Student Paper Competitions

Please direct questions to:
Eric Stewart, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

To be considered for one of the student paper awards within the Aerospace Design and Structures Group, students must submit their abstract to one of the following areas:

• Adaptive Structures
• Complexity in Aerospace (CASE)
• Design Engineering
• Materials
• Multidisciplinary Design Optimization
• Non-Deterministic Approaches
• Spacecraft Structures
• Structural Dynamics
• Structures
• Survivability
• Systems Engineering

Authorship: Student papers should report on work primarily conducted by students in collaboration with their faculty advisors; therefore, all primary/presenting authors of papers submitted for consideration in the Student Paper Competition must be students at the time of abstract submission. The first author of the paper must remain the same between the abstract, final paper, and presentation. Up to two non-student co-authors are allowed.

Presentation: At conference, the presentation must be given by the primary author of the paper.

Extended Abstract: Student abstracts must be extended abstracts that follow the rules outlined in this Call for Papers. When submitting to the abstract submission website, select “Student Paper Competition” as the paper type. Semi-finalists will be chosen based on an evaluation of the extended abstracts. The results of the semi-final round will not be made public.

Deadline: Student manuscripts must be uploaded to the manuscript submission website by the published regular conference paper deadline for the AIAA SciTech Forum.  Students should note that the latest version of their paper submitted prior to the deadline will be the version used for judging.

If for any of these reasons a paper is removed from student paper competition, authors still have the opportunity to submit their paper by the published regular conference paper deadline for the full AIAA SciTech Forum deadline as a regular conference paper.

The following awards will be presented to the winners where a single paper can only win one award:

Jefferson Goblet Student Paper Award: The highest ranked Aerospace Design and Structures paper based on manuscript and presentation quality is recognized with the Jefferson Goblet Student Paper Award, which was established over twenty years ago and named to honor Thomas Jefferson. The recipient receives a monetary award ($500), a certificate, and a goblet modeled after a 1788 design by Thomas Jefferson.

American Society for Composites Student Paper Award: The highest ranked composites-related paper based on manuscript and presentation quality is recognized with the American Society for Composites Student Paper Award. The recipient receives a monetary award ($500) and a certificate.

Lockheed Martin Student Paper Award in Structures: The Lockheed Martin Student Paper Award in Structures recognizes an outstanding structures-related paper, based on manuscript and presentation quality. The recipient receives a monetary award ($500) and a certificate.  

Harry H. and Lois G. Hilton Student Paper Award in Structures: The Harry H. and Lois G. Hilton Student Paper Award in Structures recognizes an outstanding graduate-level, structures related paper, based on manuscript and presentation quality. The recipient receives a monetary award ($500) and a certificate. 

SwRI Student Paper Award in Non-Deterministic Approaches: The Southwest Research Institute Student Paper Award in Non-Deterministic Approaches recognizes an outstanding NDA-related paper, based on manuscript and presentation quality. The recipient receives a monetary award ($500) and a certificate.

Please direct questions to: 
James Creel, Texas A&M University

The Walter R. Lempert Student Paper Award in Diagnostics for Fluid Mechanics, Plasma Physics, and Energy Transfer is sponsored by the Aerodynamic Measurement Technology (AMT), Plasmadynamics and Lasers (PDL), and Propellants and Combustion (PC) Technical Committees (TC).

The award is given on an annual basis in memory of Dr. Walter R. Lempert. Walter Lempert was an outstanding scientist and engineer who had a profound impact on AIAA and in particular these three TCs. The Walter R. Lempert Student Paper Award is given to the most outstanding student paper submitted to sessions organized by these TCs at the annual AIAA SciTech Forum.

The Award shall consist of $500 cash and a Certificate of Merit identifying the name of the Award, the Award winner, the title of the paper for which they won the award, and the date of the award. If required by the IRS, the winning student shall submit a W-9/W-8 to AIAA. The Award winner will be recognized during the AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition (AIAA AVIATION). The Walter Lempert Subcommittee Chair shall provide winner information to AIAA no later than 60 days prior to the Forum.

Any additional funds available through the endowment may be used to support the travel costs for the award winner to attend the conference to receive the award in person. Additional funds may also be used to facilitate honorable mention awards for other outstanding student papers eligible for The Walter R. Lempert Student Paper Award in Diagnostics for Fluid Mechanics, Plasma Physics, and Energy Transfer. Disbursements of funds is based upon the formal AIAA Foundation agreement.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Any graduate student in an engineering or related program that is the first author and presenter of a technical paper at an AMT, PDL or PC affiliated session at the AIAA SciTech. The winning students may one receive this award once.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria:

1. The paper must be in the area of measurement techniques and related to the technical disciplines covered by the AMT, PDL and PC technical committees.
2. The paper should be evaluated on the innovative nature of the diagnostic or its use. Applications of mature diagnostics are not eligible for this award.
3. The papers will be scored according to the following formula:
1. Technical Quality/Completeness (50 pts) - Some of the considerations which you may wish to apply here are: clearly stated purpose, a well-developed introduction, methods used, the inclusion of an uncertainty analysis if applicable, well supported conclusions, breadth of references, or other technically applicable criteria.
2. Technical Relevance (25 pts) - Considerations here should be contribution to the state-of-the-art or knowledge, timeliness, innovation, etc. in diagnostics for fluid mechanics, plasma physics, and energy transfer
3. Readability (25 pts) – Text, grammar, figures, tables, etc.

Please direct questions to: 
Andrea Da Ronch, University of Southampton
Yunjun Xu, University of Central Florida

The AFM Technical Committee, with the support of Calspan Corporation, is sponsoring the AFM Student Paper Competition. Eligible written papers and oral presentations will be judged by members of the AFM Technical Committee.The competition is within the AFM conference and not part of the larger SciTech Forum and Exhibition. The winner of the competition will be notified after the conference and receive both a certificate and a $500 award.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

To be eligible for the competition, the entrant must be the primary author of the submitted paper and the work must have been performed while the author was a student. As such, recent graduates may still be eligible. Entrants will present their papers in the AFM technical sessions, where judges will also be in attendance. To enter the competition, the “Student Paper Competition” option must be selected instead of “Technical Manuscript” when submitting a manuscript via the conference website. Note that when entering the Student Paper Competition, the paper is still published and scheduled within the technical sessions, as normal. Papers are due by the regular final manuscript deadline. All papers with a student as primary author are encouraged to participate in the competition.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria:

The scoring for the award will be equally based on the written paper and oral presentation. Judging of the written paper is based on the criteria:

1. Relevance of the topic to atmospheric flight mechanics
2. Organization and clarity
3. Appreciation of relevant technical issues and sources of error
4. Meaningful conclusions of the research.

Judging of the oral presentation is based on the criteria:

1. Background and problem definition statement
2. Explanation of technical approach
3. Explanation of research results

Please direct questions to: 
Charles E. Tinney, The University of Texas at Austin

The Prof. Kirti "Karman" Ghia Memorial Award is presented by the AIAA FDTC to an international graduate student studying in the USA, for an innovative approach to computational fluid dynamics that leads to a greater understanding of the flow physics for a problem related to aeronautics or astronautics.  The winner must present at a paper at SciTech.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Instructions: Graduate student authors may self-nominate for the Professor Kirti "Karman" Ghia Memorial Award by selecting the “Student Paper Competition” option instead of “Technical Manuscript” during submission. Note that when entering the Student Paper Competition, the paper is still published and scheduled within the technical sessions, as normal.

Eligibility: AIAA membership is strongly encouraged but not required.  Nominees must be international graduate students, meaning they do not have USA citizenship or permanent residency, working toward a graduate degree in the USA and presenting a paper at SciTech.  The winner must show written proof, potentially from their departmental graduate office, of eligibility.  Nominees may only win this award once.  Only nominees who choose a topic area under Fluid Dynamics during abstract submission will be considered for the award, and further only those who have a substantial CFD component as part of their paper.

Cash Prize: $1,500 will be provided for the winner’s conference costs, including airfare, registration, lodging, food, and other transportation, to present a paper at SciTech.  This will be given as a check to the winner before the conference to help them plan and pay for their travel.  The winner is required to make their own travel and conference arrangements.

Selection Process and Timing: The award is judged by the FDTC based on the criteria given below.  The judging has 2 rounds.  First, submitted abstracts will be down-selected to a smaller group, and winners of round 1 will be notified at the time of SciTech abstract acceptance decisions (nominally end of August).  Next, round-1 winners will be asked to submit their full papers early, by Oct. 24, for round-2 judging.  One winner will be chosen around the 3rd week of Nov., to give time for travel planning.

Award Presentation Venue: This award is presented at the same SciTech that the paper is given, and the winner will be invited to the FDTC plenary meeting to be recognized and provided with a certificate.  The award will also be acknowledged at the Student Breakfast.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

The award is judged by the FDTC, and the evaluation criteria and weights are: 1) an innovative approach to CFD, e.g., a new methodology, speed increase, higher accuracy, new validation framework, post-processing strategy, etc. (weight: 35%); 2) a greater understanding of the flow physics of a given problem, as a result of the CFD innovation (weight: 35%); 3) clarity and prose (weight: 15%); 4) graphical content (weight: 15%).

Please direct questions to:
Keiichi Okai, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Tarek Abdel-Salam, East Carolina University

Green Engineering Best Student Paper Award

This award will be presented to best student paper submitted under Green Engineering Integration Committee.

Please direct questions to:
Raghvendra Cowlagi, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Xuerui Wang, Delft University of Technology

AIAA Guidance Navigation and Control Best Graduate Student Paper

The GN&C Technical Committee will host a Graduate Student Paper Competition at the AIAA SciTech Forum. In addition to appropriate recognition, all finalists in the GN&C Graduate Student Paper Competition will receive a monetary award of $500 and complimentary registration. The overall winner will receive an additional $1,000 award.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

For this competition, full draft manuscript papers are sought from graduate students on GN&C technical research topics, from which up to six finalists will be selected by a panel of judges for inclusion in a special GN&C Graduate Student Paper Competition session. Author eligibility and manuscript submission requirements are described below.

• A student must be the first or sole author, enrolled at an institution of higher learning.
• Upon selection as a finalist the student must provide to the Competition Chairs a 'Statement of Contributions' that delineates the specific technical contributions of each co-author. Furthermore, the student must assert that they have provided the preponderant share of input to both the technical and written dimensions of the paper, and must also include the signatures of all co-authors.
• The student author must be a member of AIAA to become a finalist in the competition.
• The student author must be a full-time graduate student in good academic standing at his or her university/institution at the time of submission.
• Full draft manuscript not exceeding a total length of 25 pages.
• The student author is not the overall winner of the preceding year’s competition.
• Only one paper submission per primary author.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

The finalists for the Graduate Student Paper Competition will be selected on the basis of three reviewer scores, with consideration to technical content (30%), originality (30%), practical application (20%) and style and form (20%). Reviewers will be members of the GNC Technical Committee. Each finalist will present their paper in a special session during the conference. The presentation will be evaluated by a panel of judges. The overall winner of the paper competition will be decided on the basis of scores granted to the paper as well as the presentation.

Please direct questions to:
Friedolin T. Strauss, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Suo Yang, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

High-Speed Air-Breathing Propulsion Student Paper Competition

High-speed air-breathing propulsion technical committee solicits student papers which address the design, analysis, optimization, testing, and evaluation of technologies and systems that enable supersonic and hypersonic air vehicle propulsion. The key technology areas include but are not limited to ramjet, scramjet and combined cycle engines, inlets, isolators, combustion chambers, nozzles and other enabler components, the design methods and optimization, thermodynamic analysis, the measurement techniques and numerical methods facilitating the interpretation of the physics observed within High-Speed propulsion systems as well as materials, structures and manufacturing methods aiming at construction of the engines.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Focus on high-speed flight regime above or equal Mach 5 or topic related to this flight regime. Topic range includes the same topics as in the general HSABP Call for Papers.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

Focus on high-speed flight regime above or equal Mach 5, technical excellence, conciseness, technical approach, technical creativity, compliance with AIAA SciTech style guide and AIAA requirements.

Please direct questions to: 
B. Danette Allen, NASA

Human Machine Teaming Best Student Paper

Papers are sought that address theoretical, analytical, simulated, experimental, or implementation results related to aerospace applications for advances in human machine teaming where the paper can focus on one of three general elements: the human, the machine, and interactions and interdependencies between them. Concepts regarding human physiology, psychology, human factors, cognitive models, and human performance that support aspects of human machine teaming are of interest. Additionally, concepts regarding artificial intelligence, explainable AI (xAI), machine learning, modeling, feature engineering (e.g., biosignal processing), and human-machine interfaces, which support the mapping of the human to the machine, the interaction with the machine, elucidates trust, and other facets of the human machine system are all topic areas of focus.

Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Submissions will be evaluated by a team which is comprised of:

1. Members of the conference program committee
2. Representatives from the Human Machine Teaming TC

Rules:

• Participation is limited to current graduate and undergraduate students from any accredited, degree-program educational institution.
• The teams should be composed of at least one AIAA student member and at least one advisor who is an AIAA member.
• Submissions by individuals or teams are acceptable
• Required submission format: PowerPoint charts + short abstract
• Optional submission material: videos, system mock-ups, demonstrations

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

The criteria for which each idea will be evaluated on:

• Compliance: is the idea submission complete and does it comply with the rules of the challenge?
• Novelty: does the idea describe a novel approach to providing a solution?
• Originality: how original is the proposed technology or use of existing technology?
• Relevance: How well does the idea relate to the topic and provide a solution aligned with the goals of this challenge?
• Feasibility: how likely can the idea be prototyped?
• Value Proposition: if successful, how well does the idea solve a stakeholder’s need and how likely would the solution be transitioned to a stakeholder?

Please direct questions to: 
Andrew Lacher, NASA

Intelligent Systems Best Student Paper

Students are invited to submit extended abstracts by the abstract submission deadline in any broad area of Intelligent Systems to the Intelligent Systems Student Paper Competition. Systems of interest include both military and commercial aerospace systems and those ground systems that are part of test, development, or operations of aerospace systems. Technologies that enable autonomy (i.e. safe and reliable operation with minimal or no human intervention) as well as collaborative human-machine teaming in complex aerospace systems/subsystems are of interest. These include but are not limited to: autonomous and expert systems; discrete planning/scheduling algorithms; intelligent data/image processing, learning, and adaptation techniques; data fusion and reasoning; and knowledge engineering. The application of such technologies to problems that highlight advanced air mobility, certification, carbon emissions/sustainability, space traffic management, and cislunar operations are of particular interest.

Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

• A student paper competition session will be held on Monday evening of January 6th, 2025 at the SciTech Forum; finalists will present during this session.
• Papers will also be included in the conference proceedings, and you will also be required to present as a regular paper in the AIAA SciTech (Two presentations will occur, one on Monday and one in the regular conference schedule).
• Please follow the abstract submission requirements in the Intelligent Systems Technical Discipline Call for Papers.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria
A student competition paper subcommittee and the chair will review the full draft manuscripts submitted as IS student paper competition papers based upon:

• Originality
• Practical Applications or Theoretical Foundations
• Long-Term relevance to IS Technologies
• Technically New, Innovative, or Constructive Review
• Professional Integrity (Credits prior work, claims are supported by results, is objective)
• Clear Presentation (writing, organizing, and graphics)

All papers that are not selected will be forwarded to the area chairs for possible inclusion as regular conference papers.
Directly after this session, the subcommittee will decide the winner based on both the paper and the presentation, and the student will be notified by email. The winner will be presented with an award, “Best Student Paper.”

Please direct questions to: 
Prof. Carl Ollivier-Gooch, University of British Columbia

MVCE Best Student Paper

The Meshing, Visualization, and Computational Environments (MVCE) Technical Committee is holding a student paper competition for the AIAA SciTech Forum. The student who writes the best extended abstract will receive a $500 award, which will be paid in advance of the conference, to defray the cost of attending the AIAA SciTech Forum.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

The extended abstracts will be judged by a subcommittee of the MVCE based upon the importance of the work, originality, quality, and completeness. To be eligible, the student needs to be full-time at either the graduate or undergraduate level. Students are encouraged to submit extended abstracts that are as close as possible to the anticipated final paper.

Please direct questions to:
Andrew Dahir, MIT Lincoln Lab
Scott Palo, University of Colorado Boulder

Small Satellite Best Student Paper Award

The AIAA Small Satellite Technical Committee is proud to announce the Best Student Paper Competition at the AIAA SciTech Forum. Entrants will be judged by technical committee members and the judging will include both the written manuscript and the oral presentation.  Full-time students at any academic level are encouraged to participate and eligibility requirements are defined by the AIAA and outlined at the top of this page.  More details about the evaluation process can be obtained by contacting awards_chair@aiaa-smstc.org.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Abstract: Students are encouraged to submit extended abstracts (70% complete papers) which demonstrate the maturity of the work. When submitting to the abstract submission website, select “Student Paper Competition” as the presentation type. Semi-finalists will be chosen based on an evaluation of the extended abstracts. The results of the semi-final round will not be made public. 
Deadline: Final student manuscripts must be uploaded to the conference manuscript submission website by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time USA on 11 November 2024 (this is earlier than the deadline for regular technical papers). Students who miss this November deadline will be removed from the student paper competition but may still be allowed to present in the oral session.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

The award evaluation will be based on both the written manuscript (75%) and oral presentation (25%).

Please direct questions to:
Lulin Jiang, Baylor University
Tarek Abdel-Salam, East Carolina University

Terrestrial Energy Systems Best Student Paper Award

This award will be presented to best student paper submitted under Terrestrial Energy Systems Technical Committee.

Please direct questions to:
Andrew Lacher, NASA Langley
Keith Hoffler, Adaptive Aerospace

Unmanned Systems Student Best Paper Award

Single paper awarded based on technical discipline selection criteria below.

Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Must be submitted/presented under any of the Unmanned Systems topics.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

Selection will be done by a panel of 4-5 judges made up of the student paper competition chairs and 2-3 other committee members who do not have a conflict of interest with the candidates.