AME Undergraduate Awards

Geoff Spedding presents the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Student Achievement Award for Outstanding Ingenuity and Performance to Emma Harrelson, recognizing her team’s project, “Autonomous ID & Tracking of Objects in Near Darkness.” The other winning team members are Amy Jang and Dima Milbes.

Al Bleeker was an enthusiastic, dedicated supporter of undergraduate experimental studies in aerospace and mechanical engineering. As a friend, technician, and teacher, Al counseled over two generations of laboratory students. This award for excellence and imagination in the design and construction of experiments during the senior year laboratory course is presented by the faculty, students, and friends of aerospace engineering as a tribute to Al’s contributions.

Rachel Gaspar, Blaine Williamson, and Katherine Brunson show off their AME Bleeker award plaques just presented to them by AME chairman Geoff Spedding for their AME 441 project, “Stability of Off-Shore Wind Turbine Platform.” David Rudolph
was the fourth member of the team.

John Laufer founded the Aerospace branch of the AME Department at USC in 1964 and was chairman of the Department for 19 years. He was an internationally known experimentalist in fluid mechanics and had an illustrious career at Cal Tech, NBS, and JPL in addition to the many years spent at USC. He also was instrumental in developing the Senior Experimental Projects Laboratory, one of the most demanding courses in the AME curriculum. The Laufer Prize for Outstanding Achievement was established in his honor to recognize the student with the most outstanding project in the AME 441 Senior Experimental Projects Laboratory.

Joseph Wyer just received the Laufer Prize, announced by AME chairman, Geoff Spedding, for his project, “2D Airfoil Design for Martian UAV Concept.”

Professor Tony Maxworthy was a leading light in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering department from his arrival in 1967 to his passing in 2013. He was a Distinguished University Professor and recipient of numerous awards in his illustrious life, but he always drew considerable joy and satisfaction from teaching our undergraduate projects labs. His research covered numerous fields in fluid mechanics, from planetary and geophysical flows to the breakup and instabilities of slow-moving viscous liquids. It was always characterized by an elegance and incisiveness where any given experiment often proved to be the defining study of its time. This was partly because experiments were always conducted with a purpose that was clearly and analytically outlined beforehand. The Tony Maxworthy Award is therefore given to the student work that most closely exemplifies this combination of experimental and analytical elegance for which “TMax” was famous.

Matthew Johnson and Maria Mendoza accept their plaques as winners of the 2017 AME Tony Maxworthy Award for their team’s project, “Reduction of Semi-Truck Aerodynamic Drag.” The other two members of the winning team were Lucas Kinan and Sifat Syed.

The Eyre Associates award recognizes an aerospace or mechanical engineering student who has demonstrated outstanding academic excellence throughout their undergraduate academic career. This award honors the Eyre Associates’ contributions over many years to the support and development of the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.

This year’s Eyre Associates award winner is Justin Chong