News & Honors

• Colin A. Pavan and Carmen Guerra-Garcia were awarded the 2023 AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Best Paper Award for their paper "Modeling flame speed modification by nanosecond pulsed discharges to inform experimental design." The award recognizes the best paper from both the 2022 AIAA Aviation Forum and the 2023 AIAA SciTech Forum in the Plasmadynamics and Lasers field. The award was presented at the 2023 AIAA Aviation Forum.

• Chloé Gentgen was awarded the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. The $10,000 fellowship is awarded annually to up to 30 women pursing PhD and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences.

• Ufuoma Ovienmhada and Chelsea Onyeador were selected to the 2023 class of MIT Graduate Women of Excellence. Honorees are nominated and selected in a process based on their leadership and service contributions at the Institute, their dedication to mentoring, and their drive to make changes to improve the student experience.

• Durgesh Chandel, a researcher in the HRL, has been elected Secretary for the AIAA New England Region. 

• Ngan Le has been promoted to the position of Senior Financial Officer. This promotion comes in recognition of her sterling service and dedication to research administration in the department for many years, and establishes for her an enhanced role going forward.

• Suxin Hu's title has been changed to Manager of Financial Administration.

• Rashmi Ravishankar, a 3rd year graduate student in the ESL, was awarded the MIT energy fellowship. The Society of Energy Fellows was established to help MIT address the world’s energy challenges by attracting outstanding students to the Institute.

• Daniel Gochenaur received the 2023 AIAA Gordon C. Oates Air Breathing Propulsion Graduate Award for his work on supersonic inlet flow control using micro-vortex generators.

• Afreen Siddiqi gave an oral presentation at the 2023 International Astronautical Foundation Global Space Conference on Climate Change in Oslo, Norway on May 23. The oral presentation was based on the paper, "Earth Observation Technologies for Climate Change Adaptation and Monitoring: Future Projections from Decadal Trends."

• Danielle Wood was selected for a third time to serve as a Private Sector Advisor to the US Delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). 

• Danielle Wood visited Angola for the third time as part of a long-term cooperation with the Angolan national space agency, called GGPEN. During the visit earlier this month, Wood spoke at AngoTIC, a major national conference on Information and Communication Technology. 

• Annika Thomas, a graduate student in the ACL, was accepted to the MIT Portugal Marine Robotics Summer School.

AeroAstro Academic Awards

• Claire Johnson '24 and Dinuri Rupasinghe '24 were both awarded the General James H. Doolittle Prize, given for outstanding achievement in the design, construction, execution, and reporting of an undergraduate experimental research project.

• Samuel Costa '23 received the Andrew J. Morsa Prize and the James Means Memorial Award. The Andrew J. Morsa Prize is given to undergraduate students for demonstration of ingenuity and initiative in the application of computers to the field of aeronautics and astronautics. The James Means Memorial award is given for excellence in flight vehicle engineering.

• Amber Cooper '25 was awarded the Yngve K. Raustein Memorial Award, given to a Unified Engineering student who best exemplifies the spirit of Yngve Raustein and to recognize significant achievement in Unified Engineering.

• Nicole McGaa '24 received the Apollo Program Prize, given to an AeroAstro undergraduate or graduate student who conducts the best research project on the topic of humans in space. The Apollo prize may also be given to an undergraduate student for participation in a successful Course 16 design project.

• The James Means Memorial Award, given for excellence in space systems engineering, was awarded to the M-SUN-360 Team of the Combined 16.83-16.89 class for the development of a novel mission proposal for the deployment of a heliocentric satellite constellation to observe our sun from all angles and at all times to understand solar dynamics as well as improve geomagnetic storm predictions.

• Alexander Koenig won the Rene H. Miller Prize in Systems Engineering, given for the best undergraduate student project or graduate thesis in systems engineering in the department.

• Daniel Pickard was awarded the AeroAstro Graduate Teaching Assistantship Award, given to a graduate student who has demonstrated conspicuous dedication and skill in helping fulfill an undergraduate or graduate subject's educational objectives.

• Julian Powers '23 was awarded the AeroAstro Undergraduate Teaching Assistantship Award, given to an undergraduate student - or students - who has demonstrated conspicuous dedication and skill in helping fulfill an undergraduate subject's educational objectives.

• The recipients of the Henry Webb Salisbury Award, given for superior academic performance by a Course 16 graduating senior or seniors, are Frederick Ajisafe, Gabriella Berrey, Jared Boyer, Robert L. Cato, Luke J. de Castro, Samuel Thomas Costa, Tahmid M. Jamal, Joanna Nikolova, Julian Powers, and Akila Saravanan.

Research

A special session was held the 2023 AIAA Aviation Forum in San Diego, CA to showcase the results of a team from the GTL, the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems, and Innova-Logic LLC. The session focused on the technology development of a one megawatt motor for electrified aviation propulsion.

Five multi-author papers were given, presented by Zoltán Spakovsky, the project lead, Yuankang Chen (recent AeroAstro PhD graduate), Henry Andersen (EECS), and Mohammad Qasim (EECS). The project is sponsored by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).

Arthur Brown and Nicolas Gomez Vega presented their paper, “Solid-State Electroaerodynamic Uncrewed Aircraft for Near-Silent Package Delivery," at the 2023 AIAA Aviation Forum in San Diego, CA. The paper presents the design of two uncrewed aircraft, powered by electroaerodynamic (EAD) multistaged ducted (MSD) thrusters, for a last-mile package delivery mission. Propeller-driven uncrewed aircraft for package delivery are in development; however, noise generated by their propellers can annoy local residents, leading to community opposition. Because EAD thrusters have no moving parts, they are almost silent in some applications.

Space Enabled PhD student Yiyun Zhang had a poster selected for an "Honorable Mention" award at the Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy. She presented on "Using Zero Robotics as a study case for Intersectional Antiracist Technology Framework."

Harsh Bhundiya and Zachary Cordero's article, "Bend-Forming: A CNC deformation process for fabricating 3D wireframe structures," was accepted into Additive Manufacturing Letters.

Abstract:

This paper presents a computer numerical control (CNC) deformation process, termed Bend-Forming, for fabricating 3D wireframe structures. The process relies on the combination of CNC wire bending with mechanical joints to construct reticulated structures from wire feedstock. A key component of the process is a path planning framework which uses Euler paths and geometrical computations to derive fabrication instructions for arbitrary 3D wireframe geometries. We demonstrate the process by fabricating exemplary structures on the order of 1 m, including reticulated columns, shells, and trusses, with rapid build times compared to other additive manufacturing techniques. The structures fabricated herein contain defects which result in residual stress and imperfect geometries. To determine the tolerances needed to fabricate accurate structures, we develop a model of error stack-up for Bend-Forming, using fabrication defects in feed length, bend and rotate angle, and strut curvature. We find that for tetrahedral trusses fabricated with Bend-Forming, defects in feed length and strut curvature have a large effect on the surface precision and stiffness of the truss, respectively, and are thus important tolerances to control to achieve structural performance metrics. Overall, Bend-Forming is a versatile and low-power process that is well suited for a wide-range of applications, from rapid prototyping of wireframe structures to in-space manufacturing.

Songyuan Zhang, a graduate student in REALM recently had a paper accepted to the 5th Annual Learning for Dynamics & Control Conference. Zhang will travel to the University of Pennsylvania in July to present the paper, "Compositional Neural Certificates for Networked Dynamical Systems."

Abstract:

Developing stable controllers for large-scale networked dynamical systems is crucial but has long been challenging due to two key obstacles: certifiability and scalability. In this paper, we present a general framework to solve these challenges using compositional neural certificates based on ISS (Input-to-State Stability) Lyapunov functions. Specifically, we treat a large networked dynamical system as an interconnection of smaller subsystems and develop methods that can find each subsystem a decentralized controller and an ISS Lyapunov function; the latter can be collectively composed to prove the global stability of the system. To ensure the scalability of our approach, we develop generalizable and robust ISS Lyapunov functions where a single function can be used across different subsystems and the certificates we produced for small systems can be generalized to be used on large systems with similar structures. We encode both ISS Lyapunov functions and controllers as neural networks and propose a novel training methodology to handle the logic in ISS Lyapunov conditions that encodes the interconnection with neighboring subsystems. We demonstrate our approach in systems including Platoon, Drone formation control, and Power systems. Experimental results show that our framework can reduce the tracking error up to 75% compared with RL algorithms when applied to large-scale networked systems.

Yulun Tian, Yun Chang, Fernando Herrera Arias, Jonathan How and Luca Carlone, as well as Carlos Nieto-Granda from the Army Research Laboratory, won the 2022 IEEE Transactions on Robotics King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award.

Their paper, "Kimera-Multi: Robust, Distributed, Dense Metric-Semantic SLAM for Multi-Robot Systems," details a new system for multi-robot simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). Kimera-Multi allows robots within communications range to share map data, enabling the robots to build and improve on a globally consistent map. In simple terms, allowing the robots to know where they and other robots are.

The recently published Handbook of Space Resources by Springer Publishing includes a chapter by George Lordos (ESL PhD candidate), Olivier de Weck and Jeffrey Hoffman titled “Lifetime Embodied Energy: A Theory of Value for the New Space Economy." The book chapter is an adaptation of George Lordos’ SM thesis.

Andrea Tagliabue, Yi-Hsuan Hsiao, Urban Fasel, J. Nathan Kutz, Steven L. Brunton, Yu Feng Chen, and Jonathan How's paper, “Robust, High-Rate Trajectory Tracking on Insect-Scale Soft-Actuated Aerial Robots with Deep-Learned Tube MPC," was a finalist for the best paper award in the “Dynamics and Control” section of the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

Learn more about the paper here.

Christopher Chin, Akila Saravanan, Hamsa Balakrishnan, and Adriana Andreeva-Mori (JAXA) received the Kevin Corker Award for Best Paper at the 2023 Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar for their paper, "Strategic Planning of Aerial Assets for Disaster Response: Enabling Efficient and Equitable Access to Drone-Based Search Resources."

Abstract:

The rapid deployment of fleets of small, uncrewed aircraft (drones) in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster to search impacted regions for people in need of rescue is one of the most vital applications of advanced air mobility. Effective drone-based search operations require that the drone fleets operate out of bases that are appropriately located in advance of the disaster. Using a case study based in the Iwate prefecture of Japan, we develop optimization formulations to strategically locate drone bases. It is important to be capable of responding quickly to the locations most likely to require search, while covering as large an area as possible. We evaluate the disparities in the level of access afforded to different areas. Finally, we extend our optimization formulation to account for the probability of the base locations themselves being impacted by the disaster, and the possibility of base relocation.

Daniel Gochenaur, Elwyn Sirieys, Charlotte Gump, and Olivier de Weck presented their paper titled “Toward an Aircraft Design and Supply Chain Co-optimization Framework Using Multi-Commodity Network Flow Analysis” at the 2023 AIAA Aviation Forum in San Diego, CA.

Abstract:

A novel approach is proposed to allow aircraft Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to co-design and optimize aircraft and their supply chain networks during early phases of development. A co-optimization framework and underlying OEM supply chain surrogate model is described and demonstrated through a case study. The proposed framework allows for tracing the dependencies between aircraft and supply chain design at different levels of granularity, and gives visibility of overall performance on both sides through custom metrics. The supply chain surrogate model is based on generalized multi-commodity network flow (GMCNF) theory. GMCNF is highly interpretive in nature, and enables a wide range of scenarios to be analyzed. The performed case study showcases the use of the framework through a hypothetical commercial aircraft wing supply chain in an early design phase. Further developments of the surrogate model will use time-expanded network flow analysis to allow for studies of dynamic situations such as production ramp-up and ramp-down.