In what has become a tradition, MAESTRO students and affiliated researchers retreated to the Texas Gulf Coast for multiple days of technical and social activities. [Read more…] about MAESTRO researchers participate in annual Summer Retreat
Two MAESTRO Student Researchers win at Pitch Up! Competition
The Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University hosted a Pitch Up! competition, giving undergraduate aerospace students the opportunity to showcase their technical work and receive feedback on their presentation skills.
Based on the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, Pitch Up! challenged the students to describe a technical project or research in which they were involved in three minutes. The students presented their work to a panel of judges that included individuals with technical and nontechnical backgrounds.
Sophomore Brady Allen won first place and $250 with his presentation on the thermodynamics of a Pratt and Whitney turbojet. Second place and the $150 prize went to senior Jacob Collins for his presentation on building a combustion ignition wind tunnel for hypersonic propulsion research. Junior Kevin Lieb took third place and $100 with a talk on acoustic analysis of a leading-edge slat cove filler. Freshmen Collin Invie and Joseph Heimerl were honorable mentions for their presentations on configurable origami antennae and model rocketry, respectively.
Take a look into the MAESTRO VR Lab
Maestro lab doubles down at Physics Festival
This weekend members of the Maestro lab volunteered at the 2019 Physics & Engineering Festival. The festival attracts over 7,000 people and consists of 200 booths with interactive experiments including two from our lab. This was the fifth year in a roll that we have participated at the festival and we look forward to next year!
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Hartl granted courtesy appointment in Department of Material Science and Engineering
After years of researching the mechanics of various multifunctional materials systems, with an emphasis on shape memory alloys (SMAs), Dr. Darren Hartl was recently named as an Affiliate Faculty Member of the Department of Material Science and Engineering (MSEN) at Texas A&M University.
MAESTRO graduate students attend COE, Walgren awarded scholarship
Graduate students Pedro Leal and Patrick Walgren recently attended the Community of Experts (COE) Conference in New Orleans, LA from February 24th-27th. They spent the week networking with industry representatives (including engineers from Boeing, Textron, and Lockheed Martin), volunteering with conference logistics, and participated in an ePoster competition.
[Read more…] about MAESTRO graduate students attend COE, Walgren awarded scholarship
Senior graduate students launch “MAESTRO Workshop”
Starting Tuesday, January 22, the senior graduate students of the MAESTRO Lab launched a peer teaching series known as the MAESTRO Workshop, where younger students will learn from the more experienced on topics of programming, technical writing, technical presentation, laboratory practices, and many other areas. The Workshops will be held biweekly in HRBB 702 from 8:30AM to 10:00AM, and all are welcome.
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Maestro goes to San Diego for Scitech!
Last week, Dr. Hartl and graduate students Pedro Leal and Patrick Walgren attended the biggest aerospace conference in the nation, the”AIAA Science and Technology Forum (AIAA SciTech 2019)”. Among the more than 2500 technical presentations held during the conference, the Maestro group was directly involved with four papers. Pedro presented his work related to morphing wings result of the collaboration with Utah State University (USU) in the low-boom supersonic aircraft development project. Patrick, as shown below, presented his high-fidelity simulation work regarding bending cylinders in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). This was a great opportunity for networking with new (Lockheed, Boom, and others) and old (USU, Purdue, AFRL, and others) colleagues as well as learning about cutting edge research.
Immersive Visualization Laboratory receives university funding
One of the difficulties encountered when teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses is trying to present three-dimensional concepts using two-dimensional classroom tools. The Maestro VR Studio in the Department of Aerospace Engineering has been funded by the Texas A&M Triads for Transformation initiative to conduct research into how the STEM classroom experience can be enhanced through the use of virtual reality (VR).
[Read more…] about Immersive Visualization Laboratory receives university funding
MAESTRO Teams with Local Sculptor to Explore SMAs in Art
This past fall, Dr. Hartl and a small group of students had the pleasure of meeting for several hours with Larry Schueckler, an accomplished full-time sculptor residing in the College Station area, to discuss the integration of shape memory alloy elements into artworks and architectural creations.
[Read more…] about MAESTRO Teams with Local Sculptor to Explore SMAs in Art