Two Purdue University undergraduate research teams won awards at the 2014 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region III Student Conference this spring.

In the team division, a four-person team placed first with their paper on "Estimating Landing and Take-off Cycle Parameters Using MATLAB." Team members were Pedram Motevalli, aviation technology; Demetrios Katsaduros, electrical engineering; Matthew Prall, mechanical engineering; and Jacob Varney, mathematics. One person from the winning team will attend the January 2015 conference in Florida to present the team's research.

A two-person team placed second in the undergraduate division with their research titled, "A Comparison of Airport Operations Estimates for Non-Towered Airports from Two FAA Sources." Team members were Noah Salas, industrial engineering, and Brian Wenzel, mathematics.

"The outstanding undergraduate education provided by these students' departments makes it possible for us to do multidisciplinary student research projects at Purdue," said Mary Johnson, Assistant Head for Graduate Education and Research for the Department of Aviation Technology. "These student papers help us to better understand general aviation exhaust emissions and the inputs for models of exhaust emissions. Their findings contribute to the long-term sustainability research goals of our aviation-related research centers." Johnson is a member of the leadership team for the FAA Center of Excellence for general aviation, known as PEGASAS (Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility and Sustainability), and is engineering director for the Air Transportation Institute for Environmental Sustainability (AirTIES).

The PEGASAS team at Purdue is led by Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, William Crossley. He is supported by Karen Marais, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and John Young, a Professor of Aviation Technology.

To learn more about the Center for Excellence for General Aviation: PEGASAS, visit: https://tech.purdue.edu/center-of-excellence-for-general-aviation-pegasas