AE grad student wins solid rockets best student paper award
Published: Aug 9, 2018 12:00 AM
By Teri Greene
Graduate student Orie Cecil and Professor Joe Majdalani, representing Auburn's Department of Aerospace Engineering, received the Solid Rockets Best Student Paper award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) at the Propulsion and Energy Forum in Cincinnati last month. Their paper, "The Taylor-Culick Profile for Spinning Rocket Motors," describes two methods for predicting the internal ballistic motion of gaseous mixtures in the context of spinning rockets. This scholarly recognition marks the sixth best paper award by Majdalani's students at the national level, and their 17th best paper overall.
A native of Hazel Green, Cecil completed his bachelor's degree in 2014 and his master's degree in 2016 in aerospace engineering with a 4.0 GPA. Last year, he was named the most outstanding graduate student of 2017 by the Greater Huntsville AIAA Section and he received an honorable mention for the Graduate Engineering Research Showcase poster competition hosted by the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. He also was awarded the 2015 best masters paper in the Region II Southeast Student Conference of the AIAA. Cecil's research focuses on the modeling of rotating flows and acoustic instability. He has seven publications to his credit, including one in the prestigious Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
"Orie is one of the most remarkable researchers that I have ever had the pleasure to work with," Majdalani said. "He is a living example of what makes Auburn a great place to be. He makes everyone in the Department of Aerospace Engineering very proud."
Majdalani, the Hugh and Loeda Francis Chair, is a former recipient of the faculty advisor of the year among seven AIAA regions. At the national level, he is a two-time recipient of the Abe Zarem Educational Award and holds the sustained service and SAE Ralph Teetor educational awards. He was also named the Konrad Dannenberg educator and received the NASA higher education incentive and General Hap Arnold awards at the state/section level.
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Professor Joe Majdalani and AE graduate student Orie Cecil receive the Solid Rockets Best Student Paper award from Propulsion Director Jeff Hamstra at the Propulsion and Energy Forum in Cincinnati.
