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UTSI Students Win Awards At AIAA Conference

Two students from the University of Tennessee Space Institute attending the 2010 Southeastern Regional Student Conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) were awarded second and third place in the Masters Division. Nadim Zgheib won second place with his paper entitled “Asymptotic Solutions for Longitudinal Waves in Solid Rocket Motors” and Michel Akiki won third place with his paper entitled “Compressible Integral Formulation of the Two-Dimensional Porous Channel Flow”. The studies focused on the analytical and numerical modeling of either wave propagation or compressible mean flow description in simulated solid rocket motors. The two studies were carried out under the supervision of UTSI Professor, Joseph Majdalani who appears as second author on both papers. First place went to Filippo Cadadei from Georgia Tech. Awards were presented by Col. Keith J. Kosan, Commander, 46th Operations Group, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

The conference, held in Destin, Florida on April 8-9, included over 300 delegates from 14 universities from the southeastern region. The student branches from Auburn and Tuskegee Universities co-hosted the event.

UTSI Executive Director, Robert “Buddy” Moore remarked “We are very proud of Nadim and Michel, and their successes further confirm the quality of our graduate students, faculty and programs at UTSI.”

Nadim Zgheib and Michel Akiki are both from Kesrouan, Lebanon, and both graduated from Notre Dame University in 2007 shortly before joining UTSI. In 2009, they received their Master’s degree in aerospace engineering. Michel is currently working toward his PhD degree in mechanical engineering at UTSI. Nadim has received a graduate school fellowship to pursue his PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.