AU Engineering Students Win International Paper Corporation

Richard Bramlette and Ryan Leurck, seniors in aerospace engineering at Auburn University, captured first place in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Global Technical Paper Competition at the 44th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Conference.

"This is the most prestigious professional award to an undergraduate aerospace engineering student," said Roy Hartfield, aerospace engineering faculty member in attendance at the conference. "This year's win builds off of last year's spring regional conference where Auburn took first and second place."

Auburn's team beat out 18 other teams from SEC universities in last April's AIAA Southeastern Regional Competition in Gainesville, Fla. With the top finish, the duo qualified to compete against six national and international teams in the AIAA Global Technical Paper Competition.

Bramlette and Leurck received a $1,000 honorarium for their paper titled "A Method for Control of Surface Deflection Utilizing Piezoceramic Bimorph Actuators." The paper outlined the design of an actuator for unmanned aerial vehicles that is lighter and requires less power than the ones currently in use.

The conference, held in Reno on January 9, is the largest and most widely attended conference held by the AIAA. There were 1,500 technical papers presented at the conference and more than 2,000 attendees from all areas of the profession.

"This achievement highlights Auburn's unprecedented AIAA/SEC winning streak, as the Auburn Aerospace Engineering Department has claimed more awards in the regional competition than any other university," said Ron Barrett, a former Auburn faculty member now at the University of Kansas. "It marks the first time since the '80s that Auburn has captured this most prestigious prize and probably the first time it has been claimed by an SEC University."