Student Paper Competitions

Please direct questions to:
Ellen McIsaac, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

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:
Terry Meyer, Purdue University
Christopher Limbach, University of Michigan

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 Aeroprobe 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:
Krishna Sampigethaya, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Gregory Falco, Cornell University

Best Student Paper Award in Aerospace Cybersecurity

The Best Student Paper Award in Aerospace Cybersecurity recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of cybersecurity within the aviation and space domains at the AIAA SciTech Forum. This award highlights excellence in research, innovation, and technical depth demonstrated by student authors in the cybersecurity technical discipline. Students who wish to be considered for this award must select the Best Student Paper option during the submission process. Full papers will be evaluated based on AIAA requirements and technical committee selection criteria. The top 3 to 5 finalist papers will be selected, and their authors will be invited to present their work in a dedicated session. The winner will be announced during the AIAA SciTech Forum, recognizing their exceptional research and contributions to advancing aerospace cybersecurity.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

To be eligible for this award, the student must be an AIAA member or student member, the primary author of the paper, and in attendance at the conference to present the paper. In addition, all work must have been performed while the author was a student.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria:

The written papers will be judged based on the following criteria: (1) originality (is the work original, or is it something that has been addressed in the past); (2) technical quality (appropriate level of technicality and free of errors); (3) organization, completeness, grammar and usage (style and clarity); (4) literature review/acknowledgement of prior work and explanation of the relevance to the work presented in the paper; (5) accuracy of experimental or numerical results (ref. AIAA standards for journals); (6) importance/contribution to field. The student author of the best paper will receive a certificate after the conference.

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:
Álvaro Romero-Calvo, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jeff Marchetta, The University of Memphis

AIAA Gravity Dependent Science Technology (GDST) Student Paper Award

For outstanding paper(s) accepted / presented in the AIAA Forums (Sci-Tech, and others) in Gravity Dependent Science and Technology and its subtopics.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

• AIAA Student Membership is required.
• Non-student or professionals enrolled as AIAA Student members will not be accepted or manuscription submissions.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria:

• Originality,
• In good English,
• Following AIAA Manuscript styles and format,
• Main body of the work/manuscript/data was not published in other journal, proceedings or conferences (AIAA or non-AIAA)
• Clear logical expression,
• Scientific and Engineering Integrity,
• Artificial Intelligence is not allowed for text generation or improving language.

Please direct questions to:
Spilios Theodoulis, Delft University of Technology
Dipanjan Saha, Northeastern University

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: 
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

• All papers that are not selected will be forwarded to the area chairs for possible inclusion as regular conference papers. A separate student paper competition session is usually held on Monday during SciTech. Students will also present during regular technical sessions.
• 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:
Devina P. Sanjaya, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Organized by Meshing, Visualization, and Computational Environments (MVCE) Technical Committee

Sponsored by

The MVCE Student Paper Competition invites undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their innovative approaches to meshing, visualization, and computational environments. Original research papers on all aspects of MVCE are welcomed. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• AI/ML-Assisted Geometry Modeling and Meshing
• High-Order (Curved) Mesh Adaptation
• Mesh Generation Methods and Grid Quality Metrics for Large-Scale Meshes
• Visualization and Knowledge Extraction of Large-Scale Data Sets
• Automated Workflows and Frameworks for Engineering Design and Analysis
• High Performance Computing (HPC)

This competition aims to foster research creativity, provide a platform for students to present their work, and recognize their academic excellence. All participants of this competition must submit an extended abstract and a full manuscript and present their work at the 2026 AIAA SciTech Forum. The student winner will receive a certificate and a $500 award.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

• The student participant must be the first author on the extended abstract and full manuscript.
• The student participant must be the presenter of the technical paper.
• Only one paper submission per student participant is allowed.
• The student participant cannot be the winner of the preceding year’s competition.
• Full manuscript must not exceed 25 pages (i.e., including references and appendices).
• All papers submitted to this competition will be included in the conference proceedings and presented alongside other regular papers at the 2026 AIAA SciTech Forum.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

The extended abstracts, full manuscripts, and oral presentations (including Q&A) will be judged by MVCE Technical Committee. The judges consist of five MVCE experts from academia, industry, and national laboratories. Judges are selected carefully to avoid any conflict of interests. The evaluation criteria are:

• Technical Content (30%)
• Originality (30%)
• Practical Applications or Theoretical Foundations (20%)
• Written and Oral Communication (20%)

Please direct questions to:
Jeffery Schroeder, FAA

Modeling and Simulation Technologies Best Student Paper Award

The AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Best Student Paper Award recognizes the best paper and presentation by a university student at the SciTech Forum on the topic of modeling and simulation.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

A minimum of 4 total submissions is required to have a special student session.  Presentations will be judged on the first day of the SciTech Forum in a special student session.  The presentation results will be combined with judging results of the papers.  The winner of the competition will be announced at the Awards Luncheon at the conference.   For both experience and professional feedback, students will present their paper twice at SciTech – first at the special student session, and second as part of a regular session that is most appropriate to their topic.  If at least 4 submissions are not received, a student’s submission will still be considered for the regular conference.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria:

Student paper presentations will be judged on technical content, use of media, delivery style, and organization and flow.   The written student papers will be judged on technical quality, importance/relevance, originality, and conciseness/style/clarity.

Please direct questions to:
Ramesh Kolar, U.S. Army CCDC Aviation & Missile Center

Southwest Research Institute Student Paper Award in Non-Deterministic Approaches

Non-Deterministic Approaches are technologies aimed at understanding and managing the variations and uncertainties inherent in the design, production, and operation of physical systems. These technologies include computational and experimental methods to quantify uncertainty, propagate uncertainty in complex physical systems, design systems under uncertainty, and estimate the reliability and performance of these systems for confident decision making. The NDA conference is a forum to discuss both the development of new methods for solving these problems and the application of non-deterministic approaches to problems of interest to the aerospace community. 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

Plasmadynamics and Lasers Best Student Paper Award

The Plasmadynamics and Lasers Best Student Paper award is awarded once per year at the summer AVIATION Forum and is selected from papers submitted to Plasmadynamics and Lasers sessions in the preceding AVIATION and SciTech forums. Candidates for the contest are found by e-mailing all first authors of submitted papers around one month prior to a forum. Any paper in which a student is the first author, and that is presented by that student, can be considered for the award. Non-students, such as the student’s advisor(s) etc., can be included as co-authors as long as the paper describes work that has been performed primarily by the student. Judging is performed in two steps. First, the presentations of all of the contestants are evaluated by Plasmadynamics and Lasers members. The papers corresponding to the best 3 to 5 presentations are then judged by a committee of Plasmadynamics and Lasers members, who then select the best paper recipient.

Please direct questions to:
Melissa Choi, MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Sensor Systems and Information Fusion Best Student Paper

The Sensor Systems and Information Fusion Technical Committee is holding a student paper competition for the AIAA SciTech Forum.  Students are invited to submit papers that address theoretical, analytical, simulated, experimental, or implementation results related to aerospace applications for sensor systems, information and sensor fusion, and autonomous resource management. Advances in the fusion of sensor networks, cooperative sensing, autonomy, and multi-system collaboration are of particular interest. Concepts regarding Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning are of interest as well. Additionally, advanced sensors (neuromorphic, quantum, etc.), sensors for situational awareness, and new sensor designs and/or sensor hardware are encouraged topic focus areas.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

May be submitted/presented under any of the Sensor Systems and Information Fusion topics.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

The scoring for the award will be based on the written paper (70%) and oral presentation (30%).  The written paper will be judged on the following categories: Technical Quality (25%), Relevance (25%), Originality (25%) and Clarity (25%).

Please direct questions to:
Andrew Dahir, MIT Lincoln Lab
Allison O’Connor, GLG

Small Satellite Best Student Paper Award

The AIAA Small Satellite Technical Committee is proud to host the Best Student Paper Competition at the AIAA SciTech Forum. This competition recognizes outstanding student contributions to the field of small satellite systems.

Papers will be evaluated by technical committee members based on both the written manuscript and the oral presentation. Full-time students at any academic level are encouraged to participate. Eligibility requirements are defined by AIAA and outlined at the top of this page.

For more details about the evaluation process, please contact [email protected].

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Students are encouraged to submit extended abstracts that are approximately 70% complete, demonstrating the maturity of their work. When submitting to the abstract submission website, students should select “Student Paper Competition” as the paper type. Semi-finalists will be chosen based on an evaluation of the extended abstracts, though the results of the semi-final round will not be made public.

Papers must make meaningful contributions to the body of literature on small satellites and should clearly explain their specific relevance to small satellite systems. Final student manuscripts must be uploaded to the conference manuscript submission website by 23:59 Eastern Time (EST-USA) on 13 November 2025, which is earlier than the deadline for regular technical papers. Students who miss this November deadline may 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%).

Written Evaluation Criteria:

• Impact, 1 = Work does not advance the field, 10 = excellent contribution to the field of small satellites
• Novelty, 1 = The work has been done before, 10 = The approach is highly original
• Background and references, 1 = there is no related work discussion or background, 10 = the paper includes an excellent summary of related work and background
• Writing, 1 = The paper is not well written, 10 = The paper is well written, well organized, and clear
• Technical Merit, 1 = The paper does not show any technical merit, 10 = The paper shows a good grasp on the technical aspects behind the paper and demonstrates technical merit.

Presentation Evaluation Criteria:

• Presentation (Done in Person), 1 = The presenter is not well prepared and does not convey the topic adequately, 10 = The presenter is well prepared and conveys the topic adequately.

Please direct questions to:
Bhupendra Khandelwal, University of Alabama
SA Sherif, University of Florida
Santosh Shanbhogue, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Terrestrial Energy Systems Best Student Paper Award

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

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

Entries will be considered based on the following criteria: The scope of the paper is within the subtopics in the TES discipline; originality; scientific merit; creativity; and technological impact in the field of terrestrial energy systems.

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

Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems Student Best Paper Award

Single paper awarded based on technical discipline selection criteria below.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

Single paper awarded based on technical discipline selection criteria below.

• Must be submitted/presented under any of the Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems topics.
• It is strongly recommended that each paper should have no more than four (4) authors and that the majority of the authors are students. Adhering to general practice of publication standards and ethics, only authors contributing to the composition of the paper should be included.
• There is strict implementation of AIAA’s “No paper, no Podium. No podium, no paper” policy.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

Evaluation will be conducted by a panel of judges from AIAA’s Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems Integration & Outreach Committee (UASIC) and other relevant committees, who do not have a conflict of interest with the paper and presentation being evaluated. More information about exact evaluation criteria will be communicated to the papers/authors selected for in person presentation at SciTech 2026.

Please direct questions to:
Zhenhua Jiang, University of Dayton
Mingtai Chen, North Carolina State University

V/STOL Aircraft Systems Student Paper Competition

The V/STOL Aircraft Systems Technical Committee sponsors its Student Paper competition at SciTech.  The students will present their works in the V/STOL Technical Sessions at SciTech.

The V/STOL Technical Committee awards a cash prize of $500 to the author of its Best Student Paper.

Additional Technical Discipline Eligibility Requirements & Other Rules

A student entry must submit his or her paper to the V/STOL Technical Discipline and may not compete his or her same paper in multiple competitions.

Technical Discipline Selection Criteria

V/STOL Technical Committee’s Awards judges will evaluate each student’s final conference paper and conference presentation based on four criteria:

• Originality and creativity,
• Technical content and quality,
• Relevance to V/STOL, and
• Organization and Clarity.

The judges will assess the “relevance” relative to the V/STOL Call for Papers.  They assess “organization” partly by the paper’s conformity to the AIAA SciTech Forum Manuscript Template and the presentation’s effective use of time and “clarity” by the coherence and intelligibility of the paper and presentation.