2024 Awards

Eyre Associates Award for Outstanding Achievement

The Eyre Associates award recognized 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

Winners:

Anushka Tahiliani (AE)
Yvonne Li (ME)

The Tony Maxworthy Award

Professor Tony Maxworthey was a leading light in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering 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 project labs. His research was always characterized by an elegance and incisiveness where any given experiment often proved to be the defining study of its time. This award is therefore given to the student work that most closely exemplifies this combination of experimental and analytical elegance for which “TMax” was famous.

Winners: 

Joy Bergstrom
Ashley Kwong
Porter Landefeld
Swen Severson

Group project: Investigation and Actuation of Avian Whiffling Inspired Wing for Roll Control

The Laufer Prize for Outstanding Achievement

John Laufer was chairman 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 USC. He was also instrumental in developing the Senior Experimental Projects Laboratory course (AME 441). This award was established in his honor to recognize the student(s) with the most outstanding project in the AME 441 course.

Winners:

Nicolas Gomez
Kaitlyn Kumar
Yvonne Li
Manas Shah

Group project: FROGO: For Space Locomotion

The Bleeker Award for Superb Craftsmanship

Al Bleeker was an enthusiastic, dedicated supporter of undergraduate experimental studies. 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 course is presented as a tribute to Al’s contributions.

Winners: 

Luke Cortez
Cecil Franklin
Rachel Garnes
Dominique Valles
Group: Strategic Probes for Lunar Ice Networked Testing and Exploration of Resources (SPLINTER)

AME Student Achievement Award for Outstanding Ingenuity and Performance

These awards are given to the students in the AME Senior Projects Laboratory who have shown outstanding ingenuity and performance in the design, construction, and testing of their senior project.

Winners: 

Erickson, Payton
Kuznetsov, Misha
Pono, Casey
Xanthopoulou, Eleni
Group: SMA Suspension for Improved Ground Mobility in Extraterrestrial Exploration

Brown, Parker
Contreras, Juan
Harris, Aaron
Ridgeway, Jess
Group: Heat Pipe Cooling System for Mach 3+ Leading Edges

Barakat, Brad
Fulcher, Ethan
Griffith, Tristan
MacRae, Griffin
Group: Manufacturing a Robust, Dustproof, Liquid-Cooled, Planetary Gearbox for Quadruped Robot Field

Gary Norris Promise Award

Provided by the Gary Norris Memorial Foundation, established in memory of Garrett 'Gary' Norris and recognizing outstanding undergraduates with tuition scholarships.

Winner:

Kaitlyn Kumar (ME)

The Neighborhood Service Award

This award honors a graduating senior who has demonstrated a commitment to the surrounding USC community by offering his or her time and talents to enhance programs or projects that benefit our neighborhood.

Winner: 

Joy Uehara (ME)

Renaissance Scholar Distinction

The Renaissance Scholar distinction is intended to recognize and celebrate USC undergraduates who have excelled academically while pursuing at least two widely separate fields of study.

Winner:

Kaitlyn Kumar (ME)