The University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI) hosted its 9^th Annual Wu Student Presentation Competition on April 17^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 six competitors this year and presentations covered disciplines in mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering. Brandon Meadows, a master’s student in Aerospace Engineering, won first place. His presentation was entitled, “Development of a Sensitive Cantilever Beam Thrust Stand for Electrospray Thruster Diagnostics.” Tyler Roy, a master’s student in Aerospace Engineering, won second place. His presentation was entitled, “Tailoring Diamond – like Carbon Films for Lunar Dust Mitigation.” Meadows won a $1,000 travel grant and Roy won a $500 travel grant.

There were three judges for the competition. Dr. James Masters serves as the Computational Development and Analysis Group Lead at Arnold Engineering Development Complex. Dr. Jon Rylan Cox is the Technical Director of Analysis for the TMAS contract at AEDC. Mrs. Gabrielle Till is a Test Operations Engineer at AEDC.