Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

In Talbot’s flight lab on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, aerospace engineering seniors Atlas Karm, Rayan Syed, Adil Gill, and Amber Miller worked on their final project for the fall semester. The project was for Tim Bretl’s AE 430 autonomous systems lab course. “The goal of the project was to develop a user interface where one could draw any image and have that image converted into a flyable flight path which could be flown by a drone with an LED deck attached,” Miller said. “In this way we could overlap the frames of a video of the drone flying and achieve a floating image effect.” To watch their final project video, visit the Aerospace Engineering at Illinois YouTube channel or https://lnkd.in/dEyUKAHD

Congratulations to all of our December grads! Here are a few of Grainger Engineering photographer Heather Coit's images from the ceremonies held this past Saturday at the beautiful, historic Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign.

AE senior Mitchell Waldron is originally from the Bay Area in California and just earned his B.S. in aerospace engineering this month. "I came at a very strange time during COVID, so almost all my first-year classes were online. I think how small we were brought our class together," he said. Throughout his time here, Waldron has mainly been involved in the Air Force ROTC. "It ties in with my experience in aerospace," he said. "There are two main tracks— the air and space sides. I lean more toward the air side, but one of the best parts is meeting so many people who are experts in their own specific areas — everyone brings their own unique expertise to the table." Read more at https://lnkd.in/dvtnVzvH

Julian Fulea from Chicago, Illinois was a transfer student from Oakton Community College through the Pathways program. This month he earned his BS in aerospace engineering from Illinois. Here's one of his answers in a Q&A about his experiences in college. Q: What course or professor helped you choose your specialty? A: It was more personal than anything. I like to believe I chose this path. However, there were certainly individuals who grew my interest and showed me where my place in aerospace would be. Thanks to professor Ornik’s AE353 class, I absolutely adore computer science and control systems now. He is an inspiration and has such an amazing character. His class, although challenging, helped me understand the world that is control systems. Making custom controllers and observers in his course was breathtaking because I realized how much of aerospace is driven by control algorithms. Other honorable mentions would be friends and companions throughout my time here who showed me what they’ve done in the workforce and realm of engineering. This university is full of inspiring and driven people, I am so happy to say I am one of them. To read the entire conversation, visit https://lnkd.in/d4Pw55bP

AE researchers Matthew Clarke and Phil Ansell are developing novel, renewable energy solutions for sustainable aircraft from well to wake with funding from Boeing. “The first part of this work is to document the full life cycle of various fuel options,” said Clarke. “Well-to-tank asks what methods are available to create these fuels and how much emissions those methods create. From there, we will model power and propulsion systems. Phil Ansell leads this first half of the project.” Clarke said Boeing is actively exploring different technologies to improve the efficiency of their aircraft fleet. For more, visit https://lnkd.in/eGVGpWfR

AE Professors Jeff Baur and Philippe Geubelle are on the research team led by Sameh Tawfick in MechSE to accomplish what Tawfick says is "the first demonstration of manufacturing in space." It's part of DARPA's Novel Orbital Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass Efficient Design program initiated in 2021. The Illinois-led portion of the project builds off Illinois’ extensive experience in composite materials design by Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology researchers Jeff Baur, Philippe Geubelle, Jeff Moore and Nancy Sottos, who are all part of the current study. To learn more, visit https://lnkd.in/g54Re5gM

The fate of telescopes in space is looking better now that they are being designed to be serviceable. AE researchers developed a servicing plan that can be applied to future space observatories based on current missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Gaia. “We’re trying to stay a step ahead so there is a plan to replace broken mirrors, for example. If we don’t, it’s like buying an expensive sports car, then like throwing it away when it runs out of gas," said AE's Siegfried Eggl who shared the project with Robyn Woollands, and grad students Alex Pascarella and Ruthvik Bommena. To learn more, visit https://lnkd.in/gu6aRfva

A re-connection of two AE alums. In the photo: left is Gene Hill, BS '57 aerospace from Illinois and and MBA in '73 from Seattle University. Right, Paul Dees, BS '81, MS '83 from Illinois. Dees said about his recent opportunity to reconnect over coffee with Hill, "Gene Hill hired me into Boeing Commercial Airplanes when I had 8 years of previous experience, and gave me a new start after working on military airplane aerodynamics. I was able to thank him for that and for helping me and my family discover life in the Pacific Northwest." Who would you thank for giving you a fresh start?

In his sustainable aviation course, aerospace engineering professor Phil Ansell asked, “What does sustainability look like integrated to a system engineering process?” One of his student's answer became a new definition of sustainable aviation and a framework for achieving it. Waddington and Ansell developed a definition of sustainable aviation that is all-encompassing. It examines sustainable aviation as a process that connects communities and mobilizes people, goods, and services—all while minimizing negative impacts on human health, fostering a productive quality of life, and conserving natural resources. “We can’t ignore any element. We need to look at how aircraft affect the world, and we need ways to measure those effects,” Waddington said. To learn more, visit https://lnkd.in/gYrKSV8S

A new NASA-funded project brings together the experts in blended-wing-body airplane design at Jet Zero with the Center for Sustainable Aviation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The collaboration will work to develop a sustainable aircraft design that integrates liquid hydrogen power and energy systems with a blended-wing-body airplane to meet the zero emissions aviation goals for 2050. “JetZero has a long history of leading the way in design of blended-wing-body aircraft from previous programs supported by NASA and is even working on building a full-scale demonstrator aircraft with support from the Air Force and other investors. We’ll be focused on how best to integrate hydrogen power and energy system in a novel aircraft design, which is optimally configured for step-change improvements in energy efficiency and emissions,” said Phil Ansell, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and director of the Center for Sustainable Aviation. The Illinois team includes faculty members Matthew Clarke and Jason Merret. The team will also be working with ZeroAvia, a company which develops propulsion systems that use hydrogen fuel cell power. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/gdcySMDz