to do. The 2017-2018 board consists of:

As the outgoing president, I am confident this group will do well and continue to make UConn AIAA a strong student branch

.

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OUTREACH EVENTSWith the UConn AIAA student branch only being three years old, 2016-2017 marked the first year we were involved with outreach not only within UConn but also within the community. Highlights include our partnership with the John Wallace Middle School Academy for Aerospace and Engineering, as well as our Late Night Event.

JOHN WALLACE MIDDLE SCHOOL’S ACADEMY FOR AEROSPACE AND ENGINEERING

This past year, the UConn AIAA Student Branch began a relationship with a local middle school program, The Academy of Aerospace and Engineering at John Wallace Middle School in Newington, CT. The Academy was established in the fall of 2015, and offers seventh and eighth grade students learning experiences within the aerospace and engineering fields. The program exists within JWMS, and students are accepted based on a lottery system. The students are then committed to taking math, science, and two aerospace/engineering electives, one of which is after school every day. The students also obtain experience working in teams to solve technical problems and communicate their results.

The teacher, Bryan Holmes, is a retired U.S. Air Force pilot, space officer, and acquisition program manager. After he retired from the Air Force in 2005, he started teaching as a second career, teaching physics, engineering, math, and aerospace science in high school and middle schools.

JWMS VISITS UCONN

November 18th, 2016

On November 18th, all 50 Academy students visited UConn for a tour of our campus and facilities, and another Q&A session. In the morning, students were split into two groups. Seventh graders were given a tour of the engineering buildings and facilities by the Engineering Ambassadors organization. Because the eighth graders had seen this the year prior, they instead had the opportunity to be given a tour of our Central Utility Plant. After these tours, the AIAA officers took all the students on a walk around campus, showing them Gampel Pavilion, the Homer Babbidge Library, Mirror Lake, and several dorms. This was also an opportunity for students to ask questions about the campus. Everyone then returned to our Student Union for lunch, and afterwards there was another Q&A session, with seniors Meagan Ferreira (President), Mark Winters (Vice President) and Mike Petrucci (Treasurer).

VISIT TO JWMS

October 28th, 2016

Three of our officers visited the school on October 28th: Mark Winters (Vice Chair), Steven Nilla (Programs Development Officer), and Mohit Patel (Chief Technical Officer). These officers visited the school, participated in a morning activity with the students, and then gave a talk about what it is like to be an engineering student at

4 The Newsletter, June 2018

PAPER AIRPLANE COMPETITION: BLAST OFF WITH LATE NIGHT

December 2nd, 2016

ENGINEERING INVOLVEMENT FAIR

January 30th, 2017

On January 30th, the Engineering Student Leadership Council (ESLC) hosted an engineering involvement fair, where we were able to recruit and target undergraduate engineers interested in joining organizations and clubs. We were able to display our newly acquired banner (with officers Dereck Li and Sam Schulman below).

Clubs at UConn are given opportunities to partner with UConn Late Night to co-host events. On December 2nd, UConn AIAA co-hosted an event on the night themed “Blast Off with Late Night!” Our activity was a paper airplane contest. There were three main different rounds: Distance (who could fly farthest), Time (who could keep the plane in the air the longest), and Accuracy (who could fly the straightest). There was also a bonus round, for who could fly through a hoop. Prizes were provided by Late Night, and bonus prizes included NASA lithographs and stickers, supplied by the branch.

IGNITE! DAY

March 7th, 2017

Ignite! is a crowdfunding campaign sponsored by the UConn Foundation. UConn AIAA ran an Ignite fund in order to fund CanSat’s potential trip to Texas in the summer. Since CanSat did not need the money, all the money raised will go to general design competitions. Below, our Fundraising Chair, Jennifer Bennett, ran the table for the event.

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SPACE EXPO AT THE NEW ENGLAND AIR MUSEUM April 1st, 2017The New England Air Museum (NEAM) hosted the annual Space Expo on Saturday, April 1st. The Expo is the largest aerospace event in New England, and many different groups attended, including the 501st Legion, CATO Rocketry, UTC Aerospace Systems, and the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford. The UConn Mechanical Engineering Department also had a table, and one of our officers, Meagan Ferreira, was able to represent UConn AIAA as well.

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SIMULATING THERMO-FLUIDS SYSTEMS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

DR. XINYU ZHAO | November 2nd, 2016

AbstractDr. Zhao will first introduce her research program, including the studies of the non-linear interactions between turbulence and chemistry, radiative heat transfer, and high-performance computing. The existing problems and current state-of-the-art of solving urgent combustion problems using computational tools will be reviewed. The second half of the presentation focuses on a specific combustion problem that is

of great interest in aerospace engineering: thermal-acoustic instability. The fundamental issues of the thermal-acoustic instability will be explained, and a suggested project for the CFD club will be detailed.

BIO: Dr. Xinyu Zhao is an Assistant Professor and Director the Computational Thermal Fluids Laboratory at UCONN (http://engr.uconn.edu/~xinyuz/). Prior to joining UCONN in 2015, she was a postdoctoral research fellow in Combustion Energy Frontier Research Center at Princeton (2014), co-sponsored by Sandia National Laboratory and Pennsylvania State University. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University (2006 and 2008), and she received her Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University (2013). Dr. Zhao’s research interests are in the area of computational fluid dynamics, with a focus on high-fidelity simulations of reactive flows, radiative heat transfer, multi-phase combustion, the interplay of computation and experiments, and high-performance computing. She is supervising two Ph.D. students and several undergraduate students at the moment. Her lab is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, FM Global, as well as the UCONN research excellence program.

GUEST LECTURESGuest lectures are a staple of the UConn AIAA branch offerings. Guest lectures allow students to hear from UConn professors and industry professionals alike. They also allow students to learn about topics that would not normally be taught in a classroom. Because UConn does not have an aerospace major or minor, and only a limited selection of electives related to aerospace, these lectures make aerospace more available to our members and the public.

EXPERIENCES AND TRENDS IN AVIATION

BRYAN HOLMES | October 26th, 2016

BIO: Bryan Holmes is a science, math, and engineering teacher at the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering, John Wallace Middle School, Newington, Connecticut. He has mentored students in a variety of STEM activities, including Air Force Junior ROTC, Team America Rocketry Challenge, Science Olympiad, NASA Explorer Schools program and the Civil Air Patrol Aerospace Excellence Award program. He has

degrees in physics, teaching and learning, and leadership. He also brings his experiences to the classroom from a previous career as a United States Air Force officer and pilot. He has flown three different Air Force aircraft as an instructor pilot, and he is proficient in the Air Force engineering process for developing new aircraft.

Mr. Holmes talked about what he has seen in the field of aviation, and his view of interesting trends within it.

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THE WHAT, HOW, WHY OF ADVANCED COMPOSITES

DR. DIANYUN ZHANG | February 23rd, 2017

Abstract:Weight reduction is significant across a variety of industries that deal with vehicle technologies, especially under the competitive pressure to develop more efficient and sustainable vehicles with reduced CO2 emissions. Thus, there will be an inevitable

increase in the use of composite materials for structural applications due to the weight and life-cycle cost savings they provide. Besides improving performance and saving weight, these materials provide the designer with the ability to tailor the mechanical and thermal properties of the structure.This lecture will provide an introduction to the material types, processing and mechanics of polymeric composite materials. The lecture will cover a broad overview of polymeric composite material types and forms, followed by the discussions of constituent materials, manufacturing processes, analysis methods, testing, non-destructive inspection, advanced architecture and multi-scale modeling.

BIO: Dr. Dianyun Zhang joined the University of Connecticut in 2015 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Prior to that, she was a research associate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington, Seattle, with a dual appointment in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Zhang received her dual bachelor degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, and the bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, all in 2009. She obtained her M.S. (2013) and Ph.D. (2014) degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. Her broad area of research interest is in experimental characterization and computational modeling of lightweight materials, including laminated composites, 3D textile composites, and oxide/oxide woven ceramic composites. Her research goal is to develop a high-fidelity computational methodology to predict the deformation response of heterogeneous materials. The focus is on the multiscale modeling methods and progressive damage and failure analyses across different material length scales.

8 The Newsletter, June 2018

AIAA DISTINGUISHED LECTUREEvery active student branch is eligible to bring in an AIAA Distinguished Lecturer each year, chosen from a booklet with many different lecturers to choose from. Our distinguished lecturer for this year was Paul Bevilaqua. We had approximately 30 students in attendance along with 4 faculty members of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Approximately 10 were AIAA student members of our branch. The lecture was recorded and uploaded to YouTube for viewing by our members, and refreshments were served. Mr. Bevilaqua also was able to meet with several faculty members before the lecture, as well as some students to talk about careers in aerospace.

INVENTING THE JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER

PAUL BEVILAQUA | March 28th, 2017

AbstractThe F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a single aircraft developed to meet the multirole fighter requirements of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and the country’s allies. The Air Force variant is a supersonic, single engine stealth fighter. The Navy variant has a larger wing and more robust structure in order to operate from an

aircraft carrier, while the Marine Corps variant incorporates an innovative propulsion system that can be switched to a turbofan cycle to a turbo shaft cycle for vertical take-off and landing. This novel propulsion system enabled the X-35 demonstrator to become the first aircraft in history to fly at supersonic speeds, hover, and land vertically. This lecture will describe the technical and program challenges involved in growing an innovative idea into an international program with engineers from a half dozen countries developing a replacement for multiple aircraft types.

BiographyDr. Bevilaqua is a Fellow of the AIAA and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He subsequently joined Lockheed Martin as a chief engineer of the SKUNK WORKS®, where he played a leading role in creating the Joint Strike Fighter. He then led the engineering team that demonstrated the feasibility of building three variants of this aircraft.

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Movie Night: October Sky

February 2nd, 2017

We watched October Sky, the story of Homer Hickam and the Rocket Boys, at our first general meeting of the spring semester.

PAPER ROCKET LAUNCHES

September 16th, 2016

Our first event of the year was constructing an air-powered paper rocket launcher with the help of Adam Wentworth, who is the lab manager for the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) department. The launcher was constructed from an assortment of pipes, and air was supplied through a bicycle pump. A button was wired to release the air and launch the rockets. We conducted the launches on our Great Lawn on campus.

OTHER EVENTS

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RESUME WORKSHOPS

September 28th, 2016 & February 9th, 2017

The resume workshops were held before major career fairs in order for students to receive feedback on their resumes. Several students offered their resumes up as examples and for open review, then resumes were reviewed individually by upperclassmen.

INTERNSHIP PANEL

February 16, 2017

Our internship panel offered students an opportunity to hear about some student internship experiences from the Summer of 2016, and ask questions about the companies or applying to internships. We had three students on the panel: Mike Petrucci (GE), Ryan Hyatt (Sikorsky), and Meagan Ferreira (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center).

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON LECTURE

October 17th, 2016

About 20 members and non-members attended “an Evening with Neil deGgrasse Tyson” at the Bushnell in Hartford, CT on October 17th.

Tyson spoke about the topic, “The Cosmic Perspective.” There is no view of the world as emotionally potent as the one granted by a cosmic perspective. It’s one that sees Earth as a planet in a vast empty universe. It profoundly influences what we think and feel about science, culture, politics, and life itself.

KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM COMPETITION

April 6th, 2017

Our final official event was our Kerbal Space Program Competition. We were able to set up our computer lab to have Steam in order to play the game, and the event was open to the public. We had about 15 people attend, and it was a fun experience for everyone. The competition had three rounds: Cheapest rocket to orbit, fastest rocket to orbit, and first team to land on the Mun. Prizes were awarded in each round, and the overall winners received tickets to the New England Air Museum.

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DESIGN COMPETITIONS: CANSATUConn AIAA once again attempted to compete in the CanSat competition this year, however we were not able to make it past the first round (where they narrow teams down to the top 40). Nonetheless, the team had a good experience and several teammembers said they would attempt it again next year if we choose to compete.

The team consisted of 9 members from different majors (ME, EE, CSE). The team was selected in the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester by our Chief Technical Officer, who sent out advertisements and application forms. There were several available positions advertised: Project Manager, Systems Engineer, Design Engineer, Electrical Systems Engineer, Programmer, Flight Mechanics Engineer, and General Engineers. To keep track of progress over the course of the year, as well as help the group organize their work and practice presenting, several oral presentations were arranged. Here, the team had the opportunity to present to several faculty members and officers and receive feedback and criticisms. This presentation format is a staple for our design teams, and believe it is not only good practice for the competitions themselves, but is useful for future careers and senior design.

TEAMMEMBERSPROJECT MANAGERErnesto Ortega-Hernandez

SYSTEMS ENGINEERSkyler LaKose

DESIGN ENGINEER Nicolas Mower

FLIGHT MECHANICS ENGINEERLuke Maloney

ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERYuansun Jiang

FLIGHT SOFTWARE DESIGNSarthak Bhatnagar

GENERAL ENGINEERSWilliam AdamsTiffany NguyenAlex Coverdill

12 The Newsletter, June 2018

NEW ROCKETRY SUBGROUPWe have two subgroups within AIAA: CFD and Rocketry. This year was the first year Rocketry existed, and so there were several different activities done by them. These events included attending launches and a lecture by some officers from CATO.

CATO LAUNCHES

October 15th, 2016

The group attended several CATO rocket launches, but the first was the October launch at White’s Field in Durham, CT. The group was able to meet several different members within CATO and find some mentors to assist in learning about high powered rocketry and model rocketry.

AN OVERVIEW OF HIGH POWER ROCKETRY

ERIC HENDERSON | November 15th, 2016

Eric Henderson from CATO came to talk to the group about high power model rocketry (HPR), with topics including a basic overview of model rocket motors, high power motors, model rocket aerodynamics, design, and electronics, as well as certification requirements for HPR.

About EricEric Henderson is a certified Level 2 HPR flyer and another scratch-builder and seems fond of sculing classic kits. Eric also seems to have an aversion to parachutes, however that is another story. Eric works in the Audio-Visual equipment industry and makes his home in Colchester, CT.

About CATOCATO is a sport rocketry club formed in February of 1998 as Tripoli SE Connecticut (Prefecture n27) and National Association of Rocketry Section #581. CATO serves the Central and Eastern sport rocketry community with launch sites in Durham, CT and (occasionally) elsewhere. CATO has a strong family-centric ethic and rocketeers of all ages are always welcome on the flying field at any CATO event. CATO has a strong outreach drive to provide educational rocketry whenever and wherever needed. The most common outreach activity is providing launch site operations to Scouts and similar youth organizations. Several CATO members are also Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) Mentors.


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