Senior mechanical engineering student Sergio Mendoza Galvis won first place in the undergraduate division for his paper “Rotary Fuel Cell” at the prestigious American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region II Student Conference held at the University of Alabama in April.

AIAA is the world’s largest professional society devoted to the progress of engineering and science in aviation, space and defense. The competition included schools from the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, Georgia Tech, University of Florida, University of Alabama, North Carolina State University and Mississippi State University.

The winners are awarded cash prizes and advance to the AIAA Foundation International Student Conference.

Senior Sergio Mendoza Galvis (left) took first place at a prestigious aerospace conference in Alabama. At right is his major adviser, mechanical engineering professor Jeffrey Marchetta.

Galvis’ research effort was the culmination of collaboration between Dr. Tarek Farhat in chemistry and his major adviser, Dr. Jeffrey Marchetta of mechanical engineering.

In addition, several U of M undergraduates won the second place award in the “Undergraduate Team Division” for their paper “Development of a Novel Compound Cross-linked Silica Aerogel-RTV 655 for Cryogenic Propellant Tanks.” Team members are James Habernicht, Andrew Brock and Laura Lyons. Their research effort, funded by NASA and the Tennessee Space Grant, is the result of collaborative work with their major adviser, Dr. Firouzeh Sabri of physics, and Marchetta.