March
13
2026
11:00 AM

Location

Guggenheim 442
Friday, March 13, 2026 11:00AM

AE Brown Bag Seminar

 

Friday, March 13

11:00 a.m. - 1:20 p.m.

Guggenheim 442

 

Nafez Ahmmed

Kaitlyn Moreira

Hector Sanchez

Samuel Gatewood

Wyatt Moses

Brandon Vo

Tom Hoang

 

Nafez Ahmmed

Title:

Simulation and Optimization of Passive Soft-Body Swimmers

Abstract:

Fish in vortex wakes exhibit station-keeping and energy extraction through a Kármán gait, a phenomenon that recent literature suggests can emerge as a passive synchronized motion. This study investigated the effects of 2D airfoil geometry, material choice, and flow conditions on translating and expanding real-world experiments in differentiable simulations. By parametrically modeling soft-bodied swimmers, we aim to enable gradient-based optimization of swimmer geometry to enhance station-keeping performance. These findings pave the way for future work in autonomous soft aquatic robotics and energy-harvesting systems.

Faculty Advisor:

Professor Bolei Deng

Kaitlyn Moreira

Title:

Mission Operations Training and Scheduling Constraints for University CubeSat Projects

Abstract:

University CubeSat projects are reliant on student members and that creates different operational challenges that professional missions may not have. Due to launch pushbacks and student graduations, there can be significant member turnover from initial formation and planning phases to launch and operation. This creates significant need for well-developed training materials and mission procedures for operators coming in with less knowledge. The required training and possible departure of qualified operators of leadership roles can cause limits on the number of people in each role. Post-launch contact scheduling is impacted by the operational roles and availability of operators which can be severely affected by their status as students. This presentation will focus on how the human constraints imposed by university student operators impact the training and planning aspects of mission operations.

Faculty Advisor:

Professor Glenn Lightsey

Hector Sanchez

Title:

Trajectory Based Analysis for Thermal Protection System Sizing

Abstract:

The Stardust Reentry Capsule (SRC) will be used as a validation case to analyze stagnation point heating for a given trajectory during atmospheric entry. An accurate estimation of the stagnation point heating is required to determine the necessary size of the thermal protection system (TPS). A numerical simulation will be developed to analyze this heating for the SRC's entry trajectory, and this model will be validated against the available data for the SRC. Once this model is validated, this tool can be used to establish TPS requirements for any given vehicle geometry and entry trajectory.

Faculty Advisor:

Professor John Dec

Samuel Gatewood

Title:

Combustor Exhaust Temperature Testing

Abstract:

In this seminar I will speak about my experience in the Ben T Zinn combustion Lab working on testing an auxiliary power unit for exhaust temperature profile as well as spool up profile. I will cover experimental setup, construction of my test rig, and progress thus far on my experiment. I will also go over basics of jet engine architecture, pattern factor and considerations for combustor exhaust temperature profile based on design, and complications stemming from spool-up fuel feed.

Faculty Advisor:

Professor Adam Steinberg

Wyatt Moses

Title:

Model-Based System Engineering Approach for Lunar Base Architecture

Abstract:

Over the past three semesters, I have contributed to a few components of cislunar architecting research, including Systems Engineering for Lunar Excursions,
Navigation, and Exploration (SELENE)​. Our objective is to establish a method for selecting lunar base architectures for evolving sets of requirements using simulations that are informed by a system model of the architecture. We created a top-level system model of the major systems in a lunar base, expanding the power and ISRU systems into their subsystems and corresponding parameters that correlate to requirement satisfaction. Next, we expanded the model of the rover subsystem so that the set of possible components could represent a pressurized rover like that of JAXA. During the next phase, we made SysML activity diagram representations of rover decision-making in support of the simulation of rover activity and task allocation around the base. All these products moved the project toward the goal of representing base architectures and their requirements, and future work will involve expanding the logistics and habitation systems and connecting the system model with additional python discrete event simulations.

Faculty Advisor:

Research Engineer Jeff McNabb

Brandon Vo

Title:

Fluent in ANSYS Fluent

Abstract:

ANSYS Fluent is a renowned computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and an essential tool in an aerospace engineer's toolbox. Through the research semesters with my faculty advisor, I've learned valuable skills and insights into how to use ANSYS Fluent. From looking at aerodynamic applications to analyzing blood flow in a human body, Fluent's versatility in its applications is what makes it such an important tool. 

Faculty Advisor:

Professor Lakshmi Sankar

Tom Hoang

Title:

Machine Learning Based Approaches for Rotorblade Flow Field Reconstruction

Abstract:

Accurate measurement of rotor blade airloads is essential for the accurate validation of numerical models, but obtaining the required data via direct installation of sensors can be challenging. This presentation discusses Gaussian Process (GP)-based approaches used to reconstructing flow fields using experimentally obtained Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) data. The proposed method employs a GP spatial model to reconstruct higher-fidelity flow fields from PIV data that may contain sparse vector fields or void areas due to experimental limitations. Using the reconstructed flow field, thrust produced by the rotor blade can be estimated.

Faculty Advisor:

Professor Juergen Rauleder