Department of

   Aerospace Engineering
University of Illinois

   at Urbana-Champaign
306 Talbot Laboratory, MC-236
104 South Wright Street
Urbana, Illinois 61801

Phone: +1-217-333-2651

Fax: +1-217-244-0720

Website: www.ae.illinois.edu

Email: aerospace@illinois.edu

Connect with Us

AE at Illinois Emeritus Prof. Allen Ormsbee passes away

Having been a part of Aerospace Engineering at Illinois since the Department's very beginnings, AE Emeritus Prof. Allen Ives Ormsbee, passed away July 13, 2012, from complications of pneumonia. "We all feel a profound loss with Al's death," said AE Emeritus Prof. Harry H. Hilton. "He was part of the Aerospace department for half a century and his many contributions will always be remembered. His devotion to teaching, to higher education through his tireless efforts in ABET, and to his beloved gliders will not be forgotten." Ormsbee is also remembered by his former advisee, Robert H. Liebeck, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, who said, "I believe I can say I have managed to become a successful aeronautical engineer. That success must be attributed to Prof. Allen Ormsbee."
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(see full text of Liebeck’s essay, Thoughts on Al.)

Bretl, McCarthy Win Award at IEEE Conference

AE at Illinois Assistant Prof. Timothy Bretl and an ECE alumna won the Best Manipulation Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Their paper was chosen out of a record 2,032 submissions. "Mechanics and Manipulation of Planar Elastic Kinematic Chains," was co-written with Zoe McCarthy, a former undergraduate student of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The paper provides a mathematical model for solving a problem that has mystified researchers for years: How to enable robots to manipulate deformable, or flexible, objects.
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Coverstone Elected to Chair
National Space Research Group

AE at Illinois Prof. Victoria Coverstone has been elected Chair of the Council of Institutions (COI) for the University Space Research Association (USRA). With 105 member institutions, COI forms the largest and most technically diverse university association serving the space research community. In AE, Coverstone directs the Computational Astrodynamic Research Lab. Her research contributes to space mission design, especially involving novel and state-of-the-art propulsion systems. Coverstone has established a close working relationship with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) researchers and continues to work on space mission planning software.
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AE at Illinois Team Places Second in Rocket Competition

Congratulations to Team Rough Riders, a group of AE at Illinois students, for their second-place finish in the recent 2012 regional Collegiate Rocket Competition!

Rough Riders and two other AE at Illinois student teams designed and built rockets then tested them against the best from five other Midwestern colleges and universities during the competition held in April at the Bong State Recreation Area in Kansasville, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium sponsored the competition.
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First Grads Happy with AE's
Aerospace Systems Engineering Degree

The first five students of AE's new Aerospace Systems Engineering master's degree program have now graduated and so far, so good. All have firm plans for their next steps, and believe that the new program has helped guide them on their way. "I would recommend this even if you're not going for a systems engineering certificate," said graduate Phil Hornstein. "It's just knowledge people should have."
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AE Alumni Award Winners

Abdollah Khodadoust and Jeffrey W. Fisher are winners of the AE at Illinois 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Awards, and Kazuhiro Horie and Samuel A. Schweighart are winners of the 2012 Outstanding Recent Alumnus Awards.

The alumni were recognized during the AE Awards Banquet April 26. Read more...

AE Says 'Happy Retirement' to Kirts

AE at Illinois wishes hearty congratulations to Undergraduate Student Coordinator Barb Kirts on her retirement from the University of Illinois!

Kirts worked 35 years and 8 months for the university, starting in 1976 in the Admissions and Records Office, then moving to the former Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM) Department in the College of Engineering in 1977, and finally to AE in 2006.
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