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On June 15, 2022, Patrick Walgren became the latest student to successful complete his doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering under Dr. Darren Hartl. Patrick joined the MAESTRO Laboratory after completing his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Lehigh University. He has taken a position at the Air Force Research Laboratory as a National Research Council Postdoctoral Researcher, a prestigious position sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[Read more…] about Patrick Walgren successfully completes doctoral studies

On June 13, 2022, Jacob L. Mingear became the first student within the MAESTRO Laboratory to complete all necessary requirements to earn his doctoral degree in Materials Science and Engineering, a department in which his Chair Dr. Hartl is an affiliated faculty member. Jacob joined the MAESTRO Laboratory after completing his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at University of Florida. He has taken a position at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

[Read more…] about Jacob L. Mingear completes his journey as a Ph.D. student

When she was 10 years old, Collette Gillaspie caught her first glimpse of a future on Mars. While visiting a nature and science museum during a family road trip, Gillaspie was mesmerized by an exhibit about a Martian habitat, memorizing all the bite-sized facts the information display had to offer and letting her mind imagine what it would be like to visit the red planet. Today, she’s a doctoral student studying aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University and conducting research in the MAESTRO Lab related to habitats and getting humans to the moon and Mars sustainably.

[Read more…] about MAESTRO student creates virtual outreach opportunity for fourth graders

Interview with Darren Hartl, Associate Professor at Texas A&M University

Dr. Hartl was recently interviewed by ambitious high school student Balamir Sahin for his “Skytalks” website, which has the mission of gathering a wide range of opinions and inputs regarding the field of aerospace engineering for informing young students from around the world regarding our amazing profession. Balamir asked some really wonderful questions, and Hartl did his best to give his perspective. Interested students can watch the interview with Dr. Hartl here and see similar perspectives from other aerospace professors and professionals here.

TAMU retreat attendees. Not pictured: Honorary guest Michael Bass from Boeing.

Continuing the tradition that was postponed last year, MAESTRO students and a distinguished guest converged on Ponca, AR for four days of technical activities and outdoor recreation. The event was held at the “Cedar Creek Lodge,” a stunning venue nestled in Ozark National Forest near the Buffalo National River. Senior PhD students Allen Davis, Jacob Mingear, and Patrick Walgren gave in-depth technical presentations on their current research projects, showing the other students “how it is done.” [Read more…] about MAESTRO “retreats” to the Ozarks

Three MAESTRO graduate students presented their work at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Materials and Manufacturing Directorate Summer Student Poster Session on August 5th, 2021. Incoming Master’s student Jared Lilly discussed his efforts on designing bending cylinders for high-temperature environments, current Master’s student Jessica Zamarripa presented her work on extending SPIDRS L-System encodings to circuit design and fabricating flexible capacitors, and current PhD student Patrick Walgren discussed novel reduced order design methods for efficient structural optimization. Great job guys!

Efficient and interpretable reduced order modeling of nonlinear structures.

Discovering optimal flexible circuits using graph-based L-system network optimization

Structural design of a compliant bending cylinder for high-supersonic applications

Research now shows that inserting an S-shaped, shape-memory alloy filler in aircraft wings can reduce the unpleasant noise created while landing.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have conducted a computational study that validates using a shape-memory alloy to reduce the jarring sounds of commercial airplanes during landing. They say these materials could be inserted as passive, seamless fillers within airplane wings that automatically deploy themselves into the perfect position during descent.

“When landing, aircraft engines are throttled way back, and so they are very quiet. Any other source of noise, like that from the wings, becomes quite noticeable to the people on the ground,” said Darren Hartl, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. “We want to create structures that will not change anything about the flight characteristics of the plane and yet dramatically reduce the noise problem.”

The researchers have described their findings in the Journal of Aircraft.

[Read more…] about Texas A&M Featured Story: MAESTRO Lab’s Work toward Quiet Aircraft