The University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) hosted its 8^th Annual Wu Student Presentation Competition on April 4^th. The goal of this competition is to allow graduate students to present their research work to an audience and judges to develop their presentation skills.

There were nine competitors this year and presentations covered disciplines in mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering. Willem Graham, an MS candidate in BME who works with Professor Jackie Johnson, received first place. His presentation was entitled, “Optimizing Iron Nanoparticles for Medical Imaging Applications.” Spencer Ward, an MS candidate in AE who works with Associate Professor Phil Kreth, received second place. His presentation was entitled, “Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) Seeding Technique Investigation.” Graham received a $1,000 travel grant and Ward received a $500 travel grant.

The judges of the competition were Beyond New Horizon’s Engineering Solutions Branch Leader Justin Garrard, AEDC’s Data Integrity and Process Excellence Manager Christopher Mears, and Matthew Blenis, a senior research engineer at Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research.

The Wu Student Competition was named after Jimmy and Susan Wu, who were professor emeriti at UTSI. Susan founded ERC in 1988 when she left her tenured position after 23 years at UTSI. After Susan’s passing, the family decided to sell ERC to Brightstar Capital Partners in April 2021. Brightstar purchased two additional companies in the same industry and combined them into Astrion. Astrion employees over 5,000 employees across the country, including their joint venture company, Beyond New Horizons (BNH), who won the AEDC TOS II contract in October 2024.