The 2012 AIAA Region IV Student Paper Conference was held Friday, April 6th at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. It was hosted by the the AIAA Houston Section and the University of Texas - Austin AIAA Student Branch.
AIAA Region IV comprises Texas A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, Texas Christian University, University of New Mexico and University of Arkansas.
Two Texas A&M Aero students compted and won first place in both the Graduate Division and the new Public Outreach Division. The First Place winner in the Graduate Division, James Henrickson, presented a paper titled, "Characterization of Shape Memory Alloys Using Artificial Neural Networks." He will compete in the National Championship at the 2013 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Conference in Grapevine, TX. His co-author and research advisor is Dr. John Valasek.
The First Place winner in the Public Outreach Division is Austin Probe, whose presentation was titled, "Texas A&M Sigma Gamma Tau Community Outreach." Austin is the President of Sigma Gamma Tau (SGT), the aerospace engineering honor society, and his presentation highlighted SGT outreach activities.