The Dwight Look College of Engineering and the Aerospace Engineering department, in conjunction with the Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering departments, took part in Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)/

The program spanned 10 weeks in the summer and involved students from the Aerospace Engineering department, as well as students from other colleges and universities. Students worked closely with graduate students and faculty members on current research projects, attended presentation skills workshops, took field trips to applicable research areas or industry, made a formal poster presentation of their research experience at the end of the program and submitted a final written report describing the results of their research. Students were given a stipend for their time in REU, as well as a housing allowance and tuition for one credit hour of an independent study. Six Texas A&M students and one San Jose State University Aerospace Engineering student participated in the nano-materials REU. Four more students were involved with the USRG and three were supported by the department and an aerospace engineering faculty mentor.

One of the goals for the REU program is to reach out to students that may have never been exposed to the academic research process. Under-represented minorities and women in the engineering field are also strongly encouraged to participate in REU. Students experience the excitement of cutting-edge academic research in state-of-the-art national aerospace facilities to develop their interests in aerospace engineering sciences. The aerospace engineering students are integrated into the nano-materials related research groups in cutting-edge projects to generate enthusiasm for advanced studies in these areas.

More than half of the students that have participated in REU in the past four years have gone on to graduate school, and nine journal and conference publications have resulted from the research in which the REU students have been involved.

For more information on the students involved in this REU, please visit http://aero.tamu.edu/research/undergraduate/research-experience-undergraduates.

Continue the success of the Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering department with your gifts. This year we are beginning a new “Friends of Aerospace” program. Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering wants your gift to be a rewarding investment for you, while making an impact on the current and future students of the department. Donors will be recognized in the Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering Annual Report and December/January newsletter.

When donating using “GIVE NOW”, please be sure to specifically designate the Aerospace Engineering Department under the Dwight Look College of Engineering, and then, please select an area of the department to support.

Gifts can be applied to (but are not limited to) scholarships, student facilities, student design projects and competitions, student organizations, and/or research efforts. Please let us know if there is a particular area of giving that you would like to designate your contribution towards, if it is not listed below: 

, office phone (979) 845-5113.







Our new giving levels are as follows, with a specific aerospace touch to each:




The department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University sincerely thanks you for all of your gifts and support! Gig 'em!

On 9 – 10 June, the Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering department hosted the first annual review of The National Center for Hypersonic Laminar-Turbulent Transition Research. Over 20 attendees from NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Ames Research Center, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Research Laboratory – Wright Patterson Air Force Base and Air Force Arnold Engineering and Development Center – Tullahoma as well as Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering faculty and Texas A&M Chemistry faculty gathered to tour the wind tunnel facilities of the Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering department. The meeting also included team members from UCLA, Caltech, University of Arizona, Case Western Reserve University and Texas A&M graduate students. Attendees were presented with the research accomplishments that have taken place in the first year of the center’s existence.

The National Center for Hypersonic Laminar-Turbulent Transition Research is a five-year program dedicated to the theoretical, computational and experimental studies of laminar-turbulent boundary-layer transition in the hypersonic regime. This center specializes in boundary layer control research and was established by NASA and the United States Air Force. For more information regarding The National Center for Hypersonic Laminar-Turbulent Transition Research, please visit http://hypersonics.tamu.edu/.

On July 7, 2010, Dr. John L. Junkins, Dr. Jim Turner and Dr. Manoranjan Majji, along with Texas A&M University Aerospace Engineering graduate students Jeremy Davis, James Doebbler, Brien Flewelling, Brent Macomber, Kurt Cavalieri and Clark Moody hosted 15 external visitors from government and industry for the annual review of their National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) project, Real-Time Vision Sensing for Spacecraft Proximity Operations. 

This project is aimed at researching, developing and demonstrating high precision (mm class) mapping of spacecraft geometry as well as enabling two or more spacecraft’s proximity navigation, guidance and control.  Attendees of the review included representatives of the NRO and collaborators from Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), Naval Research Laboratory, Boeing, Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Alliance Space Systems and the University of North Carolina.

The first year of the project was aimed at establishing novel algorithms and experimentally testing them and characterizing them versus the current state of the art methods to derive high definition 3D geometry and proximity navigation from real-time processing of stereo video.  Central to the effort was studying new methods to best accommodate the truth that spacecraft are frequently difficult to measure in stereo due to some highly reflective surfaces, as well as other diffusely reflecting surfaces with little resident or texture.  Geometric reconstruction is further complicated due to the fact that some structures (e.g., solar panels) a have highly repetitive features that must be uniquely correlated in multi-view imagery.   All of these problems are more readily accommodated in conventional software allowing human interaction, however for highly autonomous real-time systems, novel sensors, algorithms and computing architectures are required.  To augment conventional stereo correlation methods, the research utilized projected structured light patterns and a novel laser imaging concept (HD3D) to establish high definition point cloud measurements of such difficult to image objects. 

The second year of the effort is expected to yield an optimized prototype of the 15 million measurements/sec ranging sensor “HD3D,” and optimized algorithms and software to enable real time fusion of this sensor with information derived from stereo video.  One fundamental challenge is solving the “feature correspondence problem” when multiple sensors image the same structure, considering 3D geometry as well as surface texture, from multiple vantage points, and associating uncertainty with the final estimated 3D geometry that results from solutions of this nonlinear estimation problem. 

The project will culminate in the summer of 2011 with end-to-end experimental studies including validation of the new sensors and algorithms and computer architectures using  test articles as typical space objects with known geometry, such as a 1/10 scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope which MDA has provided.

The Land, Air and Space Robotics (LASR) laboratory represents a significant new facility for advanced research in autonomous systems across a wide spectrum of potential applications at Texas A&M University. The HOMER robot and several novel sensor systems and associated extensive software are the result of research by Junkins et al over the past few years. LASR research is addressed to common features that cut across many potential applications: 

(1) The need for precision and speed in information extracted from heterogeneous sensors displaced in space and time. 

(2) The need for real-time autonomous control of the vehicles as well as the sensor systems themselves. 

(3) The need for high fidelity ground experimental capabilities to validate advanced robotic concepts prior to, for example, launch where they must function reliably the first time.  

Recent projects, including collaborations with Boeing, MDA, LLNL, NASA, and the NRO are focused on further advancement and utilization of these technologies and LASR experimental capabilities.

For more information, please visit www.aero.tamu.edu, http://lasr.tamu.edu/ and http://www.nro.gov/

For the past six years Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering has been compiling an extensive report to renew its ABET accreditation.

ABET, Inc. was originally established in 1932 as the Engineers’ Council for Professional Development (ECPD) to focus on supplying information to engineering students, developing plans for personal and professional development, appraising engineering curriculum and developing methods where-by individuals could achieve recognition by the profession and the general public. Since ECPD’s inception, it has evolved into the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and then to simply ABET, Inc. to continue its original focuses while allowing room to grow and encompass additional areas.

ABET currently accredits over 2,900 programs at more than 600 universities in the U.S. During the 1942-1943 school year, the Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering department became the first in the southwest (and 14^th in the nation) to be accredited by the ECPD. The Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering program was last evaluated by ABET in October – November of 2004.

Evaluation criteria include student performance, achievement of program educational objectives and assessment of program outcomes, actions showing evidence of continuous improvement of  the program and curriculum, sufficient number of faculty and their qualifications, adequate and safe facilities, institutional support both in finances and leadership, and much, much more.

Being ABET accredited is essential in order to be a reputable university program in engineering. The accreditation establishes quality standards for all educational institutions. These standards are set by the ABET professions themselves and made possible by collaborative professional and technical societies. Accreditation is important in order for students and parents to choose high quality college programs, to enable employers to recruit graduates that they know are well-prepared, and gives universities a structured mechanism to assess, evaluate and improve the quality of their programs.

For more information, please visit www.abet.org

This July, 17 Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering students and eight Electrical and Computer Engineering students studied abroad in Brazil. These undergraduate students from Texas A&M as well as students from the University of Campinas – São Paulo studied together and experienced not only the language, economy and culture of Brazil, but also aerospace engineering courses in a collaborative environment.

This is the first year that Texas A&M’s Aerospace Engineering department and the University of Campinas - São Paulo have partnered to offer their students this unique and impactful study abroad program. With assistance from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, faculty members from both Texas A&M and Brazil hope to establish several cooperative research programs at various Brazilian universities where Texas A&M and Brazilian students can visit to do research on their own.

Under the vision of Mr. David Kanipe, NASA Johnson Space Center is fostering collaboration between the students of Dr. Helen Reed’s AggieSat Lab and the University of Texas at Austin. As the goal of a four-mission campaign, each student team is to build a satellite that will ultimately rendezvous and dock autonomously with the other in space.

For the first mission, this past year was very exciting and rewarding for our students, as our satellite AggieSat2 was released from STS-127 Space Shuttle Endeavour on 30 July 2009. AggieSat2 (a 5” cubesat) operated for 230 days before de-orbiting on March 17^th, 2010 into the Pacific Ocean. Nineteen students participated in direct operations: tracking, communicating with, commanding and collecting Global Positioning System (GPS) data from our satellite for mission success. Our students last made contact with AggieSat2 from their Riverside ground station four hours prior to de-orbit.

Our students were invited to display their hardware and talk about their experiences with many visitors at NASA Johnson Space Center’s “Inspiration 2010” on April 28^th, 2010. Aviation Week & Space Technology interviewed the team in April. Mr. John Graves (Master’s student) was a scholarship winner at the AIAA Responsive Space Conference in March.

Now our team is preparing for its next mission with NASA. Called AggieSat4, launch is planned for mid 2012. Our team plans to further characterize NASA Johnson Space Center’s GPS receiver and develop navigational solutions using the GPS data. Additional technologies under trade and development include low-cost three-axis stabilization and pointing, crosslink capability, imaging capability, a docking/undocking mechanism and providing for possible third-party payload demonstrations. This next mission necessitates a larger satellite and AggieSat4 will have a maximum mass of 50 kg.

AggieSat4 team members, under the direction of Ms. Rebecca Sewell (Program Manager, undergraduate student), completed an internal preliminary design review on August 24^th, 2010, and are scheduled to present to NASA Johnson Space Center and industry professionals in Houston on September 10^th, 2010.

AggieSat Lab was created by Dr. Helen Reed and Mr. Joseph Perez to provide an environment that would enhance the educational experience for our students by having them team in real space missions. For more information or to become involved, please contact us: helen.reed@tamu.edu and http://aggiesat.org.

Two graduate students in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University received $1,000 stipends from the federal government to present papers at the 2010 Aircraft Airworthiness & Sustainment (AA&S) conference.

Nirmal Sigamani presented his paper, “Characterization of Polyurethane at Multi-Scales for Erosion Mechanisms under Sand Particle Impact.” Sourav Banerjee presented his paper, “Durability of Polymer Films for Erosion Protection of Helicopter Rotor Blades Impacted by Sand Particles.”

Both papers stemmed from Sigamani and Banerjee’s work on the Helicopter Rotor Blade Erosion project, which brings together resources from Texas A&M’s aerospace engineering faculty, researchers, graduate students and post docs; the Texas Engineering Experiment Station’s (TEES) Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT) managers; the University of Dayton Research Institute; and the United Technologies Research Center, as well as donations from 3M.

Blade erosion in helicopters continues to be an area of concern in particular in severe environments of sand and rain. The current approach to assuring safe performance relies upon frequent inspection, repair, and replacement of protection films without sound and reliable procedures. The consequences are costly.

New erosion resistant coatings are being developed but there are no physics based models available to guide their development. In short, the current state of affairs employs situation-specific reaction without a clear strategy to advance the industry to a knowledge-based plan for cost-effective safe performance.

The Helicopter Rotor Blade Erosion research program systematically addresses the erosion problem. This program, now in its third year, is focused on polyurethane films that are mounted on the leading edge of blades to provide protection from erosion caused by sand particles. A comprehensive strategy has been devised to accomplish three interrelated objectives: determine the impact conditions for particles in the airflow field interacting with the rotor blades; clarify the deformation and failure mechanisms leading to erosion of polyurethane films under the particle impact; and develop a predictive modeling methodology for erosion of polyurethane films mounted on a rigid substrate undergoing particle impact.

The overall goals are to provide guidelines for maintenance (i.e., inspection, repair, and replacement), of polyurethane protection systems (films and coatings) for safety against blade erosion; to help designers of rotor blades to incorporate erosion in blade design; and to provide directions for developing erosion resistant films and coatings.

This project has supported numerous Texas A&M graduate students pursuing their degrees in aerospace engineering. To date, two students have received their Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering (MSAE), three students are completing their MSAE, three have completed their Ph.D. degrees, and one will be entering into the Ph.D. program.

The AA&S conference, formerly known as the Aging Aircraft Conference, brought together leaders from government, industry, foreign nations, and academia to exchange perspectives and information about critical areas of interest, such as wiring, corrosion, structures, space, avionics, obsolescence, and airworthiness.

“To promote student participation in AA&S, this year NASA sponsored 23 full-time students from 12 universities to present at the conference. Sigamani’s and Banerjee’s research in rotor blade erosion was selected for presentation because it addresses a relevant sustainment issue confronting the rotorcraft community,” said NASA’s Dr. Richard Young, a member of the conference organizing committee.

Conference sponsorship is rotated between NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD); this year the DoD was the host. For its 13th annual conference, the federal government looked beyond the classical focus on older aircraft, adding new topics that are intended to anticipate and position the community to proactively deal with airworthiness and sustainability issues in existing and future systems. There were more than 100 different speakers presenting in five individual technical tracks.

The International Conference on Computational and Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES) recently announced that the “ICCES Lifetime Achievement Medal” will be awarded to Dr. John L. Junkins, Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University.

“I was really happy when this news came out of the blue,” said Dr. Junkins, when asked about his most recent honor.

Dr. Junkins will be the inaugural recipient of this medal, which recognizes his sustained and significant contributions in the forms of research, teaching and service to the community in the area of “Mechanics and Control, Their Synergism and Interdependence.” Dr. Junkins was cited as a world leader in the rigorous fusion of mechanics, control and associated computational methods, as well as being an outstanding academic mentor.

Over the past decade, the ICCES has emerged as a major international forum with thousands of participants from the Americas, Europe and Asia convening to share recent research results in Engineering Science.  ICCES emphasizes the closure of theory, computation and experiment across the sciences, engineering and mathematical modeling.

Dr. Junkins will be receiving this award at ICCES2011 in April in Nanjing, China, where he will also be delivering a lecture. In addition, Dr. Junkins will be honored with a “Mini Symposium” co-chaired by Dr. K. T. Alfriend and Dr. J. E. Hurtado, also from Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering.   Dr. Junkins’ current and former Ph.D. students will be invited to contribute papers and present lectures at the Mini Symposium.

“I have been truly blessed to work with four dozen stellar PhD students who have spawned three descendant generations of PhDs.  Together we have collaborated on a variety of research problems over the past four decades.  I consider this medal evidence that this group has made contributions that are judged meritorious.   This Mini-Symposium is a great opportunity to renew our acquaintances and share our recent work,” said Dr. Junkins, “and the best part will be seeing some dear friends, including a few that I haven’t seen in several years.”

Dr. Xiaoli Bai, who is one of Dr. Junkins most recent Ph.D. graduates from Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering will also serve on the organizing committee and help host the delegates while touring the Nanjing environs.  Dr. Bai is the co-author the paper Dr. Junkins will deliver at Mini-Symposium Lecture.

“I really look forward to this event.  It will be a wonderful occasion to share this honor with lifelong friends, and recognize my former students’ many accomplishments.  Without question, it is because of their collective contributions that I am receiving this honor,” said Dr. Junkins.

For more information on ICCES and the Lifetime Achievement Medal, please visit http://icces.org/

Fish Camp is a series of four-day orientation sessions for incoming freshmen, called “Fish” at Texas A&M. The camp is set in the piney woods of East Texas. During their time there, the new students learn about Aggie traditions and the university’s core values: integrity, excellence, leadership, loyalty, respect and selfless service. They will also learn about campus organizations and how to join them, how to find the help they need on campus and much more. By the time they leave the Fish Camp, they will have formed lasting friendships as part of the Aggie family.

Each camp is named for an individual who has contributed to Texas A&M in a positive way. This can be as an adviser, teacher, mentor, staff member or someone who is there for the students with a smiling face and a friendly greeting.

One reason being chosen as a namesake is such an honor is that it is not something for which a professor or staff member can apply, nor is it something the university administration decides. Rather, it is an honor bestowed by the students themselves.

Fish Camp receives several hundred nominations for potential namesakes every year, say camp officials. Nominations for namesakes are accepted during the fall semester and are voted on by the student-led Fish Camp organization. Once the voting is complete, the namesakes are announced each February for the upcoming Fish Camp session planned for the following summer.

Those who are selected for the honor say being chosen causes them to realize they have made a positive impact on current students and they look forward to attending “their” Fish Camp. Students planning Fish Camp say the namesakes have the opportunity to interact with and impact not only 24 counselors, but also up to 150 freshmen attending their camp. More than 70 percent of incoming freshmen each year attend Fish Camp.

The first Fish Camp for the Class of 2014 began Aug. 3 and the last camp will conclude Aug. 24.

For a complete list of this year’s namesakes, and also of namesakes from years past, go to http://fishcamp.tamu.edu/namesakes. For more information about Fish Camp, go to http://fishcamp.tamu.edu/.

Dr. John Hurtado was selected by the Dwight Look College of Engineering to receive the Association of Former Students College Level Teaching Award. Dr. Hurtado was one of four faculty members selected from the college to receive the award.
These awards are to recognize, encourage and reward the superior classroom teachers—those individuals whose command of their respective discipline, teaching methodologies, pervasive caring, communication skills, and commitment to the learning process exemplify the meaning of teacher/mentor in its highest sense. This award is designed to distinguish those teachers who maintain high expectations of their students and who ensure academic rigor in their courses. Distinguished teachers recognize their responsibility in motivating and contributing to the overall development of the student.

Wayne Lutz '72 has recently joined the Texas A&M University Aerospace Engineering department as a lecturer. Mr. Lutz, who retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel and worked in industry for The Boeing Company for over 14 years, will now be instructing the first semester of the Capstone Design sequence, AERO 401. Mr. Lutz received his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M in Aerospace Engineering and his master’s degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California in 1984. Mr. Lutz wanted to “share [his] experience in flight testing, engineering, and managing resources in quality student program activities at Texas A&M University.” Please join the department in welcoming Mr. Lutz!

Dr. David H. Allen was selected as the new dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas-Pan American this June. Dr. Allen graduated from Texas A&M University with a BS in Aerospace Engineering in 1972, a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering in 1977 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering in 1980. Dr. Allen was a professor of aerospace engineering at TAMU from 1981 to 1991 and then again as a Stewart & Stevenson Professor from 1999 to 2002. He has also worked for Virginia Tech, the University of Nebraska, where he was dean of the College of Engineering, and a visiting professor at universities in Australia and France. Dr. Allen also serves on the TAMU Aerospace Engineering Advisory Board. TAMU Aerospace Engineering would like to congratulate Dr. Allen on his new position and welcomes him back to Texas!

The Texas A&M Class of 1970 will be having their reunion the weekend of October 29-31, 2010. All aerospace graduates are eagerly invited to attend! The Aerospace Department will have a meet-and-greet barbecue with current aerospace students, as well as a tour of current facilities the afternoon of Oct. 29th at the H.R. Bright building. More details will be announced soon, and for questions, please e-mail Dr. Walter Haisler at haisler@tamu.edu or call (979) 845-1640. We hope to see you here! For a schedule of the Association of Former Students' reunion events, visit http://www.aggienetwork.com/events/2010/1970_40th.aspx