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Recent News
August 2008: On August 18, 2008 Jeffrey M. Forbes became Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES). Prof Forbes joined AES in 1994 after ten years at Boston University. Some of his research interests include the upper atmosphere environments of Earth, Mars, and Venus; coupling of upper atmosphere environments to lower altitudes and to solar variability; geomagnetic storm effects on satellite drag variability; the vertical propagation of tides and planetary waves in planetary atmospheres, and their electrodynamic and chemical effects. He is currently the P.I. of a $7.2M AFOSR MURI project entitled "Neutral Atmosphere Density Interdisciplinary Research” (2007-2012).
August 2008: The KRAKEN senior project team won best new entry (with a cash reward to the team of $500) at the AUVSI underwater autonomous vehicle competition at Point Loma Naval Base. KRAKEN placed 8th in static judging (presentation, explanation, technical description) and 18th overall out of 25. Most new teams do not usually navigate any of the obstacles, so this is an excellent first year showing. August 2008: PhD candidate Brandon Jones spent the summer working at JPL with some of the engineers who track the GPS satellites. August 2008: Included among the highlights of sponsored research awards at CU in fiscal year 2008 was a $32 million, five-year grant NASA awarded to CU-Boulder in May to develop and manage a sophisticated database that tracks global weather patterns such as glaciers, sea ice, snow cover and ice sheets. NASA also contracted with the campus in May to build a $34 million solar instrument package for a satellite that will monitor global climate change. CU-Boulder receives more NASA funding than any other public university in the nation, due in part to its focus on aerospace engineering. The university’s efforts have helped put Colorado in second place—behind only California—in the nation’s aerospace economy. See https://www.cu.edu/content/cu-reaches-record-level-research-funding July 2008: Associate Professor Adjunct Alex Hoehn received the 2008 Forest R. McFarland Award at the International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES) held in San Francisco. This award, established in 1979, recognizes individuals for their outstanding contributions toward the planning, development, and dissemination of technical information through SAE technical meetings, conferences, and professional development programs. July 2008: Professor Kristine Larson's method of using very precise GPS measurements virtually minute to minute (called high-rate GPS), is revolutionizing research by scientists who study plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. See http://nasadaacs.eos.nasa.gov/index.html on the NASA Earth Systems Science Data and Services Web site for a fascinating look at the applications of this new method. Professor Larson also is using GPS signals to estimate soil moisture levels (see NewScientist). June 2008: The President's Office announces that CU-Boulder aerospace engineering program garnered two of the first annual President’s Awards for Outstanding Academic Leadership in Student Success: first place in undergraduate student success, and second place in graduate and professional student success June 20, 2008: The Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 satellite, a joint effort between NASA and France's space agency, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. AES Faculty Robert Leben, Steve Nerem, William Emery, and George Born are on the science team for this mission. June 2008: AES graduate student Jason Roadman is the recipient of the prestigious AIAA Foundation John Leland Atwood Graduate Award. Official recognition and presentation of a plaque and check to the recipient will be made in conjunction with the Awards Presentations Ceremony at the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting. June 2008: Aerospace master's candidate Laurren Kanner has been selected as a recipient of this year's AIAA Abe M. Zarem Award for Distinguished Achievement in Astronautics. Laurren will receive a bronze medal and a certificate recognizing her technical excellence, as well as a travel stipend to present her work at an international conference or congress. May 2008: Louis Stodieck, Director of BioServe Space Technologies, signs an agreement with NASA to utilize the U.S. section of the International Space Station for research not directly connected to NASA's mission. See News Center and Space U stories. May 2008: Aerospace graduate student Bruce Davis traveled on behalf of Citizens for Space Exploration (CSE), to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with a singular purpose – to support a robust space exploration program. See Bruce_Davis for details. May 2008: See Unmanned Vehicles: Micro-Air Vehicles Flock to Collect and Transmit Data in new College Alumni Magazine: http://engineering.colorado.edu/news/CUE/index.htm April 2008: "According to new research, the next footsteps on the lunar surface could be beamed back to Earth via the moon's very own network of communication satellites. The setup could double as a GPS for moonwalkers (space.com)" A relay satellite is needed to contact astronauts on the far side of the moon, which could be placed in a halo orbit at the L2 Lagrange point. "Research by Jeff Parker at the University of Colorado has found that it takes less fuel for a satellite to enter a L2 halo orbit than it takes to get a satellite from Earth into geostationary orbit." A network of "halo orbiting satellites would give future moon walkers a degree of independence and they need not rely on mission control to tell them their exact whereabouts." April 2008: Students from Aerospace Engineering Sciences at UCB won First and Second place in the team competition at the AIAA Region V Student Paper Conference. April 2008: CU's Design-Build-Fly team took 5th place at the Design-Build-Fly contest in Wichita, Kansas with a report score of 94.5 against 40 competitors. Last year Aerospace Engineering Sciences from UCB took 7th place. April 1, 2008: MRI Lidar work by Professor Xinzhao Chu and Professor Jeffrey Thayer earns $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. See CU News March 11, 2008: CU-Boulder Alumnus, Two Payloads Head to Space Station via Space Shuttle. See CU News
February 2008: Professor Jeffrey M. Forbes and R. Steven Nerem were elected Fellows of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). See CU News
January 2008: Ryan Starkey wins the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award. January 2008: Jackie Sullivan and Larry Carlson received the National Academy of Engineering's Gordon Prize, the nation's top honor for innovation in engineering education, for their work with the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program (see Gordon Prize for more details). The Aerospace Engineering Sciences undergraduate curriculum utilizes the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory extensively.
December 2007: Professor Kristine Larson is showcased on "60 Seconds With" as an IOP author who published a paper in 2007 that is considered key to the advancement of physics research. Read her interview on www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=featauths/0026-1394 under the journal "Metrologia". December 2007: The Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder was ranked fourth in a national faculty productivity index featured in a recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. The ranking, known as the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, is produced by Academic Analytics of Chester, Penn., and based on data from 2006. For details, see www.academicanalytics.com/TopEng2006-07.html and chronicle.com/stats/productivity. December 2007: Professor Jeff Forbes of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Tim Fuller-Rowell at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) won a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) award from the Air Force for up to $7M in a 5-year period. The topic of their research is NADIR: Neutral Atmosphere Density Interdisciplinary Research. See http://ccar.colorado.edu/muri for details. September 2007: Two Aerospace graduate students, Jonathan Metts and Bruce Davis, represented a CU team selected as one of three winners in a national design competition sponsored by the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES). They were invited with all expenses paid, along with faculty advisor Dr. David Klaus, to present their work involving the design of a Lunar Outpost at the first annual PISCES conference held at the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort, near the University of Hawaii at Hilo, from November 7-10, 2007. More Details September 2007: Researchers Sheldon Drobot, James Maslanik, and Charles Fowler in the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR) at UCB are predicting record low levels of Arctic sea ice in September this year, in part due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Consequences include changes in temperature and rain patterns in the United States, as well as a possible opening of the Northwest Passage along the northern coast of the North American continent in as little as 13 years. See CU Press and Reuters Article. August 2007: The Mars Society's unprecedented four-month simulated Mars exploration mission in the Canadian High Arctic ended successfully on August 21, 2007. Seven researchers from across North America, including AES graduate students Ryan Kobrick and Matt Bamsey, conducted geological and microbiological field exploration in a landscape very like Mars and under conditions such as the Martian 'sol', 39-minutes longer than an Earth day. Preliminary results will be presented at the 10th International Mars Society Convention at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA (Aug 30-Sept 2). For more details, see Flashline and http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/20/325220.aspx August 2007: A reversal of tectonic plate motion between Acapulco and Mexico City in the last half of 2006 probably didn't ease seismic strain in the region or the specter of a major earthquake anticipated there in the coming decades, says Kristine Larson, University of Colorado at Boulder professor. More details. May 2007: Through NASA's DemoSat program, University of Colorado students get hands-on experience developing space hardware by creating a "BalloonSat" that will be flown on a high-altitude balloon. Started in 2003 through a Space Grant Aerospace Workforce Development award from NASA Headquarters, DemoSat now involves more than 200 students at 10 Colorado colleges and universities each year. More Details May 2007: Twenty-three college students from Colorado are finalists in a national competition called Lunar Ventures Student Business Plan Competition, requiring them to create business ventures using space technology. These students, in four teams from the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado, developed wireless sensor network software, a rover to remove hazardous waste, a method of collecting meteorites, and navigation services for robotic rovers --- all for operation on both the Earth and the Moon. Six other finalist teams are from MIT, Georgia Tech, and San Diego State University. More Details February 2007: Professor R. Steven Nerem briefed the House of Representatives on "Sea Level Rise: Implications for the Future" as one of two speakers for the Climate Science Seminar, moderated by Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists. That same afternoon Dr. Nerem presented the information to the Senate by invitation of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Both events were open to the public. Sea Level Rise slides. |
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February 2008: John H. McMasters, Boeing Technical Fellow, passed away on February 13, 2008. Dr. McMasters is the author of 
January 2008: Laurren Kanner, aerospace MS student, won first place in the graduate division of the AIAA International Student Paper Competition, held in conjunction with the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit in Reno, Nevada, on January 11th, 2008. Her paper is titled "Impact of Solar Beta-Angle Seasonal Variations on the Mission Planning of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) All-Sky Survey."
