Tag: 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 30, 2026 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce the winners of six of the U.S.-based 2026 Regional Student Conferences. The first-place winners in each of the high school, undergraduate, graduate, and undergraduate team categories (listed below) receive cash prizes.

More than 1,100 students and professionals attended across all six of the recent conferences. There were a record-breaking 389 student papers presented, most of which will be published by AIAA and available on Aerospace Research Central (ARC) later this year. This is also the first year every region hosted a high school category.

“We’re excited to see our university student members gaining real-life experiences,” said AIAA CEO Clay Mowry. “For many students, these conferences are their first opportunity to formally present their research and receive valuable feedback from industry professionals. Their creativity and passion for aerospace was on full display and the future of aerospace is bright indeed.”

“We’re grateful to the local aerospace industry and universities in the conference cities for hosting tours and sponsoring the events. The dedication from the many local AIAA section volunteers helps make these conferences a resounding success,” Mowry added.

The AIAA Foundation funds the regional student conferences, in addition to contributions from many other regional-level sponsors.

Region I Winners
High School Category

• First Place: “Real-Time Detection and Active Mitigation of Command-and-Control Link Exploits in Consumer UAVs,” Joseph Park and Matthew Jablonski, Ardsley High School (Ardsley, NY)
• Second Place: “AEROCOOL: Aerospike Engine Research On COOLing through Biomimicry,” Devin Wanchoo, Mazen Ben Chouikha, and Michael Obeng, Osbourn Park High School/Governor’s School at Innovation Park (Manassas, VA)
• Third Place: “Feel the Beat: A Wearable Vibrotactile Device for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,” Tanmayi Mendu, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Alexandria, VA)

Undergraduate Category

• First Place: “Free-Flight Aerodynamics of Ellipsoidal Clusters in Hypersonic Flow,” Robert Chase Latyak and Stuart Laurence, University of Maryland College Park (College Park, MD)
• Second Place: “A Computational Approach to Graduate Centrifuge Profiles for Patrial Gravity Planetary Environments,” Cabell Jones, Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA)
• Third Place: “Design and Implementation of a Six-Element Autonomous Active Aerodynamics System for Formula SAE,” Duncan Kuchar, Leonard Hamilton, and Huan Xu, University of Maryland College Park (College Park, MD)

Graduate Category

• First Place: “Partial Optimization of Spacecraft Sandwich Shielding from Hypervelocity Impacts,” Brandon Soto and Javid Bayandor, University at Buffalo (Buffalo, NY)
• Second Place: “Overcoming the Parametric Modeler: A Native Python Approach to the Particular Risk Analysis,” Joey Vézina, Luca Leccese, and Susan Liscouët-Hanke, Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
• Third Place: “Inverse Kinematic Solutions for the BioBot Concept’s Support Umbilical Tending Manipulator,” Romeo Perlstein, Sai Srujana Theerthala, and David Akin, University of Maryland College Park (College Park, MD)

Team Category

• First Place: “Comparison of High Energy Density Fuel Additives Hybrid Rocket,” Cayden Smedley, Aidan Lennon, and Ian Keil, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, VA)
• Second Place: “Development of a Low-Cost, High-Precision Two-Stage Airdrop Model,” William Scheirey, Paige Rust, William Kiley, and Tanner Ferguson, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA)
• Third Place: “Design and Validation of a Gravity-Gradient Boom Arm for Hybrid Attitude Control of a PocketQube Satellite,” Leopold Zitzmann, Lucas Wing, Trout Marnell, Olivia DeMelo, Kyle Leger, Emily Hagen, Aiden Leduc, and Saurav Basnet, Wentworth Institute of Technology (Boston, MA)

Region II Winners
High School Category

• First Place: “Integrated Aero-Structural Optimization of Bio-Inspired and Generative AI Airfoils with Internal Lattice Architectures,” Saahil Doshi, Cashton Isaac, and Ramana Pidaparti, Oconee County High School (Watkinsville, GA)
• Second Place: “Computational Analysis of Propeller-Wing Interaction: Quantifying Lift on a NACA 4412 Airfoil,” Tejus Peri and Ansh Mishra, Alliance Academy for Innovation (Cumming, GA)
• Third Place: “Real-Time Digital Twin Implementation for Predictive Maintenance of UAVs Using Embedded Sensor Fusion and Machine Learning,” Naren Pai, William G. Enloe High School (Raleigh, NC)

Undergraduate Category

• First Place: “Aero-Acoustic Optimization and Experimental Validation of a NACA 2415 Toroidal UAV Propeller,” Abhinav Das, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte, NC)
• Second Place: “Design, Manufacturing, and Testing of a Data Acquisition System for Use in the Development of Control Systems for Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Systems,” Tucker Jaudon and Austin Hoff, Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS)
• Third Place: “Modeling and Stability Analysis of Inertial Roll Coupling in Supersonic Sounding Rockets,” Saptak Das, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

Graduate Category

• First Place: “Exact Beltramian Solution of the Bidirectional Vortex Motion in a Capped Ellipsoidal Cyclonic Rocket Engine,” Patrick Eid and Joseph Majdalani, Auburn University (Auburn, AL)
• Second Place: “Novel Modification of Shock-Tube Facility for Strain-Testing of Carbon Fiber Airframes Under Impulsive Shock Loading,” Jonathan Zak, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
• Third Place: “An Image–Based Stochastic Model for Predicting Microstructure Effects on Shock-Induced Ignition and Burn in Pressed HMX,” Philip Melton and Keith Gonthier, Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA)

Team Category

• First Place: “Reaction Wheel Roll Stabilization and Control for an L1 High-Power Rocket,” Sebastien Martinez, Ethan Koh, Renato Dell’Osso, Rachit Gupta, Dahananjay Manikandan, Dante Midei, and Lucas Alonso-Munoyerro, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)
• Second Place: “Integrated Design and Analysis of a Low-Cost, Motor-Driven Airbrake System for a Sounding Rocket,” Juan Alizo Ewald, Gavin Wilson, Nicholas Dagnino, Parsa Novin, Austin Applestone, Andrew Darby, and Brooklyn Schnupp, University of Georgia (Athens, GA)
• Third Place: “Design of a 1000 N N2O/Paraffin-ABS Hybrid Rocket Engine for a Reusable VTVL Lander,” Sukhmani Sethi, Matthew Xu, Veer Gudhka, Chengle Qian, Felix Gusic, Valeriy Donchev, Amaan Patel, Grace Dilgard, and Szu Heng Chen, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

Outstanding Student Branch Category

• First Place: “How to Plan Your Conference: the University of South Carolina’s Guide to Large Event Planning,” University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC)
• Second Place: “From Rocky Top to the Classroom: K-5 STEM Outreach by the Volunteers,” University of Tennessee Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
• Third Place: “Florida Tech AIAA: Expanding Student Opportunity on the Space Coast and Beyond,” Florida Institute of Technology (Melbourne, FL)

Open Topic Category

• First Place: “Applications of Quantum Optimization Algorithms in Low-Thrust Spaceflight Navigation,” Aneesh Sattiraju and Skyler Kim, Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)
• Second Place: “Comparative Analysis of Energy Absorption in TPMS vs. Honeycomb Lattices for Lunar Lander Strut Attenuation,” Gabriel Brazzeal and Kenza Rih, University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)
• Third Place: “Exploring Space Medicine: Human Health Hazards in Space Exploration,” Alyssa Bice, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)

Region III Winners
High School Category

• First Place: “A Probabilistic Framework for Terrain-Aware Emergency Site Selection Under Thrust Loss,” Bhavna Jonnadula, Troy High School (Troy, MI)
• Second Place: “Interaction-Induced Momentum Redistribution in Clustered Hall-Effect Thrusters Using a Reduced Prescribed-Field Model,” Venkataashish Gogineni, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (Aurora, IL)
• Third Place: “Optimization of Rocker-Bogie Suspension Systems for Improved Rover Traversal Speed on Extreme Extraterrestrial Terrain,” Emilee Colton, Sumedh Pendyala, and Makayo Cheung, Oswego East High School (Oswego, IL)

Undergraduate Category

• First Place: “Feasibility of Low-Cost Hypersonic Vehicles for Second-Mode Instability Data Collection,” Aditya Singh and Brandon Chynoweth, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)
• Second Place: “Development and Optimization of Inductively Coupled Plasma Neutralizer for Electric Propulsion Applications,” David Rubin, Stephen Tushentsvo, and Alexey Shashurin, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)
• Third Place: “Automated Processing and Classification of Lidar Point Clouds for Flight Path Modeling Software,” Kavanaugh Frank and Chad Mourning, Ohio University (Athens, OH)

Graduate Category

• First Place: “Thermodynamic Cycle Analysis of Turbo-Compound Engine with High-Efficiency-Hybrid-Cycle Internal Combustion Rotary Configuration,” Chloe Amoroso and Maryam Younessi-Sinaki, Cleveland State University (Cleveland, OH)
• Second Place: “Hybrid Actuator Control Allocation: A Hardware Comparison of QP and PI Allocators on an Air Spindle Testbed,” Jad Halabi, Ritwik Majumdar, and Oliver Jia-Richards, University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI)
• Third Place: “Pulse Detonation Driven Ignition of a Rotating Detonation Engine,” Ryan Timmerman and Jason Payyappilly, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)

Team Category

• First Place: “Examination of the Viability of Reclaimed Gas Electric Propulsion for Orbit Maintenance of Crewed Space Stations,” Noah Negron, Sashvat Krishnan, Henry Poutasse, and Oliver Jia-Richards, University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI)
• Second Place: “Design, Testing, and Comparisons of a Carbon Dioxide Compressed Gas Propulsion Module for IU CubeSat Platforms,” Varun Chitiveli, Brody Booker, Max Cirino, Antonio Accardo, and Nishanth Kunchala, Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
• Third Place: “Design and Analysis of a Hydrogen-Air RDC for Power Generation Research,” Deepesh Balwani, Sumit Laha, Anjali Patel, Oluwaniademi Ogundana, and David Taranowski, Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)

Region IV Winners
High School Category

• First Place: “Feasbility of Oblique Wings in Aircraft Design and Efficiency,” Maximus Pongkorung, Atascocita High School (Humble, TX)
• Second Place: “Analyzing Lift Generation in a Modified Magnus Cylinder-Integrated Airfoil for Short Take-Off and Landing,” Ajinkya Joshi, Marzia Cescon, Daniel Floryan, John Foster Dulles High School (Sugar Land, TX)
• Third Place: “Velocity and Angle Compensated Turret Aiming for Simultaneous Shooting and Motion,” Arka Rebbapragada, Arun Rebbapragada, Wanni Zhu, and Stuart Otten, Newman Smith High School (Carrollton, TX)

Undergraduate Category

• First Place: “Characterization of Mack Mode Instabilities in Mach 7 Flow,” Smruthi Shashidhar and Mackenzie Vargas-Lebron, University of Texas at San Antonio (San Antonio, TX)
• Second Place: “Experimental Evaluation of Counter-Rotating Co-Axial Propellers with Variable Spacing and Dissimilar Shaft Speeds,” Gage Nold and Nathan Revor, Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK)
• Third Place: “Image Processing and Time of Flight Analysis of Propagating Shocks,” Richard Otano, University of Texas – Arlington (Arlington, TX)

Graduate Category

• First Place: “Configuration Aerodynamics Methodology for Conceptual Design of Hypersonic Vehicles,” Stephen Atkins, University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX)
• Second Place: “Design and LPV Modeling of Deployable Integrated Tensegrity Torus–Cable Domes,” Weizhi Cao, University of Houston (Houston, TX)
• Third Place: “Markov Chain Monte Carlo Estimation of Satellite Ballistic Coefficients for Re-entry Prediction,” Caden Matthews, University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK)

Team Category

• First Place: “FSO Communications with Liquid Crystal Spatial Light Modulators for Hypersonic and Re-entry Vehicles,” Ashlan Benson, Ruben Ooms, and Austin Eckert, Tarleton State University (Stephenville, TX)
• Second Place: “”Jinx”: High Thrust-to-Weight Ratio Design for Collegiate Bi-Propellant Liquid Rocket Development,” Grace Zimmer, Haven Russell, and Emilio Mayorga, University of Texas at San Antonio (San Antonio, TX)
• Third Place: “Concentration of Ozone and Cosmic Radiation in the Stratosphere,” Evan Sie, Deborah Luo, Advaith Madala, Janani Arunpraksh, and Afreeda Hossain, University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson, TX)

Region V Winners
High School Category

• First Place: “Physics-Informed Learning of Jet Stream Variability and Aircraft-Relevant Momentum Transport Using Reanalysis Data,” Naga Sai and Dhiraj Kasam, Moline Sr High School (Moline, IL)
• Second Place: “A Multi-Fidelity Framework for Trustworthy AI-Driven Transonic Airfoil Optimization with Automated Hallucination Detection,” Krithik Senthilkumar, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (Aurora, IL)

Undergraduate Category

• First Place: “Reducing Sputtering on Spacecraft to Mitigate Secondary Radiation Exposure,” Anton Golovko, University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND)
• Second Place: “Aerodynamic Shape Optimization for the DPW4 Transport Aircraft Using DAFoam,” Nicholas Barber, Iowa State University (Ames, IA)
• Third Place: “Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Adaptive Cycle Engine Aircraft using Aviary,” Marcos De Leon, Iowa State University (Ames, IA)

Graduate Category

• First Place: “Online Inertia Tensor Identification for Non-Cooperative Spacecraft via Augmented UKF,” Batu Candan, Iowa State University (Ames, IA)
• Second Place: “A Data-Driven Assessment of Impact Erosion Resistance Using ML and Multi Criteria Decision Making,” Debanan Bhadra, Iowa State University (Ames, IA)
• Third Place: “Modeling Relativistic Effects on Clocks in Cislunar Space Along Reference Trajectories of Varying Dynamical Fidelity,” Emily Matteson, University of Colorado Boulder (Boulder, CO)

Team Category

• First Place: “Use of Formal Verification Techniques for the Dynamic Degradation of the GRIFEX CubeSat.” Michael Jacks, Gustavo Abagge Luzzi, Isabella Brewer, and Erin Riley, Iowa State University (Ames, IA)
• Second Place: “Multi-Rover GNC Architecture for Autonomous Searching Using Frontier Planning and Gain-Scheduled Control,” Yu Kang Kong and Vishnu Duriseti, University of Colorado Boulder (Boulder, CO)
• Third Place: “Evaluation of Subsurface Probe for Investigating Cryogenic Environments for the Enceladus Underwater Robotic Observation and Property Analysis Mission,” Benjamin Forbes, Adrian Acevedo, Melanie Reym, Brandon Velarde, and Nathan Brubaker, Saint Louis University (St. Louis, MO)

Region VI Winners
High School Category

• First Place: “A Heuristic Load-Balancing Algorithm for Multi-Mesh Simulations on GPUs,” Leo Sitaraman, Homestead High School (Cupertino, CA)
• Second Place: “Passive Flow Control with Turbulators on the ROAMX-0201 Airfoil at Low Reynolds Numbers,” Daniel Guo, The Bishop’s School (LA Jolla, CA)
• Third Place: “A Novel Method for Reorienting CubeSats Using Non-Commutative Internal Movements,” Gregory Shechter, Palos Verdes High School (Palos Verdes Estates, CA)

Undergraduate Category

• First Place: “Residual Learning of Universal-Variable Corrections for Fast Lambert Transfers,” Drew Stannard-Stockton, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, CA)
• Second Place: “GPU Acceleration of 2D Panel Methods for Rapid Aerodynamic Prediction,” Gisselle Frisby, California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach, CA)
• Third Place: “Two-Mode Adaptable Camber Wing Design for Subsonic Cruise Efficiency,” Samuel Thomas Joseph, San José State University (San Jose, CA)

Graduate Category

• First Place: “SpaceOTTER – Space Optically Tracked Testbed for Experiments and Research,” Alexander DeBartolo, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, CA)
• Second Place: “Development of a 3 Degree of Freedom Manipulator for Use on a Planar Microgravity Testbed,” Jackson Cordova, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, CA)
• Third Place: “Design and Optimization of Repeat Ground Track Constellation for Discontinuous Regional Coverage,” Paige Jewell, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, CA)

Team Category

• First Place: “Development and Testing of an Autonomous Guided Parafoil for Small Suborbital Payload Recovery,” Nicholas Lototsky and Andrew Lana, University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
• Second Place: “Particulate Contamination Detection and Targeted Removal for Telescope Optics,” Jack Clark and Alisa Higuchi, University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
• Third Place: “Design and Construction of Water Electrolysis Propulsion System,” Nathan Huynh and JC Garcia, University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)

Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

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