Events Category: Webinars

Fall 2025 AIAA Hypersonics Webinar (AIAA Member Exclusive)

On-Demand Replay

Featuring Francesco Panerai

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This event is offered exclusively to AIAA members. Want to learn more about the benefits of AIAA membership?

Join us for the Fall 2025 AIAA Hypersonics Webinar, presented by the HyTASP TC with featured speaker Francesco Panerai. This webinar will provide insights into carbon ablation mechanisms as Panerai discusses two recent experiments—high-speed X-ray imaging and plasma wind tunnel testing—that reveal how microstructure, oxygen interactions, and surface chemistry influence material erosion, mass loss, and failure mechanisms. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the complex processes governing high-temperature ablation in carbon-based materials.

Speaker

Francesco Panerai is an Assistant Professor in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research covers advanced materials for extreme environments, transport in porous media, and hypersonic aerothermodynamics. Prior to Illinois, he was a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. He received his PhD and Research Master in Aeronautics and Aerospace from von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (Belgium) and a M.Sc. and a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Perugia (Italy). He is a recipient of the 2019 Air Force Young Investigator Award and is an AIAA Associate Fellow. He is one of the founding members of the Center for Hypersonics and Entry Systems Studies (CHESS) at Illinois.

AIAA Regional Student Conferences Webinar

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Join us for this webinar to learn more about our Regional Student Conferences and the many benefits of participating.

AIAA’s Regional Student Conferences offer an annual opportunity for undergraduate, graduate, and (new this year) high school students to present and publish their work in a smaller conference setting. In addition to competing for cash prizes, participants gain valuable experience presenting their research, receiving constructive feedback from aerospace professionals, and connecting with peers from other universities. The conferences also feature guest speakers, exhibitor and recruiter interactions, lab and industry tours, and more.

Our Regions I-VI Student Conference is coming up this Spring 2026 and the Call for Abstracts is now open.

Dates, locations, and details for the Regional Student Conferences can be found here .

2025 Technical Committee Recruitment Webinar

On-Demand Recording Available

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Learn more about AIAA’s 71 Technical Committees from the Technical Activities Division (TAD) Directors and Chief. What is an AIAA Technical Committee, why should you join, and what are the options? This is an informal session and we encourage attendees to participate and ask questions.

TAD Leadership

Lesley Weitz, Chief of TAD
Dawn Phillips, Aerospace Design & Structures Group Director
Martiqua Post, Aerospace Sciences Group Director
Mitch Ingham, Information Systems Group Director
Rusty Powell, Propulsion & Energy Group Director
Dave Maroney, Aircraft Technology, Integration, & Operations Group Director
Stephen Blanchette, Space and Missiles Group Director

AVIATIONxWebinar: NASA Aeronautics – Vision and Outlook

NASA has updated its vision to guide its aeronautics research portfolio and provide innovative technologies and concepts to revolutionize key parts of aviation. The four key focus areas are to revolutionize aerospace engineering methods, transform airframes and propulsion, pioneer high-speed flight, and automate airspace and safety management capabilities. Research and developing activities are executed in partnership with the industry, academia, and other government agencies. Join us as Robert Pearce, Associate Administrator, NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, discusses this update and NASA’s strategic direction as it navigates the future.

Speaker:

Robert Pearce, Associate Administrator, NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Robert Pearce is the associate administrator for NASA ARMD. Pearce manages the agency’s aeronautics research portfolio and guides its strategic direction, including research in quiet supersonic flight over land, urban air mobility, autonomy, highly efficient advanced air vehicle concepts, electrified aircraft propulsion, advanced materials, airspace operations and safety, integration and flight demonstrations of aviation systems, and the nurturing and development of transformative concepts for aviation.

Moderator:

Richard Wahls, Sustainable Flight National Partnership Mission Integration Manager, NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Rich Wahls is NASA’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership (SFNP) Mission Integration Manager for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD). He is responsible for long-range strategic technical planning, as well as coordination of projects, supporting SFNP across ARMD’s programs and with industry, academia, and national/international government agencies. He supports the objective of delivering validated, high-readiness-level technologies to industry that enable the next generation sustainable subsonic transport aircraft.

Aerospace Perspectives Series: Validation for Aerospace with Industrial CT: Driving Quality at Scale

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Quality is critical to mission success across aerospace applications. Changes—whether driven by new designs, advanced materials, or shifting supply chains—must be rigorously validated to ensure reliability and safety. Industrial CT scanning provides manufacturers with a non-destructive, high-resolution view of aerospace, defense, and avionics components. From composites and wiring to seals and valves, CT uncovers hidden flaws and pinpoints root causes of failures, reducing risk and ensuring consistent performance. Join Lumafield for a webinar to learn how CT scanning strengthens quality validation at every stage of development, from early R&D to automated, high-volume production.

What you’ll learn:

How CT scanning works and what insights it delivers
How to leverage CT for supplier qualification and incoming part verification
How to apply CT for composite structure analysis
How AI-driven workflows enable real-time, automated decision making
How to adopt CT scanning cost-effectively in both R&D and production

Speaker:

Ken Cedrone
Co-Founder and Head of Research and Development

Moderator:

Wesley Thio
Technical Product Marketing Manager

This webinar is free of charge and is open to the public. Registered attendees will receive a post-event email to access the on-demand recording.

Understanding Neurodivergence – Addressing Barriers and Challenges and Forging Stronger Collaboration

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This webinar is free of charge and is open to the public.

Join us for the “Understanding Neurodivergence – Addressing Barriers and Challenges and Forging Stronger Collaboration” webinar. Autism has received a lot of renewed attention in light of recent events. Unfortunately, this new attention has also brought with it a wealth of misconceptions and long-standing misinformation. Autism and other neurodivergent conditions affect a much wider swath of the population than most people realize, even those who are in fact neurodivergent themselves.

These conditions are especially prevalent in technical fields, where typical characteristics provide advantages in technical success. Despite this, normative paradigms in professional and academic settings create arbitrary and unnecessary barriers that artificially hamper neurodivergent people’s ability to contribute most fully.

The global pandemic showed us what is possible in regards to adjusting workplace paradigms and can serve as a strong example of how embracing simple adjustments can allow much wider contributions from a far broader pool of talent. This discussion will address the current gaps in Autism and Neurodivergent Awareness, Acceptance, and Support and offer ideas on adjustments that can benefit not just neurodivergent people, but whole industries and fields.

Aerospace Perspective Series: Harnessing Physics AI Models to Accelerate Aerospace Concept Exploration and Design

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A Physics AI revolution is brewing right now in the engineering sciences: the availability of massive amounts of data together with recent advances in physics-based AI/ML modeling architectures and the availability of differentiable physics solvers is making this possible. This revolution will have a meaningful and disruptive impact on how aircraft and aircraft components are designed and how distributed engineering teams are organized and work. With advances in large-scale data availability, Physics AI models can be trained in specific domains with inference times around 1–3 seconds but with accuracy in the predictions of the physics and derived quantities within the 1-2% range.

Join Professor Juan Alonso as he explains how Luminary Cloud’s SHIFT Models for aerospace applications can result in efficient 1) exploration of vast design spaces, 2) interactive design, 3) inference-based design optimization, 4) real-time control of physics systems, 5) uncertainty quantification and design under uncertainty, and 6) digital twin applications.

What You’ll Take Away

Learn about recent trends in Physics AI including how key developments are expanding the use cases these models can be leveraged for.
Discover the importance of generating massive amounts of high-fidelity data and how these data affect model accuracy for both scalar output quantities and field prediction.
Domain-specific vs foundational models: how far can we currently push Physics AI models and how can we improve model generalizability?
What are the most applicable use cases for this technology in aerospace engineering?

Speaker:

Juan Alonso
CTO and Cofounder, Luminary Cloud; Chair, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University

Obi Ndu
Chief Information and Digital Officer, Otto Aviation

Alonso cofounded Luminary Cloud, a modern CAE SaaS platform, in 2019. He previously served as Director of the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program. At Stanford University, he focuses on advanced computational methods for aerospace system design. Learn more about Alonso by visiting his LinkedIn profile.

This webinar is free of charge and is open to the public. Registered attendees will receive a post-event email to access the on-demand recording.

Meet Professionals from the Electric Propulsion Technical Committee

Join this interactive panel discussion for AIAA high school members. On this one-hour Zoom meeting you will hear from aerospace professional members of the AIAA Electric Propulsion Technical Committee. The EPTC’s work includes research, development, and application of electric propulsion devices, subsystems, and systems for auxiliary and primary propulsion for satellites and spacecraft. This is a great opportunity to hear directly from professionals in the field and ask them your own questions.

Advanced Air Mobility’s Contributions to Multimodal Solutions

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This webinar is free of charge and is open to the public

Advanced air mobility (AAM) involves innovative aircraft technologies, ranging from small drones to air taxis, to provide safe and efficient transportation in various settings. This webinar, co-hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), will explore how AAM fits into the multimodal network of goods and services, addressing potential solutions to current gaps in knowledge and operations.

Speakers:

Tombo Jones – Director·Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership
Trey Tillander, P.E. – Executive Director of Transportation Technology·Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)
Husni Idris – Research Aerospace Engineer, NASA Ames Research Center
Vishwanath Bulusu – Senior Aerospace Scientist, Crown Innovations, Inc.

Aerospace Perspectives Series: Uniting Simulation and Requirements: Verifying Cameo Requirements using Physics-Based Artifacts in VOLTA

On-Demand Recording Available

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The development of modern aerospace systems demands more than static architectural models. These systems require integrated, traceable validation processes that bridge the gap between system intent and physical performance—processes that can be supported through Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization (MDAO). While SysML captures logical architecture and requirements, it often lacks the fidelity needed to drive engineering decisions. This disconnect is especially pronounced when system models are not tightly integrated with simulation, analysis, and multidisciplinary design workflows.

During this session, ESTECO will discuss the practical challenges of implementing traceable verification and validation (V&V) within Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) initiatives and present a structured, pragmatic approach to addressing them. We’ll demonstrate how simulations from diverse tools can be referenced in cameo models using VOLTA—a flexible, general-purpose MDAO framework. Attendees will learn how VOLTA manages simulation data with full traceability, version control, and context, enabling confident, data-driven decisions.

The presentation will also show how separating architectural definition, simulation setup, and execution streamlines data handoffs across global teams. Finally, we’ll explore the strategic importance of supporting both small- and large-scale MBSE deployments, emphasizing the benefits of URI tracking, well-defined data models, and open API integration. A comprehensive strategy that supports both scales ensures the digital thread delivers immediate value while remaining adaptable and scalable over time.

Join AIAA and ESTECO to discover how the VOLTA digital engineering framework helps MBSE programs evolve from concept to compliance, with repeatable, traceable, simulation-driven V&V at their core.

Speakers:

Roel Van De Velde
Vice President of Aerospace and Defense, ESTECO North America

Daniel Schmidt
Senior Application Engineer, ESTECO North America

This webinar is free of charge and is open to the public. Registered attendees will receive a post-event email to access the on-demand recording.