Congratulations to Aerospace PhD students Anil Yildirim and Christina Harvey on being awarded FXB fellowships! The FXB Fellowship is given to students who had an impact on the analysis and design of flight vehicles with their research. The award is funded by the FXB Foundation named in honor of the late Michigan Aerospace graduate Francçois-Xavier Bagnoud.
Anil yildirm
Anil uses state of the art computational techniques to study the design of aircraft configurations; his research focuses on developing robust, efficient, and scalable algorithms for MDO applications to study the design of an aircraft concept that uses boundary layer ingestion for improved aeropropulsive performance. Anil has always wanted to work on aircraft design and this fellowship is a huge achievement for him. He thanks Prof. Joaquim Martins, Dr. Charles A. Mader, Dr. Justin S. Gray, and students at the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) Lab for their help. Anil also thanks the Department of Aerospace Engineering for providing the perfect place for him to work on his passion and he would like to give back to the department through his progress in the field.
Christina Harvey
Christina’s research focuses on deciphering how, when, and why birds morph their wings while gliding. Using a combination of numerical modelling, observational techniques, anatomical data and wind tunnel analyses, her research aims to identify the most beneficial aspects of avian wing morphing to inform the design of a new generation of highly maneuverable, morphing wing unmanned aerial vehicles. Christina thanks Prof. Daniel J Inman and the Adaptive Intelligent and Multifunctional Structures (AIMS) lab for the guidance and support while pursuing this goal. She would also like to thank her colleagues in the zoology field, notably Dr. Douglas Altshuler and Dr. Vikram Baliga, for their continued inspiration and guidance.
Congratulations, again, to both Anil and Christina on this honor!
