Greetings from the Department Head - Fall 2023
Dear Friends,
I hope you all had a great summer. All of us in AEM are excited about the start of the 2023-2024 academic year. As we prepare for the new semester, I am pleased to fill you in on some of the activities in the department, as well as the accomplishments of our faculty, students, and alumni.
Since the last newsletter, James Flaten was promoted to the rank of Professor, Professor Ellad Tadmor received the Russell J. Penrose Professorship award and Associate Professor Maziar S. Hemati received the Russell J. Penrose Faculty Fellow award. Professor Ryan Caverly and members of his research group were awarded the Best Research Paper at the Sixth International Conference on Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CableCon). Finally, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Yohannes Ketema was honored with the inaugural University of Minnesota Unit Service Award.
Late in the spring, AEM held its first-ever Aerospace Poster Symposium, which showcased the research of our graduate students. Because of the renovations to 3M Arena at Mariucci, AEM had its own graduation ceremony in the old Bell Museum where we awarded 69 BAEM degrees, 13 Masters degrees and 7 Ph.D. degrees. Thanks to our outstanding staff, this event (and the reception afterwards) were huge successes.
In other student news, both the UMN Rocket Team and the UMN Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE or Gopher Motorsports) Team made huge strides at competitions over the summer. The Rocket Team took first place in Spaceport America Cup and Gopher Motorsports took seventh with their fully electric vehicle in the SAE International competition. Both teams have large numbers of AEM students, and we are proud of all the students for their success.
On the alumni front, alumnus Dave Saari (BAEM ’71) recently self-published a novel entitled “Watery Grave,” which features a fictitious AEM Professor, a team of AEM students, and “forensic engineering” using Computational Fluid Dynamics and wind tunnel testing. It’s a fun read featuring fictionalized aero professors and scenes from Akerman Hall.
Throughout the Fall semester, AEM will continue hosting events featuring our faculty and students. Professor Flaten and the University of Minnesota’s High-Altitude Ballooning Team will hold outreach events in September and October in preparation for the upcoming eclipse on October 14. AEM will also have its second annual Open House for students who are interested in learning more about pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering on October 26. For more details and a complete set of events and news, please visit our website (cse.umn.edu/aem) and follow us on Instagram (instagram.com/umn_aem/) and Twitter (twitter.com/UMNAEM).
As always, we wish to thank our alumni and friends for your continued support of all we do. Your generosity helps us support our students in their education and training which is vital to maintaining our exceptional environment for education and research. We cannot do this without you!
Perry Leo,
Department Head