UTSI students, Tim Barber and Charles Haddad, won best papers in the Masters Division at the sixty-third American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Southeastern Regional Student Conference. The conference, held at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was attended by several universities from the Southeastern Region. This marks a three-year winning streak, with five best paper awards, for the graduate students of Professor Joe Majdalani, Arnold Chair of Excellence and professor of mechanical, aerospace and biomedical engineering. The 5-for-5 award capture is a true reflection of the outstanding performance of the students and the significance of their research topics. The papers will be submitted to scholarly journals as suggested by the judging panel.

Barber’s award winning paper entitled, “Bidirectional Helical Motion in Tapered Rocket Chambers,” was coauthored with his advisor, Majdalani. His paper introduces a framework that can provide important physical insight into several applications, such as liquid rocket engines, and explain the motion of conically-shaped tornadoes and tropical cyclones. Barber, a native of Nashville, TN, is pursuing his master’s and doctorate degrees in aerospace engineering. He will receive a paid trip to participate in next year’s international student competition in Texas.

Haddad won second place with his paper entitled, “On the Sidewall Boundary Layer of Transverse Waves in Simulated Liquid Rocket Engines.” His paper, also coauthored with Majdalani, investigates the boundary layer development due to transverse waves in liquid rocket engines. Haddad is from Beirut, Lebanon and is pursuing a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering.

The awards were presented by Robert Youngquist, Guest Speaker and Lead Scientist of the Kennedy Space Center Applied Physics Laboratory.

The UTSI award recipients in the Masters Division of the 63rd AIAA Southeastern Regional student conference are pictured above, left to right: Timothy A. Barber (First Place), Joseph Majdalani (Faculty Advisor), and Charles T. Haddad (Second Place).