Dave Drake of Paragould, Ark., a graduate student in aerospace engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, won first place in the graduate student competition, and Trent Taylor of Mt. Vernon, Mo., a senior in aerospace engineering, won first place in the undergraduate student competition at the 2003 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region V Student Paper Conference in Boulder, Colo., in April.

UMR’S AIAA chapter also won the award for the "most exemplary student branch" in the central region for 2001-2002. Drake presented "Threat-D Control for Ascent Phase of Reusable Launch Vehicles," and Taylor presented "Drag Reduction and Control of Hypersonic Vehicles Using Focused Energy Deposition and Electro-Static Forces, and Fuel Mixing and Combustion Efficiency in Scramjet Engines." Drake’s work was supported by grants from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the Missouri NASA Space Grant Consortium and the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

Drake and Taylor will move on to represent Region V of AIAA in the National Competition to be held at the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Conference in Reno, Nev., in January of 2004.

Other UMR students who received awards at the conference include:

— Pierre Vignal of Chatenay Malabry, France, a graduate student in aerospace engineering, who won second place in the graduate category with his paper titled "Space Communications between Satellites Based on Commercial IEEE 802.11 Technologies."

–Nathan Mundis of Broken Arrow, Okla., a senior in aerospace engineering, who won third place in the undergraduate category with his paper titled, "The Effect of Inlet Compression Angle on Scramjet Propulsion."

Other UMR students that presented papers at the conference are:

— Afsheen Khamooshi of Cape Girardeau, Mo., a senior in aerospace engineering, who presented "Design and Development of a Thermal Wind Tunnel Suitable for Horizontal and Vertical Aerodynamic Testing."

— Jeff Rottler of Saint Genevieve, Mo., a senior in aerospace engineering, who presented "Aeroelastic Response of an Airfoil to Changes in Dampening and Spring Constant in Steady Flow."

— Chris Keithley of Louisiana, Mo., a graduate student in aerospace engineering, who presented "A Methodology to Utilize Low Cost Pilot-in-the-Loop Simulation in Aircraft Accident Investigation."

— Nicole McBride of Batesville, Ark., a junior in aerospace engineering, who attended the meeting.

— Isaiah Kellogg of Strafford, Mo., a senior in aerospace engineering, who presented "Micro-pulsed Plasma Thrusters."

More than 60 students participated from UMR, Iowa State University, Parks College of St. Louis, the U.S. Air Force Academy, the University of Minnesota, the University of Colorado, and Wichita State University.

The students’ research was funded in part by the UMR Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE) and by the NASA-Missouri Space Grant Consortium.