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Once again the Maestro group had a strong presence at the SciTech  conference, the biggest aerospace conference in the US with more than 4200 participants and 2000 technical papers. Representing the lab, PhD student Pedro Leal and Dr. Darren Hartl presented four technical papers related to the avian-inspired and EVA glove projects (all papers are listed below). [Read more…] about MAESTRO Team Attends AIAA SciTech in Orlando

As a means off blowing end-of-the-semester stress, the MAESTRO Team gathered at casa de Hartl for another round of morale building and pride crushing volleyball. A full 20 players participated in the four-team round-robin competition. In the end, the “Slat Cove Winners” (Scholten, Patterson, White, Garza, and French visiting student Thomas Thollot) and “HRBB Fully Loaded” (Brazilian visiting student Bia Borges, Pedro Savi, Hartl, Cabezuela, and Alyssa Saenz) tied with three wins and one loss each. A Wiffle Ball game followed, with Hartl (pitcher) learning that some students neglect to mention that they were high school baseball players on their resumés. The evening concluded with a Secret Santa gift exchange organized by Patrick Walgren.

For more pictures, see the Recreation page.

You know you are reading a WIRED article when it begins: “HUMANITY MAY BE divided on a great many issues, but most would agree that it would be very cool to have airplane wings made of shapeshifting metal.” Along with collaborators Jim Mabe (Boeing Research and Technology) and Othmane Benafan (NASA-Glenn Research Center), Dr. Hartl was fortunate to work with a good science and technology reporter to summarize some of the most important work currently happening in shape memory alloys.

Read the entire article HERE.

This fall, researchers from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University teamed up with Siemens to develop manned aircraft completely powered by electric propulsion systems. [Read more…] about MAESTRO and TEES Work with Siemens to Advance Electric Aviation

Dr. Hartl and graduate student William Scholten were invited to present their research on the fluid-structure interaction analysis of the SMA-based Slat Cove Filler at the Cradle User’s Conference in Tokyo, Japan. [Read more…] about Hartl and Scholten Invited to Share Their Work at International CFD Software User’s Conference in Tokyo

Most of us take flying in an airplane for granted. We book our tickets, sit through the long check-in lines, and if we’re lucky, take off on time to our chosen destination. Day in and day out we do this without any regard to the age and health of the airplane we’re flying on.

[Read more…] about Hartl Wins New NSF Grant on Embedded Sensory Particles

Dr. Hartl and graduate student Pedro Leal presented current Maestro research results at the 8^th Conference on Smart Structures and Materials in Madrid, Spain. During a four day conference, researchers from 32 countries discussed the current state and future of smart structures while not missing the opportunity to explore the great city of Madrid. [Read more…] about Hartl team goes to SMART conference at Madrid

The Texas A&M University Fearless on Every Front capital campaign often highlights cutting edge and impactful research in its efforts to promote research from across the university. The Morphing Radiator Project funded by NASA-Johnson was recently selected for use in promotional materials in print media across the country. [Read more…] about Morphing Radiator Project Chosen for University-Wide Capital Campaign

Imagine walking into your college classroom and donning a pair of virtual reality goggles to learn the day’s lesson.  If Dr. Darren Hartl has his way, that will be a reality in the near future. He is one of the faculty members in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M bringing virtual reality (VR) into the realm of research and teaching.

[Read more…] about Hartl and Coworkers Bring the Virtual World into the Classroom

A team of Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) researchers has been selected for a potential award by NASA to lead research into commercially viable civil supersonic transport aircraft that meet noise and efficiency requirements for overland flight. Put simply, their research is on designing an aircraft that can modify its shape in real time in order to optimize for fuel efficiency or quiet flight as the flight phase and conditions change. The team is one of five transformative system-level aviation innovations that NASA has selected as part of the NASA Aeronautics’ University Leadership Initiative (ULI.) [Read more…] about MAESTRO Lab and Collaborators win $10M Grant to Design Supersonic Transport Aircraft That Modifies Its Shape in Real Time