University of Melbourne Hosted 2021 AIAA Region VII Student Conference Written 21 January 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

University of Melbourne Hosted 2021 AIAA Region VII Student Conference

January 21, 2022 – Reston, Va. – To wrap up the 2021 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Regional Student Conferences, the University of Melbourne hosted the Region VII Student Conference virtually, 29-30 November 2021. Winners were selected in three categories: Undergraduate, Masters, and High School (a new category this year).

AIAA Student Conferences give students an opportunity to present their work in front of their peers and members of the industry. The 2021 conference hosted 36 students from 20 universities who presented their work in aerospace. The conference had a strong international presence with presenters from 13 countries including Australia, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.

Lockheed Martin Corporation provides support for the student program. The conference was coordinated by the University of Melbourne, the judges, Melbourne Space Laboratory Technical Director Simon Barraclough, and Region VII Director Cees Bil. The judges were industry peers with many years of experience in the aerospace sector.

2021 AIAA Region VII Student Conference Winners

Undergraduate Category

• 1st Place – Meaghan Munro, Monash University, “Novel optical diagnostics for the study of shock separation in rocket nozzles” ($500 prize and an invitation to participate in the International Student Conference at the 2022 AIAA SciTech Forum, 3-7 January)
• 2nd Place – Dennis Chui, Monash University, “Investigation of shockwave interaction with high pressure non-reacting injection jets” ($300 prize)
• 3rd Place – Matthew Berry, Monash University, “Complex Jets In Supersonic Crossflow” ($250 prize)

Masters Category

• 1st Place – Kai Lok Leung, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, “Computational Investigation of the Trailing Edge Noise from an Airfoil in a Low Reynolds Number Flow” ($500 prize and an invitation to participate in the International Student Conference at the 2022 AIAA SciTech Forum, 3-7 January)
• 2nd Place – Ryan Locke, University of New South Wales, “Design of a Miniature Blimp with Bioinspired Propulsion” ($300 prize)
• 3rd Place – Jeonghwan Park, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, “A Perception and Control System for In-Flight Collision Avoidance of UAVs” ($250 prize)

High School Category

• Mehul Vemareddy, Dubai International Academy, “Evaluating Energy Production Sources for Use on Mars (Review Article)” ($100 prize)

Each of the seven AIAA regions host a Regional Student Conference annually. The Regional Student Conferences for Regions I-VI will take place in spring 2022.

Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, APR, RebeccaG@aiaa.org, 804.397.5270 (cell)

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