Aerospace Engineering at The University of Illinois

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Aerospace Engineering at The University of Illinois

Official account for the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

AE follows the same posting policy as the U of I:https://bit.ly/34sgaLw

06/10/2026

Polette Centellas, PhD ’22, received a 2026 Early Career Award in Engineering from the Washington Academy of Sciences. The Early Career Award recognizes a promising investigator within five years of graduation who is making notable contributions in any scientific or engineering discipline.

Centellas is a member of the Functional Polymers Group staff at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

As a materials research engineer, Centellas studies polymers used for packaging microelectronics and investigates how they develop mechanical stress in response to complex real-world operating conditions, such as varying temperature and relative humidity. It illustrates how polymer chemistry affects the mechanical integrity of advanced semiconductor packages.

Her PhD advisors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were Scott White, then Philippe Geubelle and Nancy Sottos.

Read more about her career at https://aerospace.illinois.edu/news/86133

06/09/2026

Birds’ natural flocking behavior inspired winning study on space mission safety.

Poornadithya Chandramukhi, M.S. December ’25, received the Best Paper Award at the 2026 International Conference on Spacecraft Mission Operations in Bengaluru, India. It was awarded by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Out of over 450 global submissions, Chandramukhi’s paper was one of just 22 selected for an oral presentation at the conference.

“As Earth's orbit becomes increasingly crowded with thousands of active satellites and fragments of debris, preventing catastrophic collisions has become an urgent operational constraint,” Chandramukhi said.

“My work utilizes and compares the advanced heuristic optimization algorithms inspired by the natural flocking behavior of birds known as Particle Swarm Optimization and the genetic evolution known as Genetic Algorithm, to allow satellites to autonomously determine the optimal space trajectories to dodge incoming orbital threats.”

Learn more, including how Chandramukhi found out he won, at https://aerospace.illinois.edu/news/86101

06/08/2026

John K. Soldner, B.S. ’77, M.S. ’79, M.B.A. University of Chicago ’88, utilized his aerospace engineering degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the foundation for a comprehensive 47-year career. The importance of his education from U. of I. drove his desire to give back. The Grainger College of Engineering Department of Aerospace Engineering is honoring him with the Harry H. Hilton Service Award.

Soldner served on the department’s alumni advisory board for over a decade, provided guest lectures in aerospace undergrad classes and mentored undergrad students over the years.

Additionally, he was instrumental in the creation and funding of the Class of ’77 Scholarship and the John K. and Robyn B. Soldner Scholarship in Aerospace Engineering. He serves as a champion for the department in the Washington, D.C. area. In 2017, he received the department’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Soldner said, “I received a 4-year Illinois State Scholarship that enabled me to attend U. of I. Now that I am in a position to give back, my wife and I created an aerospace engineering scholarship so that others would have the same opportunity.”

Read the full story at https://aerospace.illinois.edu/news/86070.

05/27/2026

Low-Earth orbit, home to the International Space Station and countless satellites, has become a racetrack filled with space junk, skyrocketing the possibilities for collisions. A new lab facility is addressing this dangerous highway. It runs experiments on the materials used on the outermost surface of spacecraft that provide protection from impact, because even tiny specks of dust traveling at orbital speeds can create major damage.

The star of the new facility is a two-stage, light-gas gun. It sequentially compresses helium and then hydrogen to propel several-millimeter-size projectiles through a tube at speeds of up to 7.5 kilometers per second to impact test materials mounted at the end of this 35-foot projectile launcher. By way of comparison, a bullet fired from a high-power rifle travels a little over 1 kilometer per second.

Learn more at https://aerospace.illinois.edu/news/85796

05/23/2026

Just for fun ...

Three aerospace engineering undergrad students created a 13-minute Sci-Fi road trip comedy film entitled "Standard Procedure." 例行操作 The film is in
Mandarin with English subtitles.

Summary: The year is 2081, and humanity is colonizing the solar system. Two ordinary pilots of an ordinary cargo ship fly routine shipments between Ganymede and Callisto. They have been entrusted by an eccentric CEO to deliver a mysterious package to Callisto so he can complete a business deal. Little do they know, the package's mysterious contents start wreaking havoc on numerous ship systems. They must settle their ideological differences and work together to keep the ship on track, while simultaneously fending off annoying calls from the CEO asking for updates.

Made using Unreal Engine 5, Blender and DaVinci Resolve.
例行操作

You can watch the film on Martian Builder's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxZQ-YC9dfg

05/20/2026

Read a Q&A with Vincent Kim, BS '26. Learn about his work with additive manufacturing of composites, the people who supported him while at Illinois, his amazing study abroad trip to Brazil and what he’s doing this fall. AE.Illinois.edu

05/18/2026

Read a Q&A with Santiago Zapata Zuluaga, BS '26. Learn about why he chose to study at the University of Illinois, his leadership and activities with the Liquid Rocketry at Illinois student organization, his study abroad semester in Spain, his greatest challenges and his proudest accomplishments. AE.Illinois.edu

05/16/2026

All of us in the Dept. of Aerospace Engineering share in the joy of your accomplishments. We're so proud of you. Now that you are officially Illinois alumni, please remember to keep in touch. We are eager to hear how you're doing and where you've landed after graduation!

05/15/2026

Read a Q&A with Nicolas Vincent, BS '26. Learn about why he chose to study at
Illinois, the professors who made a difference, the hands-on experiences he
enjoyed and what’s on his bucket list. AE.Illinois.edu

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http://www.ae.illinois.edu/

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