During the course of his internship under Dr. Othmane Benafan at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, MAESTRO Lab member Leo Wood presented his research on Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) solutions for thermal management in electric aircraft to Dr. Marla E. Pérez-Davis, Deputy Director of NASA Glenn.
Selected as one of six interns to meet and share with the deputy director their research, Leo presented his investigations on the heat-absorbing properties of shape memory alloys (SMAs), as well as some demonstrations and current design prototypes for an SMA actuation system aimed to passively cool the electric motors on the newest generations of hybrid-electric aircraft being developed at NASA-Glenn.
Undergraduate research assistant Leo Wood (right) meets with the Deputy Director of NASA-Glenn during his Summer 2017 internship.