University of Texas El Paso’s Luz Bugarin, a project manager in its NASA MIRO Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research, along with Mariana Chaidez, a mechanical engineering doctoral candidate, were part of a team awarded “2017 Best Paper” by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Bugarin and Chaidez worked with NASA Johnson Space Center staff for 19 weeks while preparing their portion of the paper.
Under the MUREP Institutional Research Opportunity, or MIRO, institutions strengthen their research capacity in areas of importance and value to NASA’s mission and national priorities.
MIRO awards enhance the capability of institutions to perform research and education, which directly supports NASA’s four directorates – Aeronautics Research, Human Exploration and Space Operations, Science, and Space Technology.
“Seeing that the research work done at my internship was not only valuable to me but led to the AIAA 2017 Liquid Propulsion Best Paper Award is beyond words,” Bugarin said.”
Chaidez agreed.
“I’m very grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with the NASA team at Johnson Space Center and to be able to be part of the group receiving this award,” Chaidez said.
“My internship was a rewarding experience and it gives me great satisfaction that the work I completed during my internship aided in further advancing NASA’s and the project’s mission.”
The work, which outlines development of a coil-on-plug ignition system that can operate under vacuum and thermal vacuum conditions, has four co-authors at the NASA Johnson Space Center.
UTEP’s role will be formally recognized July 11 in Cincinnati during an awards luncheon at the 2018 AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum.
“This recognition is a testament to the tremendous work conducted at cSETR and the caliber of students that we have on campus,” said Ahsan Choudhuri, director at the Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research and chair of UTEP’s mechanical engineering department.
“For UTEP to not only contribute to a meticulous technical paper, but also have a hand in producing an award-winning one, is a special feat.”
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