Congratulations to Mechanical Engineering PhD student Andrea Lupini for winning the Professor Pierre T. Kabamba Award for graduate student excellence in control systems. His research involves blending state-of-the-art computational controls and novel damping concepts for the characterization and reduction of vibration in turbomachinery blisks. His own computational methods can be implemented by aircraft engine manufacturers to increase the reliability of blisks, and currently, he is focusing on designing and improving novel nonlinear vibration damping concepts applied to turbomachinery blisks. In the past Lupini has worked with Ferrari and Tesla on durability and vibrations.
Andrea has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Parma. Additionally, he earned a classical guitar diploma from the Conservatory of Parma.
This award memorializes Professor Pierre T. Kabamba, who is remembered as a distinguished controls engineer and Professor of Aerospace Engineering here at Michigan. Originally from Democratic Republic of Congo, Professor Kabamba received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1981. In 1983, he joined the University of Michigan’s Aerospace Engineering Department. During his career at Michigan, Professor Kabama co-authored two control textbooks, contributed to over 100 journal papers, and was made a Fellow of IEE in 1996. He was a recipient of the Aerospace Engineering Department Teaching Award (1994) and the Silver Shaft Award for Undergraduate Teaching (2002).
