Illinois Tech MMAE

Thank you everyone for your active participation in the Poster Competition today. Below are the winners as well as the recipients of departmental awards for 2026. The group photo is attached. Congratulations!

2026 MMAE Department Awards
Distinguished Alumni Award – Dr. Michael Plesniak
Excellence in Teaching Award – Dr. John Bernhardt
Excellence in Research Award – Dr. Carrie Hall and Dr. Leon Shaw
Outstanding Service Award – Lina Diaz
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award – Jonathan Horak
Outstanding Research Assistant Award – Sasindu Pinto and Junquan Ou

2026 MMAE Student Research Poster Competition
(1 place = $250, 2 place = $200, 3 place = $150)

Undergraduate category
Third place – Joo-Yeol Yoon, “Safe Autonomous Landing of a Mars Quadcopter,” advisor Dr. Ersin Das
Second place – Emiliano Mora, “Small Drones, Large Impact,” advisor Dr. Nelson Rosa
First place – Alec Weedman, “Reflected Signals, Revealed Surfaces: Using GNSS-IR Spectral Peaks to Decode Polar Terrain,” advisor Dr. Seebany Datta-Barua

Master’s category
First place – Jinchen Tang, “Demystifying the Fine Structure of a Heusler Phase Intermetallic Semiconductor: Mn2CoAl,” advisor Dr. Heng Wang

PhD category
Third place – Prashanth Tamilselvam, “Universal Scaling Relationship for the Frequency of Human Whistling,” advisor Dr. Francisco Ruiz
Second place – Adwoa Adunyah, “A Degradation Aware Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy for Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles,” Dr. Carrie Hall
First place – Oluwaseyi Omodara, “Multi-Mechanism Powder Spreader for Powder-Bed AM: Experimental and DEM Investigation of Non-Spherical Powder Spreading,” advisor Dr. Amir Mostafaei

The recipient of the AIAA Scholastic Achievement Award in 2025-2026 academic year is Anna Elena Sofia Sebastio.

Research in the use of air for flight control of a tailless aircraft (by Professor Emeritus David Williams and Undergraduates at Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as NASA) helped to pave the way for the production of the X-65 by DARPA! Read on:

Air jets under pressure Share LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Email With its X-65 demonstrator, DARPA aims to test whether today’s control surfaces can be replaced. Paul Marks spoke to the program leads about the design and forthcoming flight tests. For over a century, aircraft pitch, yaw and roll control has been provided by ...

Be sure to check out the Carnations new podcast series! Here's a preview: https://youtube.com/shorts/KBx-WXt5EGQ?si=BvZjf4wxeuMiFhBR Also remember to subscribe to IIT Carnations YouTube channel for updates here: https://www.youtube.com/

Understanding Navigation systems accuracy with a Stanford researcher Welcome to the first episode of the CARNATIONS-Waypoint Podcast, exploring research and innovation.In this Short, Dr. Todd Walter from Stanford University's ...

Wednesday, April 1st - MMAE 593 seminar with Dr. Farrukh Alvi, who will present “A Few Interesting Problems in Fluid Dynamics and Career Paths Such Research May Lead To” in RE 109 at 12:45 pm! Read abstract and bio here: https://www.iit.edu/events/mmae-593-seminar-farrukh-alvi

New time and location for the MMS Seminar! Daniel Chung will present “Fluid Mechanics of Riblets Drag Reduction.” This event is open to the public and will take place on Wednesday, April 8, from 2:05–3:05 p.m. in the Schulz Auditorium at the Michael Paul Galvin Tower. Read abstract and bio here: https://www.iit.edu/events/midwest-mechanics-seminar-daniel-chung

Be sure to check out and follow CARNATIONS on their YouTube channel to stay up to date!

CARNATIONS CARNATIONS: Center for Assured & Resilient Navigation in Advanced Transportation Systems A Tier-1 U.S. DOT University Transportation Center (UTC) focused on Resilient Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (R-PNT) and resilient PNT-related communications in multimodal transportation. Visit: www.iitcarn...

The 2026 MMAE Poster Competition is underway! All MMAE undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. students are invited to participate! Awards for the Poster Competition, as well as the MMAE department awards, will be presented at 4:30 p.m., immediately following the Distinguished Alumni Lecture (3:30 p.m.) in the Perlstein Hall Auditorium (PH 131). Read here for details: https://www.iit.edu/events/mmae-2026-poster-competition

The Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering welcomes our 2026 Distinguished Alumnus Michael Plesniak, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at George Washington University. Dr. Plesniak will speak on Friday, April 17 at 3:30 pm in PH 131. Read his abstract and bio here:
https://www.iit.edu/events/mmae-distinguished-alumni-lecture-michael-plesniak

The Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering presents its MMAE 593 seminar series featuring guest speaker Farrukh Alvi, senior associate provost and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Florida State University. Alvi will present: “A Few Interesting Problems in Fluid Dynamics and Career Paths Such Research May Lead To.” Read Dr. Alvi's abstract and bio here:

MMAE 593 Seminar: Farrukh Alvi MMAE 593 Seminar: Farrukh Alvi April 1, 2026 Time 12:45pm - 1:45pm Locations Rettaliata Engineering Center, Room 104 10 West 32nd Street Chicago, IL 60616 Home Events MMAE 593 Seminar: Farrukh Alvi The Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering presents its MMAE 593 seminar serie...

The MMAE Department is delighted to announce that Professor Boris S. Pervan (Director, CARNATIONS) has recently been elevated to the distinction of IEEE Fellow, for his contributions to satellite navigation integrity. This honor is only given to select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation. Less than 0.1% of voting members are selected annually for this member grade elevation.

Congratulations Professor Pervan!