Spring 2023 AWARDS
>> Most Impactful Student Organization Award
This award recognizes a Jonsson School student organization which made a positive and significant impact for undergraduate students in mechanical engineering at UT Dallas. A student organization will be selected and awarded based on its effort, enthusiasm, and activities to promote skill-set development and connections between students and community or industry for ME students.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Texas at Dallas (AIAA UTD)
The student organization AIAA provides tangible long-term value to the members through technically challenging projects and professional events to assist them in their interests and career goals.
The current projects include: Aerospace Design, Comet Rocketry, DARRT, Design Build Fly.
>> Most Supportive and Engaged Undergraduate Student Award
This award recognizes an undergraduate student in the Mechanical Engineering department who is helpful towards their classmates and fosters an environment of collegiality both inside and outside the classroom. Examples include organizing study sessions or helping with an extracurricular activity.
Austin Tran
“Amazing TA/Grader”
“He is always helping students outside of class and during class”
Austin is … the most dedicated undergraduate mechanical engineering student … [he] contribute[s] in any way he can to provide the success for everyone.
Austin … is always committed to doing quality work, always supportive and helpful, and is incredibly smart and hardworking. He is always willing to help others and will do everything he can to fix something.
>> Best Paper Award
This award recognizes the best paper published by a UT Dallas Mechanical Engineering student (graduate and undergraduate) within the last three years from the award’s deadline date. The three-year period is considered to allow reasonable time for the article to be cited.
Dongyang Cao
Advisors: Todd Griffith and Hongbing Lu
>> Outstanding MS Thesis Award
This award recognizes an outstanding MS thesis written by a UT Dallas Mechanical Engineering student. Only theses submitted during Spring 2022, Summer 2022 and Fall 2022 will be considered.
Aditya Bhatt
Advisor: Armin Zare
Data-enhanced Stochastic Dynamical Modeling for Wind Farms
Thesis provides a novel framework for entraining statistics into models of various fidelity that can be used for efficient data-assimilation for the purpose of real-time forecasting of the direction and strength of the incoming wind that will impinge upon turbines.
>> Outstanding PhD Dissertation Award
This award recognizes an outstanding PhD dissertation written by a UT Dallas Mechanical Engineering student. Only dissertations submitted during Spring 2022, Summer 2022 and Fall 2022 will be considered.
Matteo Puccioni
Advisor: Giacomo Valerio Iungo
Also nominated for the Jonsson school best dissertation award
Investigation of the organization of turbulence for high Reynolds-number boundary layers through lidar experiments
The main topic of the project was the investigation of the organization and dynamics of atmospheric turbulence through wind LiDAR measurements for wind energy applications.
>> Broader Impacts Award
This award recognizes the best Broader Impacts-related activity by a UT Dallas ME faculty member or their group within a year from the award deadline. Based on NSF, broader impact is defined as “the potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes.”
Rodrigo Bernal
From 2019-23 Rodrigo has guided, six high-school teams from Berkner HS in the YWISE program (Young Women in Science and Engineering). Projects have included, among others, elastocaloric cooling devices, and a home-made impact testing setup based on a pendulum. Highlights include the best student mentor award, won by a female, Hispanic, mechanical engineering UTD undergraduate.
>> Best Undergraduate Poster Award
This award recognizes the best Broader Impacts-related activity by a UT Dallas ME faculty member or their group within a year from the award deadline. Based on NSF, broader impact is defined as “the potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes.”
Yousuf Islam
We would like to acknowledge all the participants:
Zainab Faheem, Anthony Faulkner, Jameson Donahue, Tan Minh Hoang
Wood–based Thermal Energy Storage
The goal of this project is to use phase change materials (PCM) to improve the thermal properties of building materials in order to reduce energy consumption in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) which accounts for about 40% of a buildings energy use. PCMs are able to shift the peak energy loads which decreases demand and makes a city’s electrical grid more reliable.
Research awards
Visit the Jonsson School research awards webpage for a full list of award recipients.