2025 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:

Oliver Khan (AE)
Joshua Yoon (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: 

Emily Hesby
Kelly Slosar
Nico Tapies
Will MacDonald

Group project: Dust Boomer

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:

Nico Kinkade
Andrew Vallance
Joshua Yoon
Oliver Khan

Group project: Spring-Hinge as Simplest Model of Wing Flexibility in Efficient Propulsion

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: 

Abigail Ingle
Noah Tingey
Haley Maddocks
Mezie Nwizugbo
Group: Mitigating Backlash in Motorized Astrophotography Mounts

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: 

Audrey Park
Amanda Lucker
Yashvi Deliwala
Jacqueline Nguyen
Group: Investigating Superelastic Tire Coil Diameter Patterns Best Suited for Space Exploration (NASA-Sponsored)

Gabriel Calub
Hayden Brophy
Stracy Hoang
Armen Arakelyan
Group: On Adiabatic Heating using Acoustic Resonance

Eduardo Rosales
Irie Cooper
Jacob Futterman
Jacob Meseha
Group: Direct Drive Robotic Proprioception in the Dynamic Regime

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:

Lucas Dudley