American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Region VI Student Conference Lands at Santa Clara
On March 23-24, 2024, the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Engineering hosted the 2024 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region VI Student Conference at Santa Clara University. The event drew around 200 attendees, including students and faculty from 15+ schools and professionals from the aerospace industry. The conference showcased 36 paper presentations from high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, along with career development and fast prototyping workshops, and a tour of the largest wind tunnel in the world at NASA ‘s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA. The two-day conference also featured speeches from opening speakers Dr. Nhan Nguyen (Senior Research Scientist, NASA Ames Research) and Jeanette Quinlan (Director of Program Management, Maxar Technologies; Founder of Bay Area Women in Space and Aerospace), keynote speakers Dr. James Newman (Chair and Professor, Naval Postgraduate School; former NASA astronaut) and Al Tadros (Chief Technology Officer, Redwire Space), as well as presentations by leading experts in the aerospace industry. The conference concluded with a closing speech by Dr. Elaine Scott, Dean of the School of Engineering at SCU.
From left to right: Jeff Puschell( Deputy Director, Education, AIAA Region VI), Nick Smith, Mohammad Ayoubi, and Ramuhalli Krishna (AIAA SF Section-Outreach Program)
The AIAA SCU Branch student organization team along with the faculty advisor and AIAA staff.
The success of the conference is credited to the dedicated efforts by the student organization team, including Nicholas Smith, Mate Aranyosi, Kevin Zhang, Jill Chandler, Kathryn Keaney, Jason Leon, Brian Yeh, and Victor Calata-Gentil, alongside the assistance provided by Dr. Jeff Puschell (Northrop Grumman), Dr. Oleg Yakimenko (Naval Postgraduate School), Lindsay Mitchell (AIAA), Dr. Rahumalli Krishna (AIAA), and Dr. Mohammad Ayoubi (Faculty advisor of AIAA SCU Branch).
Learn more about the storied history of aerospace and aeronautical engineering at SCU here:
"John J. Montgomery: Aeronautics Pioneer Gives Wings to Engineering at Santa Clara"