Four graduate students in the Department of Aerospace Engineering have been honored for their work with Teaching Excellence and Research Excellence Awards from Iowa State University’s Graduate College. The awards are presented each fall and spring semester to graduate students who demonstrate excellence in their scientific research or their performance in teaching.
Aimar Negrete (nominated by assistant Professor Azadeh Sheideai) and Jiangli Yin (nominated by associate professor Anupam Sharma) have received the Teaching Excellence Award.
Ahmed Ellithy (nominated by associate professor Ossama Abdelkhalik) and Yipeng Peng (nominated by associate professor Liming Xiong) have received Research Excellence Awards.
In nominating Negrete, Sheidaei commented that taking online courses provided him with great background knowledge to assist students. She noted he communicates well with students of all levels and can quickly identify students’ needs, especially during difficult lab sessions. She also cited professionalism, personality and courtesy in working with students.
Sharma noted that Yin excelled in teaching mathematics to undergraduate students who often had no prior experience with the level of math required for their course, and that Yin got himself up to speed with the level of knowledge he needed through online course prior to teaching the class. He also cited Yin’s two published articles in his field of research in computational fluid dynamics to develop novel CFD algorithms for simulating flow over maneuvering helicopters.
In his letter of support for Ellithy, Abdelkhalik pointed out that he has published two journal papers in the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, and in the AAS Journal of Astronautical Sciences, which are the top journals in this field. He also presented two conference papers in the American Astronautical Society conferences on space flight mechanics, which is also highly regarded in that field. He also praised Ellithy for his work as part of a team of graduate students in a worldwide prestigious competition on global trajectory optimization. The ISU team placed highly among 90 teams participating.
In support of Peng, Xiong noted that he has authored or co-authored nine journal publications and 13 national/international conference presentations. He also noted Peng’s research achievement has recently attracted the attention of the researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and he is now working as an intern there. He also noted that Peng has successfully mentored several other graduate students even though their research work has been in very different areas than his own.
The Department of Aerospace Engineering congratulates all the award recipients and extends wishes for continued success.